A Portrait of a Nationalist Lawyer: Kemal Kerincsiz

Kemal Kerincsiz is a lawyer and founder and administrative board member of the “Lawyers’ Union.”

Stopped Armenian conference 

He first came to public attention when he filed a complaint to stop a conference entitled “The Ottoman Armenians in the Period of the Declining Empire” scheduled for May 2005. The conference finally took place on 23 September, but only because the organisers were able to circumvent the ban by hosting the conference at a venue not mentioned in the ban.

Nationalists from the Great Union Party (BBP) and the Workers’ Party then stood in  front of the conference venue to throw eggs and tomatoes at the participants.

Demanded more severe punishment for Hrant Dink

When Agos editor-in-chief Hrant Dink was sentenced to a suspended sentence of six months imprisonment for “denigrating Turkishness” in 2005, Kerincsiz appealed against the decision, demanding a more severe punishment. In his letter of appeal, Kerincsiz argued that “the defendant has a tendency to commit crimes” and that “his actions have created a wave of anger in Turkish society.”

Filed complaint against Orhan Pamuk 

In the same year, Kerincsiz filed a criminal complaint against writer Orhan Pamuk for “denigrating the army.” He also appeared on television, arguing that the controversial Article 301 was a “necessity.”

Intimidation in court 

When Hrant Dink, Agos journalist Aydin Engin, section editor Arat Dink and responsible manager Serkis Seropyan were taken to court as defendants in a case of “attempting to influence the judiciary” on 16 May 2006, they were verbally and physically attacked at the court hearing. Kerincsiz and his associates applied to become joint plaintiffs in the case. Coins and pens were thrown at the defendants and their lawyers. Kerincsiz called for the judge to be withdrawn, accusing him of bias. The prosecution refused both the application for joint plaintiff status and a change of judges.

Assault at TESEV book launch 

On 6 July 2006, the Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV) launched its book “Facing Forced Migration: The Construction of Citizenship after Displacement in Turkey”. Kerincsiz and seventeen others verbally abused some people and some people were physically attacked.

Speaking to bianet after the attack, which he himself only watched, Kerincsiz said: “We do not approve of violence. Do not connect us to violence. This is not the inquisition trial that you can judge without trial here. The things TESEV said at this meeting were the same as the statements of the PKK. Naturally, the citizen’s reactions are justified reactions.” (NZ/TK/AG)