Article 301 Creates Victims in Daily Life, Too

Obviously the statement “let us see how it will be implemented” by the government is not coming along the way the supporters of article 301 wished it would. Known rather for the law suits it has caused against the journalists, intellectuals and dissenters, article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK) does not present a very different picture in more “normal” life, either.

The revised article 301, which was passed by the Parliament on April 29 with the new title of “Denigrating the Turkish Nation, the State of the Turkish Republic, the institutions and organs of the State,” continues to be a contentious question in the investigations opened in İstanbul, Tunceli and Şanlıurfa.

A conversation in Pertev district became a subject of article 301 investigation

During a conversation about smoking in Pertek district of Tunceli province in eastern Turkey, Hasan Erdoğan, a smoker, was detained in the police station for saying, “if smoking kills then the prosecutors should do their job to stop it, but apparently they are not doing their job.”

Erdoğan was taken to the police station for the conversation about smoking and a 301 investigation was started. Pertek’s Chief Prosecutor Fethi Ahmet Tosun was also present at the site of the conversation.

Detention and investigation for the slogan with Bush in it, which targeted  the Prime Minister

The three members of Labor Youth, Şerafettin Gökdeniz, Sercan Bakır and Ekin Can Kınık were detained for shouting the slogan “He was born in İstanbul, became an American, Tayyip Erdoğan, the son of the murderer Bush” at the activity organized after sending the signatures for the campaign entitled “One’s life cannot be decided over a three-hour examination” to the Parliament on May 20.

Kamil Tekin Sürek, the lawyer of the detained youngsters, who described the intervention as “the indication showing how impatient  the rule of the Justice and Development Party is”, said that the reason for the detention was denigrating the heads of the state and defying the law of meetings and demonstrations.

Sürek told that the three youngsters, who were detained in Taksim police station for two and a half hours, might be sued for article 301.

He said, “They say everything against Bush in front of the White House and they start an investigation in Turkey because something was said against Bush. It was probably not because of the expression “son of Bush”.

Kurdish play is investigated for article 301

Last month the director and the players of the Kurdish play named “Kurme Dare”, which was staged by a theatre group named Çarçıra in Urfa in eastern Turkey, were charged with violating article 301 for “denigrating the Turkish Republic and its military.” Two of the players in the group were also charged with “making the propaganda of the terrorist organization”. (EÖ/GG/TB)