Dreams of Turkish glasnost

Submitted by Ianus (Poland), Jul 26, 2007 at 15:13

Hi, Chris G. !

> And yes, I know they could face jail time, however they also still take a very pro-Turkish stance that they could use in their defense if they were prosecuted.

You're very funny ,Chris . How can you expect us to believe that people who "take a very pro-Turkish stance" can ever "denigrate Turkishness" , which is the essence of Article 301? Either you tell the Turks the truth (I have noticed that you somehow prefer not to use this word ) like the writer Ömer Asan did in his book "The Culture of the Pontus" for which he was jailed, or you repeat the sickening Kemalist slogans(=lies) and are protected by the horde of other Turks around you. There is little ground in between to walk on.

> The majority of cases in which this law has been used have been dropped so far or sentences suspended...

In some cases it was the Turkish "patriots" who played the role of the judges and executors killing the "denigrator" of Turkishness. Recently it has been an Armenian journalist. You can find hundreds of similar cases in the last decades of Turkish history.

> As for the law, I agree that its a horrible law that most likely the EU will pressure Turkey to drop it and indeed many Turkish politicians are working to get rid of it.

You're wrong. This law is the cornerstone on which Kemalist Turkey is stands. Glasnost will be the end of Kemalist Turkey as it was the end of the Leninist USSR. If the truth is told about all of Kemal's lies and crimes (genocides, deportations, assassinations of political opponents, hoaxes like the Chester concession, his political show trials to hide his incompetence etc. etc.) on the road to his dictatorship and personality cult and about the crimes committed later on by his successors to keep this mad personality cult , all of this artificial state called Turkey will fall into pieces with Kurds building their own state and different provinces and nationalities (if I remember it right in Turkey there are more than 40 nationalities) struggling to get rid of the iron grip of the militarist-police regime now controlling everything in Turkey. The Turks are afraid of nothing more than of the truth. Small wonder. With their genocidal past and barbarism the Turks really have no interest to listen to the truth , let alone to say it.

> Overzealous Turkish nationalism is definitely a big problem.

You call it a "problem"? A remarkable understatement.

> Although keep in mind that it wasn't long ago that they tried to make flag burning illegal and punishable by jail time here in America.

Come on, Chris ! How can you compare apples and oranges ? In America they tried! In Turkey they do it!

As the former Turkish Foreign Minister Tansu Ciller put regarding the murder of Solomos Solomou by Turkish security forces as he attempted to remove the Turkish flag of occupation in Cyprus in 1996:

" We will break the hands of anyone who touches our flag…touching our flag is akin to touching one of our women."

By the way, "wrong" treatment of Gazi Mustafa Kemal's pictures, effigies, books, posters, stamps etc. etc. may bring you to jail. Saying a "bad" thing about him is a most serious crime in this paradise built in his own image.

Best,

Ianus

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