Court Says "Feel Free to Insult Those Apologising to Armenians"

Vatan newspaper journalist Can Ataklı wrote an article entitled “What did they get that money for?” on 31 December 2008. In the article he claimed that there was a list circulating on the Internet which made connections between individuals who had signed an apology campaign for “the events of 1915” and money received from the EU. Ataklı also put this claim forward.

Court sees no reason for refutation

Academics Ahmet İnsel and Murat Belge and writer Adalet Ağaoğlu sent letters of refutation to the Vatan newspaper, but they were not printed. They then applied to the Istanbul 1st Criminal Court of Peace.

However, the court’s decision of 29 January 2009 seems more concerned with the apology campaign than the journalist’s controversial claim.

In its decision, it said that those starting the campaign and demanding a refutation had taken part in an “apparently innocent campaign which, according to some, brings a great responsibility to the past and history of the Turkish Nation, and may even hold the Turkish Nation and the Turkish State legally responsible on the international platform – a campaign which assumes that a crime was committed and that regret was felt.”

The court said that even if this campaign was organised within the framework of the freedom of thought and expression, “and even if it was presented like a moral and righteous act, and even if it was accepted as such, there is no doubt that those who do not share this opinion and their resistance in terms of history and thought are also within their rights.”

The court also said that parts of the letters of refutation made it clear that it was no crime to accept money from the EU if certain conditions were fulfilled, and that the journalist’s article was thus within the right to freedom of the press.

No result with appeal

Haluk İnanıcı, the lawyer for İnsel, Belge and Ağaoğlu, criticised the judge for writing a justification that was unrelated to their complaint, saying, “I have been a lawyer for 25 years, and I have demanded hundreds of refutations, and find this attitude strange.”

Judge Cavit Marancı reacted angrily, saying: "Throughout the nearly 30 years of my professional life I have been a judge who has taken great care to reconcile subjective and objective information. Nevertheless, I am surprised at the attitude of the lawyer, who has reacted to our rejection not only with legal arguments, but also with angry and disrespectful expressions. He is personalising the issue."

Lawyer İnanıcı filed an appeal to the Istanbul 2nd Criminal Court, but the result did not change. Judge Sevim Efendiler decreed that the prior decree was appropriate.

Prof. Dr. Baskın Oran, political scientist at Ankara University, argued in this week’s supplement to the Radikal newspaper that the court decree was debating the apology campaign rather than whether a refutation was necessary.

The controversial article by Can Ataklı has also affected bianet’s Ertuğrul Kürkçü; he is general secretary of the IPS Communication Foundation which received money from the EU Human Rights and Democracy Programme from 2003 and 2006. The article implied that he personally was given this money. A letter written to Tayfun Devecioğlu, the editor-in-chief of Vatan newspaper, was not published. Nadire Mater, president of the foundation, and Ertuğrul Kürkçü are also preparing to go to court. (EÖ/AG)