Yet Another Article 301 Case

Human rights activist and ex-chair of the IHD Istanbul Branch will be tried with the debated article 301 of the Penal Code, on charges of insulting Turkishness with a speech she made in 2004. This is the fifth case on her from the same article.

Tolga Korkut

Ex-chair of the Human Rights Association (IHD) Istanbul branch, Eren Keskin will be tried by "insulting Turkishness" via the debated article 301 of the Penal Code.

The prosecution demanded Keskin's trial because of her speech during the seminar on human rights organized by Democratic Society Party's (DEHAP) in 2004, where she said "the official history of Turkey is a dirty history".

Keskin told bianet that she recently learned the incident and gave her written testimony as demanded.

She added that currently there are five trials or investigations on her with regard to the article 301.

A reformulation is on its way

Senior state ministers are looking into a solution to Turkish Penal Code article 301 that was identified as one of the country's outstanding problems in the November 8 "Progress Report" of the European Commission but not everyone is hopeful that one can be found in time or even implemented.

The charge of "denigrating Turkishness" under article 301 has led to vast criticism in the recent months and some 60 plus court cases launched against journalists, writers and academics.

The government was recently told by business and union representatives that the scope of the article was too wide and this led to ambiguity and different interpretations at court.(TK/EU)

Tolga Korkut