Article 299 of the Turkish Penal Code deems it illegal to "Insult the President of Turkey". A person who is sentenced for a violation of this article can be sentenced to a prison term between one and four years and if the violation was made in public the verdict can be elevated by a sixth. [3] Prosecutions often target critics of the government, independent journalists, and political cartoonists. [4] Between 2014 and 2019, 128,872 investigations were launched for this offense and prosecutors opened 27,717 criminal cases. [5] [6] Turkey's article 299 and article 125, which allows one party to sue for insult despite lack of sufficient evidence, are arguably used as strategic lawsuit against public participation, known internationally as SLAPP. [7]
Insulting the President has been prohibited since the promulgation of the Turkish Penal Code in 1926, but initially under the article 158 and a difference was made between an aggressive and a disrespectful publication. [8] The first was seen as a serious violation, while the latter was punished with prison terms between six months and three years. [8] The article was valid until June 2005. [9]
In June 2005, article 158 was replaced with article 299, and the punishment was elevated to between one and four years. [10] If the violation was made in public, the punishment shall be elevated by a sixth and in order a person can be prosecuted according to this article, the Ministry of Justice has to give its consent. During the presidency of Abdullah Gül, several hundred people were accused for having violated the article, more than five-hundred were prosecuted. [10]
The prosecutions surged after Recep Tayyip Erdoğan took office as president in 2014 and since, thousands of people have been investigated and sentenced for insulting the president. [1] [11]
In 2016, it was attempted to abolish Article 299. [12] In the appeal to the Constitutional Court of Turkey it was advocated that in the past, insulting the president had a different juridic value than insults to other state employees but, since the transition from a government led by a prime minister to a government led by a president, the office of the president became evidently an important and executive political office and all state employees should be treated equally before the law. [12] Furthermore, the article is contrary to the European Convention of Human Rights. [10] The appeal was not successful as the Constitutional Court ruled in December 2016 that the article shall remain in the Penal Code as the President represents not only a person but the whole Turkish nation. [12] It also deemed the law to be in accordance to the legal benefit and even though the law grants the right to criticize, it shall not tolerate insults. [12]
The Venice Commission of the Council of Europe criticized the application of the article in 2016. [10] The European Court of Human Rights has frequently ruled that convictions violate Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights. [1]
Cartoonist Selçuk Erdem , prosecuted under the law for a caricature of Erdogan, stated "someone going to court due to a cartoon is a very sad thing" and that government officials "don't have a sense of humour" and "don't want - or like - freedom of speech or criticism". [13] CHP chair Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu retweeted a cartoon deemed offensive, stating "You cannot stop criticism and humour by putting them in prison." [1]
Canan Kaftancioglu, a leader of the Republican People's Party (CHP), was charged and sentenced for insulting the president in September 2019. [14] She vowed to appeal the verdict. Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the president of the CHP, was also sentenced for a tweet including a cartoon depicting several animals resembling Recep Tayyip Erdogan with the caption Land of Tayyip. [15] Sebahat Tuncel of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), while imprisoned for another case, was sentenced to almost one year imprisonment for saying the president is an enemy of Kurds and women which was deemed an insult of the president by the court. [16] Merve Büyüksaraç, the Miss Turkey of 2006 was delivered with a suspended fourteen months prison sentence for an instagram post with a satirical poem about Erdogan. [17] An investigation was also initiated against a group of women who chanted the slogan "Jump, jump, you're Tayyip if you don't" during the International Women's Day on the 8 of March. [6] In March 2021, Selahattin Demirtas was sentenced to 3 years and 6 months imprisonment for having said Erdogan “fluttered from corridor to corridor” in chase of a picture together with the Russian president Vladimir Putin. [18] In April 2021 a new law entered into force which deprived students of the right to sleep at University dorms if they were sentenced for insulting the Turkish president. [19] [20]
Year | Sued | Prison sentences | Comments |
---|---|---|---|
1982-2014 | 1,816 | n.a. | [21] |
2014 | 132 | 40 | [1] |
2015 | 1,953 | 238 | [1] |
2016 | 4,187 | 884 | [1] |
2017 | 6,033 | 2099 | [1] |
2018 | 6,270 | 2,775 | [1] |
2019 | 13,990 | 4,291 | [1] |
2020 | 9,773 | 3,665 | [1] |
Total | 44,154 | 13,992 |
The president of Turkey, officially the president of the Republic of Türkiye, is the head of state and head of government of Turkey. The president directs the executive branch of the national government and is the commander-in-chief of the Turkish military. The president also heads the National Security Council.
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is a Turkish politician serving as the 12th and current president of Turkey since 2014. He previously served as prime minister of Turkey from 2003 to 2014 and as mayor of Istanbul from 1994 to 1998. He founded the Justice and Development Party (AKP) in 2001, leading it to election victories in 2002, 2007, and 2011 general elections before being required to stand down upon his election as president in 2014. He later returned to the AKP leadership in 2017 following the constitutional referendum that year. Coming from an Islamist political background and self-describing as a conservative democrat, he has promoted socially conservative and populist policies during his administration.
Lèse-majesté or lese-majesty is an offence against the dignity of a ruling head of state or the state itself. The English name for this crime is a borrowing from the French, where it means "a crime against The Crown."
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Capital punishment was abolished in Turkey in 2004, and no prisoners have been executed since October 1984. The method of execution was hanging.
Sebahat Tuncel is a Turkish politician of Kurdish origin, women's rights advocate, former nurse and member of the Parliament in Turkey. She was elected a member of parliament while being in prison.
A blasphemy law is a law prohibiting blasphemy, which is the act of insulting or showing contempt or lack of reverence to a deity, or sacred objects, or toward something considered sacred or inviolable. According to Pew Research Center, about a quarter of the world's countries and territories (26%) had anti-blasphemy laws or policies as of 2014.
A constitutional referendum on a number of changes to the constitution was held in Turkey on 12 September 2010. The results showed the majority supported the constitutional amendments, with 58% in favour and 42% against. The changes were aimed at bringing the constitution into compliance with European Union standards. Supporters of Turkish EU membership hope constitutional reform will facilitate the membership process.
General elections were held in Turkey on 12 June 2011 to elect the 550 members of Grand National Assembly. In accordance to the result of the constitutional referendum held in 2007, the elections were held four years after the previous elections in 2007 instead of five.
Presidential elections were held in Turkey on 10 August 2014 in order to elect the 12th President. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was elected outright with an absolute majority of the vote in the first round, making a scheduled run-off for 24 August unnecessary.
Article 312 was a controversial article of the Turkish Penal Code relating to inciting racial or religious hatred encouraging people to disobey the law. It has been used to prosecute journalists for writing about Kurdish issues.
Osman Kavala is a businessman, activist and philanthropist who has supported numerous civil society organizations in Turkey since the early 1990s. Kavala is the founder and chair of the board of Anadolu Kültür, an Istanbul-based nonprofit arts and culture organization. In 2019, he received the European Archaeological Heritage Prize from the European Association of Archaeologists for his efforts to protect and preserve significant examples of cultural heritage in danger in Turkey and the Ayşenur Zarakolu Freedom of Thought and Expression Award by Human Rights Association's Istanbul branch. His arrests in Turkey caused the European Court of Human Rights and ambassadors from ten Western countries to demand his release. These demands were rejected by Turkish courts and president Erdoğan.
Doğan Güzel is a Kurdish Turkish-born cartoonist. He is best known for his satirical comic strip Qirix.
Canan Kaftancıoğlu is a Turkish physician and politician. She is the president of the Republican People's Party's (CHP) in Istanbul. In September 2019, she was sentenced to 9 years and 8 months imprisonment for insulting the president and terrorism related charges but after an appeal by the CHP, the Court of Cassation reduced her sentence to over 4 years and 11 Months in May 2022. The Turkish government under President Recep Erdoğan's administration put her on trial for tweeting about the Armenian genocide and assassinations of the three female members of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in Paris. Her trial came in the wake of her party's victory in regional elections in Istanbul. During her trial she read out a poem by Nazim Hikmet.
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