Turkish government set to amend Article 301

PanARMENIAN.Net - After years of foot dragging, the government eventually submitted a proposal to Parliament to amend Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK), stipulating that future prosecution under the infamous law will require permission from the president.



The law has been subject to harsh criticism from the European Union, which says it restricts free speech; Turkey's Nobel Prize-winning novelist Orhan Pamuk has been tried under Article 301, and journalist Hrant Dink, tried and convicted under the same law, was killed in 2007 by a teenage hitman who said he had killed the ethnic Armenian editor for insulting Turks. But the government's unwillingness to change Article 301 despite more than two years of mounting EU and domestic calls has proven to be a major obstacle for progress in Turkey's EU accession process and led to questions over the AK Party rule's commitment to reform. The government's eventual step to change Article 301 comes amid mounting pressure from its staunchly secularist opponents at home, who filed a closure case against the AK Party on charges of becoming a focal point for anti-secular activities last month.



The AK Party appears to have decided to strike back with a package of reforms, including those long sought by the EU, as well as a couple of constitutional amendments to make party closures more difficult.



One of the major amendments proposed by the AK Party states that future prosecution under Article 301 will require permission from the president. Earlier proposals said the permission should be issued by the justice minister or by a committee of specialists.



The predominant inclination among the AK Party is that president's permission should be sought.



He explained that the president would decide not on whether the alleged crime has been committed or not but on whether such a court trial would be in the public interest or not.



The text of the law is expected to be changed to stipulate that "insulting the Turkish Republic" will be criminalized, instead of the vague notion of "insulting Turkishness." The maximum prison term, currently three years, is also expected to be reduced to two years to make it difficult for those prosecuted under Article 301 to serve jail time. The TCK states that prison sentences of up to two years can be commuted to suspended sentences, Zaman reports.