Writer and Academic Fikret Başkaya Acquitted
Click to read the article in Turkish
Charged with "propagandizing for a terrorist organization" due to his article from three years ago, Chair and Founder of Turkey and the Middle East Forum Foundation Fikret Başkaya has been acquitted in his third hearing at the Ankara 21st Heavy Penal Court today (November 22).
Speaking to bianet about the verdict of acquittal, his attorney Levent Kanat has stated, "This verdict will hopefully prevent new lawsuits to be filed against freedom of expression, oppression of the judiciary and threats of penalties. Such cases is an outrage for freedom of expression."
CLICK - Indictment of Writer Başkaya: Thinking is a Biological Act, Spreading it Can be Banned
Announcing his opinion as to the accusations in the previous hearing, the prosecutor requested that Başkaya be penalized for "propagandizing for a terrorist organization" as per the Article 7/2 of the Anti-Terror Law (TMK) and given a prison sentence of up to 7.5 years.
'It is a way of demonizing political dissidents'
Making a statement in his third hearing today, Fikret Başkaya said, "Counter-terrorism is a way of destroying limited rights and freedoms, demonizing political dissidents and making them less effective, rather than eliminating something evil. Creating terrorist organizations and realizing other objectives by struggling against them is an imperialist practice.
"Even shopkeepers are declared as terrorists. Freedom of expression is violated in Turkey under the name of counter-terrorism. It can be offered to change the name of the Anti-Terror Law as anti-freedom of expression law.
"My article in question does not have the elements of the offense charged, propagandizing for a terrorist organization or inciting to commit crimes. Why does the current bigoted ideology ban freedom of expression? To protect the interest of the dominant class. A regime that bans free thought and freedom of expression rots and collapses.
"One must question and name things to penetrate into their reality. The raison d'etre of an intellectual is to question. Telling the truth always has a price in class societies and this price is paid by intellectuals."
'Charged with terror propaganda by cherry-picking'
Levent Kanat, the attorney of Başkaya, stated that the unlawful practices during his investigation and prosecution were not heeded by the prosecution.
Lawyer Kanat also added that, independently of the charge filed by the indictment, there were also accusations against his political convictions. Kanat said that the article in question was not specifically about the Republic of Turkey, but about the concept of state as a whole:
"They charged him with propagandizing for a terrorist organization by cherry-picking from the article. Is there a naked propaganda? Are the violent acts of the organization praised? No. Bringing its subjective political mindset into judicial practice, the prosecution brings a charge of propagandizing for an organization whose name is not even mentioned in the article. I request that you give a verdict that protects freedom of expression."
Announcing its verdict after the statements, the court has ruled that writer and academic Fikret Başkaya shall be acquitted.
What happened?
A lawsuit was filed against writer and former academic Fikret Başkaya on charge of "propagandizing for a terrorist organization" as per the Article 7/2 of the Anti-Terror Law (TMK) due to his article "The Real Terror is the State Terror' published on the website of Free University (ozguruniversite.org), which is affiliated with the Turkey and Middle East Forum Foundation.
In addition to this article published on November 7, 2016, the photographs found during the search of his house and his articles were also cited the justification for the lawsuit.
About Fikret BaşkayaBaşkaya was born in 1940 in Denizli province. He graduated from the departments of finance and economy in the Faculty of Political Sciences at Ankara University. He completed his doctorate studies at universities of Paris and Poitiers. He did a lot of studies on underdevelopment, imperialism and problems in transition from capitalism to socialism. After he returned to Turkey, he was exiled to Oltu, Erzurum being considered "unfavorable private" from Officer Candidate School where he was doing his mandatory military service. He worked as a researcher at various institutions after his military service ended. He gave economy lectures at Social Services Academy for a while. He was sentenced to 20 months for opposing to Law on Anti-Terror due to his book called "Paradigmanın İflası" as he was an academic member in the Faculty of Economics at Abant İzzet Baysal University. He did time in Haymana Closed Prison. In 2004, Başkaya faced up to 3 years in prison on charge of "insulting legal personality of the state" due to his articles he included in his book called "Akıntıya Karşı Yazılar" (Articles Against the Current". Ankara 2nd Criminal Court of First Instance ordered his acquittal ruling that Başkaya "remained within the limits of criticism" in 2005. In 2006, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism included Başkaya's book "Paradigmanın İflası" in its audiobook project. Başkaya has been giving lectures at Özgür Üniversite (Free University), which he founded, since 2007. |
(AS/SD)