Turkey: Columnist of daily Taraf to face trial under infamous Article 301 of Turkey’s Penal Code

PanARMENIAN.Net - Rasim Ozan Kutahyalı, a young columnist for daily Taraf, will face trial under the infamous Article 301 of the Penal Code, which criminalizes “publicly insulting the Turkish nation, the republic of Turkey and its government, Parliament or judiciary.”

Criticizing the then-chief of General Staff for speaking to the media on political issues, Rasim Ozan Kutahyalı wrote in 2009: “You are not a statesman, Ilker Basbug, you are a bureaucrat.”

The top general has since retired.

The General Staff applied to the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office for Kutahyalı to be tried under Article 301 for several articles. The prosecutor’s office then asked for permission from the government, who granted permission to press charges under Article 301 for a different article written by Kutahyalı in which he accused the military of “institutional idiocy.”

Assassinated Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink was sentenced under Article 301, which led to Turkey being found liable at the European Court of Human Rights. Following Dink’s murder, and amid ongoing criticism from the public and the European Union, the law was changed to require the justice minister’s permission to file charges under Article 301, Hurriyet Daily News reported.