20th September 2006 – 08:57
“There she is!” the crowd shouted as if an eagle has seen the running prey in the woods and bowed its head down to hunt. They were ready with their weapons in their hands. As soon as she left the car, the angry crowd walked toward her until the police barrier stopped them. They were lifting their hands to the air and throwing water bottles, pens, plastic cups and even newspapers. When one of the pens hit her head, she looked at the pen rolling on the ground. “Very ironic” she thought! “Because I used my pen to write what I thought, I am here now. And now they are throwing me pens” She walked to the court room with swift steps. Beside the police, there were four guards protecting her from the angry crowd. They were saying known words: “Turkey belongs to Turks”, “Yankee go home”, “Love or leave” etc… “There is nothing new!” she thought, “nothing creative!”
The paragraph above could be a good beginning for a story which can advertise Turkey’s well-known Article 301 of Penal Code. I will not write the story because I don’t know many details about the Turkish courts. Instead of writing a fiction, I will suffice with a little essay. Let’s start with Article 301:
“There she is!” the crowd shouted as if an eagle has seen the running prey in the woods and bowed its head down to hunt. They were ready with their weapons in their hands. As soon as she left the car, the angry crowd walked toward her until the police barrier stopped them. They were lifting their hands to the air and throwing water bottles, pens, plastic cups and even newspapers. When one of the pens hit her head, she looked at the pen rolling on the ground. “Very ironic” she thought! “Because I used my pen to write what I thought, I am here now. And now they are throwing me pens” She walked to the court room with swift steps. Beside the police, there were four guards protecting her from the angry crowd. They were saying known words: “Turkey belongs to Turks”, “Yankee go home”, “Love or leave” etc… “There is nothing new!” she thought, “nothing creative!”
The paragraph above could be a good beginning for a story which can advertise Turkey’s well-known Article 301 of Penal Code. I will not write the story because I don’t know many details about the Turkish courts. Instead of writing a fiction, I will suffice with a little essay. Let’s start with Article 301:
1. A person who publicly denigrates Turkishness, the Republic or the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, shall be punishable by imprisonment of between six months and three years.
2. A person who publicly denigrates the Government of the Republic of Turkey, the judicial institutions of the State, the military or security organizations shall be punishable by imprisonment of between six months and two years.
3. In cases where denigration of Turkishness is committed by a Turkish citizen in another country the punishment shall be increased by one third.
4. Expressions of thought intended to criticize shall not constitute a crime.
One first should define Turkishness and insult to Turkishness in better words. How can one insult Turkishness? According to the prosecutors, if you claim that Turks killed Armenians during the Word War I, you have insulted Turkishness because it is a well-known truth by the all Turkish official ideologist that Turks did not kill Armenians, neither attempted to kill one innocent person. According to our well-known truths, Turks are the most innocent and honorable race the human history has ever seen! Turks are the “white spoon extracted from the milk” and it is an insult to claim the opposite. If one says we have done bad things against some other ethnic minorities in our country, this becomes an insult because it contradicts with the definition of Turkishness. Actually, using the phrase” ethnic minority living in Turkey” is already an insult to Turkey’s unity since according to our constitution every citizen living in Turkey is a Turk. It is ok to insult Kurds, Armenians or Greeks. It is ok to say the malicious lies about all other nations or nationalities but Turks!
At least 15 writers, editors or publishers already have been prosecuted under the article 301. Tomorrow Elif Shafak will face the trial for the words of the characters she invented for her novel, Bastards of Istanbul. Isn’t it stupid? These guys who call themselves “Unity of Jurists” have no idea about how to read a novel. If we judge the writers for the crimes which are committed by the characters in the novels, then almost all the writers must go to prison including the ones who write historical novels. Can we judge Dostoyevsky for Raskolnikov’s murders? Can’t they understand why one writes a fiction? Creating novel characters means replacing yourself with a new identity and trying to think in different way, looking at the world with someone else’s eyes. It has nothing to do with putting your own opinions by using the words of one character. If she wanted to write her own opinions, I am sure she has the capability to insult Turkishness in an essay or in a newspaper article. She wrote a novel because she wanted to attract the attention of the people to the sufferings of certain group of people who live in this country without much voice. A good novel reflects the writer’s opinion in the views of different characters. Every character might carry something from the writer but at the end this is not a necessity. Writer can hide himself/herself behind all the characters and make himself/herself totally invisible.
In addition to this, the article 301 does not put a clear line between insult and criticism. Criticism is not a crime but insult is a crime. Orhan Pamuk was prosecuted for saying Kurds and Armenians have been killed in this country. I don’t understand where he insulted the Turkishness? If Turks did not kill thousands of Armenians, then what Pamuk said can be considered as a “lie”, not an “insult”. If Elif Shafak’s characters said something against the official ideology of Turkish Republic, it is because there are people speaking like that character in this country. Can we deny the words of Armenians and Kurds in a novel where we talk about their lives? Isn’t it writer’s job to give voice to everyone evenly so that the reader will have a clear understanding of the lives of these people? Isn’t it unfair to show Kurds and Armenians lived/living in Turkey without any problem? Isn't it the biggest sin to ignore others' pains, acting blind and deaf for those who suffer? I think this is one of the most nonsense trials in the history of the Republic. Let’s wait and see where the comedy goes!
I also wonder now if I have insulted Turkishness by writing this page. I am not a famous writer or not even a real writer but does it matter if I insult Turkishness in an essay which is posted on internet? According to the article 301, section 3 my punishment must be one third more than the ones who write their words while they were in Turkey.
Here there are some links about the trial of Elif Shafak and other issues related to the article 301:
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