The crime of insulting Ataturk and freedom of speech in Turkey

Is Turkey undergoing a domestic fight for the soul of the nation?

Good news came from the court in Turkey for the former Wall Setreet Journal Turkey reporter. A Turkish court threw out the conviction against a former Wall Street Journal reporter Ayla Albayrak, related to terrorist propaganda because of her article in WSJ.

But actually Turkey was drawn into an another freedom of expression weighing on November 10, during the death anniversary of the founder of the modern Turkey, Ataturk.

In fact, the debate first started in July when a young woman published the video she took at Ataturk's tomb in Ankara and posted it on social media. 

The woman was telling that Ataturk can’t even be Erdogan’s excrement… She was subsequently  arrested for the offense. Then Police held her in custody. She testified her regret and was then released.

On November 10, a woman in the western city of Edirne, Trakya University student, said that “Ataturk is not God, Allah has laws” to commemorative crowd, she too was arrested for insulting the memory of Ataturk in public. The decision of judiciary discussed.

The last year some investigation was also opened against academics for insulting Ataturk. 

This two women with headscarf draw attention with insult accusations against Ataturk are just individuals or a part of an organized provocation? Ataturk protection law is regulated in 1951 for the Founder Leader of Turkey’s,  against insulting and defamation. 

While the acceptability of pre-trial detentions in the crime of insulting Erdogan questioned society in Turkey, same kind of arrests came up on the crime of defamation to Ataturk.

The AK Party rejected its political-Islamist definition and favored its ‘conservative democratic’ counterpart.

They worked for individual rights, which they have experienced struggling themselves in the past.

A long struggle was given for the freeing of headscarves in universities and public offices.

Six years after the start of Erdogan ruling, the first step was taken against the headscarf ban on the right to education. However, the initiative resulted in the main opposition Republican People’s Party going to the Constitutional Court with a request to close the AK Party. In 2010, the constitutional amendment referendum was held.

After the referendum judiciary and rectors failed to support the ban in the psychological environment of AK Party’s victory.  In 2013, the provision of equality of opportunity to the headscarves was achieved in the public service.

Afterwards, the AK Party has implemented the regulations in line with the criteria of European Courts of Human Rights in the arrests of the judicial processes related to the propaganda of terrorists. As the main element of these regulations, the criteria for rubbing violence were brought. On 30 September 2013, Erdogan personally announced this new criteria for freedom of expression.

However, these steps were frozen in the period which started on December 17th in 2014 and named as the judicial coup by Ak Party.

Some penalties and pre-trial detention applied on cases of insulting Erdogan. In general as a basic principle the decision to arrest was not made at the time of the trial and pending trial applied in this kind of events.

Today some of people insulting Ataturk, the statement could discussed if it is really insulting or not, emphasizes that he Westernized the country by removing from being governed by the law of God. Some people say therefore they don't like Ataturk. There are those who say they want to be governed by the laws of Allah.

Although there was no case of violence, the trial was held in custody. 

In an era where Erdogan in power and  a period of extreme religious freedoms, these responses  to the remembrance Ataturk may be an organized provocation.

Some writers, conservative and close to the government, thought that the issue was open to be transformed into a social polarization. Some of them thought and said this should be considered within the scope of freedom of expression. And it can be said that Ataturk is not God and the laws of Ataturk and the laws of God should be debatable and talkable.

In Turkey 'Sharia is coming' politics of fear was used for many years as an instrument in the political atmosphere of Turkey..

The fact that the headscarved women gained their freedom in universities after the AK Party government and this brought their visibility in the public cadres. This made those women a political target rather than as seen people of having a late equality of opportunity. 

Today, the women who are “insulting” Ataturk is a figure of covered from head to toe with a niqab and dressed in all black.

Investigations and arrests against these women cause relief in the secular people of Turkey who are angry with insulting Ataturk but cause reactions in the  religious segment.

Thus, the exactly intended environment is may be being created. 

Turkey saw last similar games in the February 28th coup in 1998. Some characters such as Fadime Sahin, who later appeared to be fiction, and the improper movements of some sheikhs were made visible to the public with the help of the media. Once the ground was prepared and then February 28th process came.

The first implementation of the post-modern coup d'état was the ban of religious member of army and ban of headscarf on universities, which led the AK Party ruling today as a people’s reaction to the pressure. There are too many women who feel that they are close to the AK Party because they are still wearing headscarves and if the AK Party is not in power, then Kemalist thought will expose French laicism. 

The role of women in the success of AK Party is a case that is expressed by President Erdogan at every opportunity.

If Turkey’s opposition wants to be successful it must be able to defend freedom of expression in Turkey even in case of any thought against Kemalism.

But freedom of expression in Turkey in a paradoxical situation and also discussed in the main opposition Republican People’s Party. 

 Azan in Turkish, recite the call to prayer, also  discussed in Turkey last week. Main opposition party Ardahan deputy Ozturk Yilmaz defended the reciting azan inTurkish through the values of Kemalism.

CHP’s General Chair Kemal Kilicdaroglu showed a reaction. Kilicdarglu understands values of the society and this is very important.

However, the demand of dismissal for ex-MPs from the party who defends reciting azan in Turkish does not correspond to the freedom of expression and democratic values.

Again, it is clear that Kilicdaroglu reads the society better and understands the role of these rhetoric in the rise of AK Party. Turkish Azan recited until 1950 when DP came to power since beginning January 30, 1932, when the CHP was in power. It is important to remember the place of these practices when the Democratic Party came to power.

It looks like Erdogan's second republic and Ataturk's first republic are on the verge of a fight.