Political prosecutions in Turkey

We had recently posted on the case of Orhan Pamuk, a famous Turkish novelist who is presecuted because he mentioned publicly the genocide of one million Armenians and 30,000 Kurds in the early 20th century.

Well, there is another prosecution of a journalist ongoing there that speaks very poorly about the Turkish "democracy". That case is against an Armenian-Turkish journalist , Hrant Dink, for his comments on a six-month sentence it gave him earlier for "denigrating Turkish identity". Mr. Dink, an Armenian born in Turkey, was sentenced to six months in jail by an Istanbul court for comments in an article he wrote against Article 301 of a revised penal code.

It is becoming more and more obvious that there is no real democracy in Turkey. Democracy without freedom of speech is inconceivable. Prosecuting people for attempting to speak their mind is a characteristic of fascist regimes and dictatorships.

The European Union and the United States MUST condemn these actions of the Turkish regime. Importantly, Europe should stay firm in rejecting the application of Turkey to joing the european market, until full democracy is in place.