Academics' Case at Justice Minister's Door

An Ankara court decides to ask Justice Ministry's consent to try Professors Oran and Kaboglu who are charged with violating Article 301 by their minority report on "minorities". The two face five year in prison for "inciting racial hatred".

BIA News Center
20/02/2006 Erol ONDEROGLU

BİA (Ankara) - A Turkish court begins trying Professor Dr. Ibrahim Kaboglu, the former head of the Human Rights Advisory Board of the Prime Ministry, and board member Professor Doctor Baskin Oran, for their minority report to "Minority Rights and Cultural Rights Working Group Report".

Kaboglu and Oran face five years in prison if found guilty of violating articles 216/1 and 301/2 of the Turkish Penal Code.

The involvement of informants rejected

The Ankara court decided to ask for the permission of the Justice Ministry to try the two professors based on article 301. The court, who listened to 25 witness testimonies, also rejected the involvement in the case of the informants whose personal complaints led to the prosecution against two academics. The trial has been postponed two April 10 for the second hearing.

The Republic Prosecutor of Ankara Nadi Turkaslan, on November 14, states in his indictment referring to section on "The Sevres Paranoia" in the report that "the proposals in favor of the minorities in this report, resemble largely the provisions on minorities in the Sevres Treaty, which led to invasion of our country (in 1918) . It is natural to have a Sevres paranoia in case of
such resemblance."

Prosecutor Turkaslan charges the authors with violating Article 301 basically for proposing the notion of the "citizen of Turkey," instead of the notion of "being a Turk." (TK/EA/YE)