Turquía y la libertad de expresión

Harsh words were fired from Brussels on Friday as the commission reacted strongly to a Turkish court’s suspension of a conference on the Armenian massacre. Meanwhile Turkey has slammed an EU counter declaration on Cyprus.

The decision yesterday (22 September) by an Istanbul court to cancel a conference on the mass killings of Armenians by the Ottoman empire in 1915, sparked a commission spokeswoman to speak of “yet another provocation”.

The term “provocation” was also used last week by enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn when criticising a separate Turkish court decision on the filing of charges against the author Orhan Pamuk – who had also raised the Armenian issue.

…

Until recently it was illegal in Turkey to publicly talk about the tabu topic of the massacre of the Armenians, which Armenia, but also countries like France and Russia, have classified as genocide.

The new penal code which Ankara had to adopt following pressure from Brussels ended this restriction on free speech.

But prosecutors in Turkey are still repressing debate on the Armenian massacre under the reformed penal code.

The commission signalled on Friday that the “provocations” by Turkish prosecutors will not interfere with Ankara’s bid to start entry talks on 3 October.

Lean Brussels clashes with Turks on free speech and Cyprus.
Nosotros, en Desde el exilio, ya lo habíamos comentado en “La libertad de expresión en Turquía“