[Obama's] State Dept.'s Disgraceful Censorship of Report Blacklisting Turkey [Racist article 301]

State Dept.'s Disgraceful Censorship of Report Blacklisting Turkey By Harut Sassounian March 27, 2012 Each passing day brings new revelations of the Obama administration's shameful schemes to cover up Turkish misconduct.

The latest scandal involves the State Department's covert attempt to alter the contents of a report by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), condemning the Turkish government's violations of the religious rights of Christian minorities. USCIRF is an independent bipartisan federal agency established by the U.S. Congress to make "recommendations unburdened by foreign policy considerations other than the defense of religious freedom," according to a Commission member.

The Commission issued a lengthy report on March 20, outlining in great detail "the Turkish government's systematic and egregious limitations on the freedom of religion or belief that affect all religious communities in Turkey, and particularly threaten the country's non-Muslim religious minorities."

RACIST ISLAMIC TURKEY AND ITS 'ARTICLE 301'

ECRI REPORT ON TURKEY
Council of Europe
(European Commission against Racism and Intolerance) May, 2011
Since the publication of ECRI's third report on Turkey on 15 February 2005, ... number of other provisions of the Criminal Code which do not expressly refer to racist acts or racial discrimination, such as its Article 301, is examined further below. ECRI recommends that the Turkish authorities strengthen the criminal law provisions aimed at combating racism by providing that racist motivations constitute an aggravating circumstance in respect of all ordinary offences, in line with ECRI's General Policy Recommendation No. 7 on national legislation to..
http://www.coe.int/t/dghl/monitoring/ecri/country-by-country/turkey/TUR-CBC-IV-2011-005-ENG.pdf
TUR-CBC-IV-2011-005-ENG May 18, 2011
http://www.docstoc.com/docs/79876038/TUR-CBC-IV-2011-005-ENG

Turkey Press Freedom
[SEEMO - South East Europe Media Organisation]
Vienna, 20 March 2012
Journalists in Turkey Self-Censor, to Avoid Problems with the Authorities, Say Media Experts.. Although many in the West present Turkey as a role-model for the 'Arab Spring' countries, Ankara's freedom of the press record gets worse and worse each day," writes Emre Kizilkaya, foreign news editor at the Turkish dailyHürriyet, in his recent analysis for a web portal specialised in monitoring media developments in Turkey, www.turkeypressfreedom.org, run by the Vienna-based South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO), an affiliate of the International Press Institute (IPI), in cooperation with the Slovenia-based International Media Center (IMC).
"The Freedom for Journalists Platform, an umbrella group representing 94 national and local journalist associations in Turkey, emphasizes that Ankara presents one of the worst press freedom pictures in Europe," writes Kizilkaya.
According to a recent report by news website Bianet.org, issued on 19 March 2012, 104 journalists remain detained in Turkish prisons after Istanbul's 16th High Criminal Court released journalists Nedim Sener and Ahmet Sık, and Oda TV writers Coskun Musluk and Sait Cakır on 12 March 2012. Their trial is pending.
"I welcome the release of the four journalists," said SEEMO Secretary General Oliver Vujovic, who also noted that many other journalists remained in prison...

South African editor and publisher Raymond Louw – a 2011 honouree who battled apartheid and censorship in his country - labelled Şener's detention "unjustified". Louw urged Turkish authorities "to heed the denials of Mr. Şener and his colleagues of the allegations that have been brought against them and release them."
http://seemo.org/turkeypress/seemo-turkey.html

Yearbook of Muslims in Europe - Page 393 - Jorgen S. Nielsen, Samim Akgönül, Ahmet Alibasic - BRILL, Oct 15, 2009 - Reference - 562 pages
However, the AKP has not given up its nationalist position in keeping the very parochial and racist character of Article 301 intact.
http://books.google.com/books?id=WiijLleylbEC&pg=PA393&lpg=PA393

Armenian Solidarity with the Victims of All Genocides
Kurdish Aspect - Dec 15, 2008
... According to the Turkish Justice Ministry, 1,700 people were tried in 2006 alone, under the racist Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code. Prosecutors of the status quo have a field day in prohibiting so-called "insulting Turkishness", utilizing Article 301 to silence those valiant intellectuals who dare challenge the false premises of the official state denials of historical truths related with the Empire's and the Republic's tragic acts of ethnic and cultural annihilations. Hrant Dink himself was victimised by Article 301, before his assassination. Not surprisingly, therefore, that the eminent Turkish civil rights campaigner and publisher Ragip Zarakolu was found guilty of "insulting the institutions of the Turkish Republic". Just recently the BBC announced that a Turkish court has sentenced a Kurdish politician, the European Parliament's Sakharov human rights 1995 award winner, 47-year-old Ms Leyla Zana, to 10 years in prison. That is what the racist Article 301 of Turkey's penal code is all about - annihilating dissent and multiculturalism.
http://www.kurdishaspect.com/doc121508CHAK.html

DTP demands rapid abolition of Article 301
Today's Zaman - Jan 16, 2008
16 January 2008 / TODAY'S ZAMAN , ANKARA
Democratic Society Party (DTP) parliamentary group leader Ahmet Türk has said his party favors the idea of immediate abolition of Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK).
Speaking at his party's parliamentary group meeting on Tuesday, Türk termed Article 301 — criticized both within Turkey and by much of the international community for the limits it places on freedom of speech — a "dirty and guilty" article and said it should be abolished as soon as possible. "As the DTP, we are for the rapid abolition of this article," he said.
Stressing that the article in question is used to prevent intellectuals from expressing their ideas and opinions freely, Türk added, "This article strengthens the racist and chauvinist approach introduced by the 1982 Constitution."
http://www.todayszaman.com/newsDetail_getNewsById.action;jsessionid=CF4C9684BEE48D7C3AC52F2660320B5B?load=detay&link=131759&newsId=131596

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