INSULT TO FREEDOM: Turkey’s denial of freedom of expression threatens its future
Imagine a modern nation that prides itself on being a civilized democracy. Now imagine that the same nation makes it a heinous crime for anyone to criticize the government or denigrate the national identity. That nation would look very much like Turkey.
Turkey has always been a country uncomfortable in it’s own skin. While it desperately wants to be a full member of the international community and recognized as a full member of the European community, the Turkish government is just as likely to revert to Third World-style oppression whenever it feels threatened.
One thing the Turkish government seems unable to grasp is that membership in the European Union and suppression of thought and expression are fundamentally incompatible. Europe long ago learned that economic power and personal freedom cannot be considered mutually exclusive. Economic growth and development will only occur when individuals are allowed the freedom to express themselves. Capital tends to flee repressive regimes.
Unfortunately, the Turkish government has struggled with the perceived threat of free expression since the revolution led by Kemal Ataturk. In Turkey’s case, straddling both East and West, it has always struggled to define itself in the world. If Turkey is ever to have any hope of forging a new identity for itself, it’s going to have to find a way to rid itself of millstones like Article 301: A person who explicitly insults being a Turk, the republic or Turkish National Assembly” can be imprisoned for a period of three months to six years. To make matters worse, if the insult occurs outside of Turkey, the prison term can be increased by a factor of one-third.
This is no way to convince free First World economies that Turkey deserves to be a member of the club.
Turkey’s most famous novelist, Orphan Pamuk, is to be tried Friday in an Instanbul court for a mere remark he made that was quoted in a Swiss newspaper. Pamuk noted that 30,000 Kurds and 1 million Armenians had been slain in Turkey, “and nobody but me dares to talk about it.”
Among the 60 or more publishers, writers and journalists who have been charged is Fatih Tas, who published in Turkish translation Spoils of War: The Human Cost of America’s Arms Trade, by John Tirman, executive director of MIT’s Center for International Studies. Prosecutors allege that the book insults Turkey and the founder of its republic, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
Another publisher faces trial for publishing a book entitled Truth Will Liberate Us. Not, apparently, if one lives in Turkey. Several newspaper columnists were charged with insulting the judiciary, which banned a conference on Turkish history.
A nation simply cannot aspire to economic and political success while attempting to maintain complete control over its’ people. Not only does Turkey run the risk of losing face in the international community, investment capital will not find it’s way to Turkey in an uncertain and repressive political environment.
Totalitarian control of expression is incompatible with freedom and democracy. It is intolerable in a member of the European Union. It offends principles and treaties recognized by all civilized nations and some that aren’t. As the international writers group PEN points out, Turkey signed both the U.N. International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights, which uphold freedom of expression.
Turkey is a historic ally of the United States. Its citizens have established friendly and profitable ties to Houston and Texas. It is a Muslim country that in many respects sets an example for other nations in the region regarding representational government and the proper role of religion in a secular state.
However, Turkey’s outrageous oppression of free expression undermines Turkey’s relationship with the West, where many Turks believe their future resides. Far from anything a novelist or journalist might write, Article 301 is the greatest insult to Turkey and its people. It must be repealed for their sake and for the sake of Turkey’s friendships abroad.
It has been difficult for Muslim countries to fully make the transition from the Third World to Western capitalism and democracy. Turkey is not making it’s situation any easier with Article 301. Until and unless the Turkish government can see it’s way clear to allow Turks freedom of speech and expression, Turkey is destined to remain on the outside looking in. What’s sad is that it doesn’t need to be this way. If the Turkish government did it’s job of representing the Turkish people, it would have to live in fear of them.
