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Turkey Reforms Law Criticized for Limiting Free Speech |
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Written by VOA News
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Thursday, 01 May 2008 05:31 |
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Turkey's parliament has approved the softening of a law criticized by the European Union for limiting free speech. Article 301 of the penal code has been used to prosecute Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk and other authors, academics and journalists. But critics of the reform say it does not go far enough.
Turkey's parliament approved a government-backed proposal to amend Article 301 of Turkey's penal code, under which thousands of people have been prosecuted and 745 convicted since 2003, including Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk.
The article criminalized the denigration of the Turkish identity, writer Elif Safak who was prosecuted under Article 301, says its was used to silence dissent.
"301 has been used as a weapon, it is an extremely powerful weapon to silence people," said Safak.
The government says the reform will make it harder for such prosecutions by making it an offense to insult the "Turkish nation", rather than the more vague "Turkishness". The penalty has been reduced from three to two years in jail. |
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EU commissioner expects Turkey to join EU in 10-15 years |
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Written by Hurriyet
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Monday, 21 April 2008 08:02 |
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EU Commissioner for Enlargement Olli Rehn said he expects Turkey to become a member of European Union (EU) within 10 or 15 years should it continue reforms decisively, the Anatolian Agency reported on Monday.
The EU has been planning to open two new chapters in Turkey's accession negotiations in June, Rehn told Germany's Die Welt daily, adding that Turkey still has a long way to go.
Rehn also said Turkey has been passing through a very critical period, which it had not experienced since the start of EU membership negotiations in 2005, implying the closure case against Turkey's ruling AKP. In the case all parties developed a culture of reconciliation and the necessary reforms were fulfilled, Turkey might become stronger after this critical period, Rehn added.
The EU has opened six chapters in Turkey's accession negotiations, which started in 2005. The EU also suspended negotiations in eight policy chapters because of Turkey's refusal to open its ports to Greek Cypriot vessels. |
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EU Wants Turkey to Speed up Democratic Reforms |
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Written by VOA News
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Friday, 11 April 2008 03:12 |
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European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso Thursday urged Turkey to speed up reforms needed to meet European Union membership criteria. Barroso, who is on a three-day visit to Turkey, said the country's membership in the EU would offer what he called a "powerful alternative" to militant Islam.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was in a buoyant mood after meeting with Barroso:
He says he is confident the European Commission will support Turkey's drive for EU membership, and pledges his government is committed to introducing the required reforms.
Barroso acknowledged the latest reform proposals the Turkish government introduced last week as positive, but he said more needed to be done, especially in the area of press freedoms.
He told the Turkish parliament all applicant countries must meet the EU's membership requirements, but membership is not automatic.
He says the conditions are the same for all applicant countries and there are no guarantees they will be accepted.
That comment has interpreted by the Turkish media as a warning the EU might not accept Turkey's application.
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Turkey court considers party ban |
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Written by BBC
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Monday, 31 March 2008 08:09 |
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Turkey's constitutional court has decided unanimously that it can hear a case aimed at closing down the country's governing AK Party.
The chief prosecutor earlier filed a petition calling for the party to be closed for "anti-secular activities". He also wants dozens of its members, including the prime minister and president, to be banned from politics. The case revives a battle between Turkey's secularist establishment and the AK Party of devout Muslims. The case against the AKP runs to 162 pages: a long list of what the chief prosecutor says is proof the government has an Islamic agenda.
The main focus of his petition is the government's bid to relax the rules on the Islamic headscarf. The AKP recently changed the constitution, so girls could cover their heads in universities.
Staunch secularists fear that is a first step to an Islamic state - by a party whose leaders once espoused political Islam. The AKP argues the case against it is an attack on democracy.
It won 47% of the vote at the last elections, and most opinion polls show strong support for lifting the ban on the headscarf. The constitutional court will now examine the charges, launching a legal battle that will last for many months.
Our correspondent says that is sure to paralyse the political agenda in Turkey - to freeze a whole series of reforms - and most likely, spark an exodus of foreign investment. The EU has expressed its concern at the case, saying it could jeopardise Turkey's ambitions of membership. |
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Police, Demonstrators Clash in Southeast Turkey |
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Written by VOA News
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Sunday, 23 March 2008 10:08 |
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Turkish security sources say at least 60 people were injured Saturday in clashes between riot police and Kurdish demonstrators in southeast Turkey. Police say at least 160 people were detained in the violence, which erupted in two cities after celebrations marking the Kurdish New Year, Nowroz, turned into protests supporting the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK.
In the city of Van, large groups of protesters hurled stones at police, who struck back with batons and volleys of tear gas to disperse a crowd of about three thousand people.
Clashes also took place in the city of Hakkari.
Officials report 38 demonstrators and 15 policemen were hurt during the clashes. Four people, including one police officer, were seriously wounded.
The PKK has been fighting for Kurdish autonomy in Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast for nearly 25 years, and violence during that time has killed more than 30 thousand people. Turkey, the United States and other nations have designated the PKK a terrorist group.
Kurdish activists sometimes use the Nowroz festival - a traditional new-year celebration that marks the arrival of spring - to highlight demands for autonomy and other rights. |
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Turkey wrestles with Islam's place |
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Written by The Christian Science Monitor
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Tuesday, 18 March 2008 08:01 |
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Imagine trying to ban a fairly elected ruling party, which won in a landslide only last year. Ludicrous. Yet such an attempt is now before Turkey's highest court on the grounds that secular government should not push Islam on society.
It is not out of the realm of possibility that the court will decide to hear this case, which was brought March 14 by Turkey's chief prosecutor. And if it does, it may favor the prosecutor, who charges the Islamic Party of Justice, or AKP, with subverting the country's secular Constitution. Since the 1970s, the court has shuttered four pro-Islamic parties.
The separation of mosque and state is an existential issue for this NATO member that bridges Europe and the Middle East. Although a mostly Muslim country, modern Turkey is built on the secularist model of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who introduced the Roman alphabet and women's suffrage after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire after World War I.
Turkey stands as proof that democracy and Islam can coexist, and do so... |
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Thousands of secularists protest government in Turkey |
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Written by International Herald Tribune
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Sunday, 13 April 2008 06:22 |
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Thousands of Turks rallied in the Turkish capital Saturday, accusing the Islamic-rooted government of undermining the country's secular laws.
More than 10,000 people gathered in a square in Ankara carrying anti-government banners, red-and-white Turkish flags and pictures of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the revered leader who founded the secular republic in 1923.
"Turkey is secular and will remain secular," they chanted.
A power struggle is growing in Turkey between the secular establishment and supporters of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's party which has origins in Turkey's Islamic movement but has advocated Western-style reforms as part of the country's bid to join the European Union.
Last month, Turkey's highest court agreed to hear a case to permanently close down Erdogan's party on charges that it is taking steps to impose Islamic law.
The chief prosecutor who brought the case also wants Erdogan and dozens of other party members barred from holding public office for five years.
The prosecutor's indictment against the party lists as evidence the ruling party's efforts to lift a ban on wearing Islamic head scarves in universities, to lift obstacles facing religious school graduates who want to take university entrance exams, to roll back restrictions on courses in the Quran and to curb the consumption of alcohol with tighter regulation of bars and restaurants.
Erdogan rejects claims that his party has an Islamist agenda. |
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Turkey holds Al-Qaeda suspects |
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Written by The Times
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Tuesday, 01 April 2008 17:19 |
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Turkish anti-terror police today detained 45 people on suspicion of belonging to the Al-Qaeda extremist network and planning attacks, Anatolia news agency reported.
The suspects, rounded up in simultaneous operations in eight districts of Istanbul, were being questioned by police, the report said.
A court was to decide later whether they should be charged and jailed pending trial or released.
In January, police raided 18 locations in southeast Turkey on intelligence that a local Al-Qaeda cell was planning car bomb attacks. Four alleged militants and a policeman were then killed in a gunfight, and 17 suspects arrested.
A Turkish cell of the extremist network was blamed for truck bombs that targeted two synagogues in Istanbul on November 15, 2003, and the British consulate and a British bank five days later. The attacks killed 63 people, injured hundreds and caused huge material damage.
Last year, seven men were jailed for life over the bombings, one of them a Syrian national who masterminded and financed the attacks. |
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Turkey's top NGOs call everybody to take a step back |
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Written by Hurriyet
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Thursday, 27 March 2008 06:35 |
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Seven of Turkeys leading non-governmental organizations issued a statement on Wednesday calling for a scaling back of political tensions, warning that the nation is at risk of being polarized. The NGOs, who represent almost 50 million people, called everybody "to take a step back from their recent positions".
Turkey's top NGOs call everybody to take a step back
"We are experiencing a historic day," the joint statement read out by The Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges (TOBB) President Rifat Hisarciklioglu said. Hiscarciklioglu also said everybody should "take a step back from their recent positions" in order reduce the tension.
Political tension has been high since a leftist and anti-AKP columnist, a party leader and a former rector were taken into custody on Friday with suspected links to an illegal gang which was accused of paving the way to a military coup following Turkey's chief prosecutor filed a lawsuit against the governing AKP demanding its closure on March 14. Observers say recent developments embark a new episode in the secularists' and Islamist groups' struggle for power.
Turkish Confederation of Public Laborers' Unions (Kamu-Sen), Turkish Confederation of Labor (Turk-Is), Turkish Confederation of Tradesmen & Craftsmen (TESK), Moral Rights Workers Union (Hak-Is), Turkish Confederation of Employers' Unions (TISK) and Turkish Agricultural Chambers' Union (TZOB) were among the other NGOs joined the statement.
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Anti-AKP Turkish leftist columnist's custody draws fierce reaction |
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Written by Hurriyet
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Friday, 21 March 2008 13:06 |
 Leftist Cumhuriyet daily's columnist and chairman of the board of trustees Ilhan Selcuk was taken into custody early Friday with suspected links to an illegal gang which is accused of paving the way to a military coup. Media organizations and opposition parties slammed the move. Cumhuriyet said Selcuk's detention reminded the events of military intervention into politics from 1971 and 1980.
In the operation 11 more people were taken into custody including Workers' Party leader Dogu Perincek and former rector of Istanbul University Prof. Kemal Alemdaroglu. Perincek was taken into custody in Ankara and brought to Istanbul for interrogation, the official Anatolian Agency reported.
Turkish police searched branches of Workers' Party and private TV channel Ulusal Kanal in Istanbul. "Police staged simultaneous operations at the branches of Workers' Party, Ulusal Kanal and Aydinlik magazine in Istanbul and Ankara around 4-4:30 a.m. this morning," Erkan Onsel, deputy chairman of the party, told reporters.
Analysts say Selcuk's detention is a new episode in the nationalist and Islamist groups' struggle for power. Cumhuriyet is among the strongest opponents of the AKP government in media.
High-level AKP officials, including Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, have said the closure case against the ruling party was launched to cover up the Ergenekon operation.
Selcuk is a very important and prominent figure in Turkey's leftist political movement. He was arrested in 1970s following a military-declared state of emergency. He has been writing columns in leftist Cumhuriyet daily, which became the symbol of anti-AKP movement, since 1963 and published number of books such as "I Think Therefore Shoot Me", "Left-Right-Sharia".
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Turkey's top prosecutor moves to ban ruling party |
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Written by AFP
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Saturday, 15 March 2008 13:50 |
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Turkey's chief prosecutor on Friday accused the country's president and prime minister of undermining secularism and moved to ban them from politics and to prohibit their Islamist-rooted party.
Abdurrahman Yalcinkaya, chief prosecutor of the court of appeals, submitted his case against the Justice and Develomment Party (AKP) to the Constitutional Court, the latter's president Hasim Kilic said.
"Attached... is a demand that 71 individuals be banned from political activity," Kilic said, adding that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and President Abdullah Gul, a former AKP member, topped the list.
The constitutional court has yet to say whether it will agree to hear the complaint, which charges that the AKP has become a focal point for attempts to overturn the strictly secular ethos that underlies Turkey's constitution.
The AKP, whose roots in a now-banned Islamist movement have sown fear among secularist circles, branded the case as a blow to democracy and said it would "continue its fight for democracy with determination".
"The target of this case is not the AKP, but Turkish democracy and Turkish people," deputy party chairman Mehmet Mir Dengir Firat told a news conference after an emergency meeting of the AKP leadership.
"This is the biggest injustice committed against Turkey, our democracy, the will of our nation, our peace and stability, our prestige in the world."
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