Chapter 70 squillion in the annals of “arrested for insulting ____” – in this case not the prophet but the president, of Turkey.
Police in Turkey have arrested a 16-year-old student on charges of insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, according to local media.
He was arrested on Wednesday after criticising the ruling AK Party during a speech at a student protest in the central Anatolian city of Konya.
The teenager could face up to four years in prison if found guilty.
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu defended the arrest, saying the presidential office “needs to be shown respect”.
No. No it doesn’t. It doesn’t need to be shown unconditional respect and it certainly doesn’t need to be “shown respect” in the sense of criminalizing criticism.
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has it completely backward. People who hold political office are more subject to criticism than civilians, not less so. People who have power have to be wide open to criticism, because otherwise they’re free to pillage us in any way they like.
Arresting a 16-year-old student for criticizing a political party is just contemptible.
Note to the EU: Turkey is not ready.
Turkey’s penal code makes it a crime to insult the president.
It also makes it a crime to insult “Turkishness.” Turkey’s penal code is fucked up.
The boy’s speech, given to commemorate the killing of a Turkish soldier by Islamists in the 1920s, was recorded on video and broadcast by Dogan News Agency.
In it, he defends secularism and the principles of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the modern Turkish republic.
He also singled out President Erdogan for criticism over recent corruption allegations, as the crowd chanted “everywhere is bribery, everywhere is corruption”.
And for that they busted him – dear “moderate” Turkey.
Nope.
It’s always nice for a State to have a vague, catch-all statute.
For reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Article_301_%28Turkish_Penal_Code%29
The Republican Party would love that law. Or, rather, they’d have loved it eight years ago.
Easier to squeeze them once they’re in. Doing it from the outside is more likely to make them stubborn.
Poor boy. If only he’d raped some girls instead. That never seems to upset anyone.
“And for that they busted him – dear “moderate” Turkey.
Yes, indeed, Ophelia, scratch Turkey off the list, there’s still Indonesia of course, apart from Aceh.
“..in this case not the prophet but the president, of Turkey”
I doubt that in rapidly Islamizing Turkey that distinction has any meaning, Erdogan seems to be a wannabe Caliph.