Law on criminal acts against Ataturk

Basic data
Title:	Ataturk Aleyhine İşlenen Suçlar Hakkında Kanun
Number:	5816
Type:	law
Scope:	Republic of Turkey
Adoption date:	July 25, 1951
Official Journal :	No. 7872 BC July 31, 1951, p. 1713 ; ( PDF file; 725 kB )
	Please note the note on the applicable legal version .

The law on criminal acts against Ataturk ( Turkish Ataturk Aleyhine İşlenen Suçlar Hakkında Kanun ) of July 25, 1951 places the memory of the state's founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk under criminal protection in Turkey .

Emergence

In the parliamentary elections on May 14, 1950 , the Democratic Party (DP) Adnan Menderes ' prevailed against the Republican People's Party (CHP) founded by Ataturk . Compared to the CHP, the DP was regarded as less secular and, for example, on June 17, 1950, caused the calls to prayer in the country to be called again in Arabic instead of only in Turkish, as had been the case since 1932. Islamist circles interpreted this as distancing the government from Ataturk's reforms, whereupon there was increased insults against Ataturk and the destruction of his monuments . After initially tolerating it, the government finally decided to draw up a law on criminal acts against Ataturk . Against this plan, however - especially from the ranks of DP MPs - rejecting voices were raised, which was justified by the unconstitutionality of such a law, since according to Article 69 of the constitution at that time "personal privileges of any kind [...] were prohibited" . The draft was referred back to the committee on May 7, 1951 with 146 votes to 141.

Now the German lawyer and legal sociologist Ernst E. Hirsch has been asked for an opinion. He argued that the term “person” in this context means “ natural person ” and that this personality ends with death according to the Turkish civil code . Logically, a person named Ataturk does not exist, which means that she cannot be granted any privilege. Any law should not protect a person, but rather the memory of a person. Article 69 of the constitution does not preclude this.

After corresponding changes, the draft was finally adopted on July 25, 1951 and announced in the Official Journal on July 31, 1951. However, it failed to change the title of the law. So it should actually be called “ Law on criminal acts against the memory of Ataturk ”.

text

Article 1 of Law No. 5816 reads as follows:

(1) Anyone who publicly insults or insults the memory of Atatürk will be punished with imprisonment from one year to three years .

(2) Anyone who destroys, smashes, damages or soils statues, busts and monuments depicting Ataturk or the mausoleum of Ataturk, is punished with imprisonment from one year to five years .

(3) Anyone who encourages other people to commit the offenses set out in the above paragraphs will be punished like a perpetrator .

Legal practice

Procedure

According to the annual report of the İHD , two people were acquitted in 2007 and one defendant was sentenced to 18 months' imprisonment. On August 1, 2008, the case was dropped against two students who said on a television program that they did not like Ataturk. The prosecutor in Beyoğlu found that it was not a criminal offense not to like Ataturk.

At the end of 2008, the public prosecutor in Ankara initiated an investigation against the German university professor Ronald Mönch . In a lecture to the European Parliament, he rated the violence used in the suppression of the Dersim uprising as a “crime against humanity and partial genocide”. If Ataturk were still alive today, according to Mönch, he would have to be brought to justice. It is estimated that it will only be known in one to three years whether a lawsuit will be brought or whether the proceedings will be terminated.

Internet censorship

"Access to this website has been blocked."

On March 6, 2007, the Internet service provider Türk Telekom blocked access to the YouTube video portal . The reason for this was the decision of the 1st Chamber of the Magistrate's Court in Istanbul. A video in which Ataturk was described as "gay" was decisive for the verdict. After the said video was removed, access was provisionally released on March 9, 2007.

On May 4, 2007, the so-called “Internet Act” came into force. This law enables the courts to block access to websites whose content violates certain articles of the Turkish Penal Code and Act No. 5816.

With this new foundation, further blockades followed. Until October 2008, access to a total of 51 pages was prevented because of the insult to Ataturk.

Comparison with the German criminal law

Laws to protect the memory of the deceased also exist outside of Turkey. For example, Section 189 of the German Criminal Code makes “ denigrating the memory of the deceased ”, including denial of the Holocaust , a criminal offense. In principle, it is only used on application ( application offense ) and only in the case of particularly severe degradation of the dead through insult , defamation or defamation . In Turkish law, on the other hand, prosecution always takes place ex officio (official offense ), it does not require any particularly serious degradation or defamation and only protects the inviolability of a single person.

Individual evidence

↑ Ernst E. Hirsch : As a legal scholar in the land of Ataturk . 1st edition. Berliner Wissenschafts-Verlag, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-8305-1533-3 , p. 151 ff.

↑ Reiner Möckelmann: Ernst Hirsch's legacy for today's Turkey . Lecture on the occasion of the book presentation "As a legal scholar in Ataturk's country" at the Free University of Berlin on November 28, 2008. P. 3. ( PDF; 112.75 kB ).

↑ Başsavcılık: Atatürk'ü sevmemek suç değil , Timurk.com, accessed on February 1, 2009.

↑ Turkish public prosecutor investigates Mönch: Professor from Bremen allegedly insulted Ataturk ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Radio Bremen , accessed on February 1, 2009.@1@ 2

↑ Comment by Berthold Seewald: Ataturk before the judge , Welt Online , accessed on February 1, 2009.

↑ Brüksel'deki konuşmaya Ankara'da soruşturma , Hürriyet , accessed on February 1, 2009.

↑ Virtual War: Turkey Shuts Down YouTube , Spiegel Online , accessed on January 27, 2009.

↑ YouTube remains blocked in Turkey , Heise online , accessed on January 27, 2009.

Remarks

↑ Act No. 5651 on the Regulation of Internet Publications and Crime Prevention on the Internet ( Internet Ortamında Yapılan Yayınların Düzenlenmesi ve Bu Yayınlar Yoluyla İşlenen Suçlarla Mücadele Edilmesi Hakkında Kanun) .

↑ Listed exhaustively in Art. 8 a) of the “Internet Act”: Induction to suicide, Art. 84; sexual abuse of children, Art. 103 I; Favoring drug abuse, Art. 190; Provision of substances hazardous to health, Art. 194; Immorality, prostitution and unauthorized staging of a game of chance, Art. 226–228 tStGB.

Web links

Legal text (Turkish)

[1] Ernst E. Hirsch : As a legal scholar in the land of Ataturk . 1st edition. Berliner Wissenschafts-Verlag, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-8305-1533-3 , p. 151 ff.

[2] Reiner Möckelmann: Ernst Hirsch's legacy for today's Turkey . Lecture on the occasion of the book presentation "As a legal scholar in Ataturk's country" at the Free University of Berlin on November 28, 2008. P. 3. ( PDF; 112.75 kB ).

[3] Başsavcılık: Atatürk'ü sevmemek suç değil , Timurk.com, accessed on February 1, 2009.

[8] Act No. 5651 on the Regulation of Internet Publications and Crime Prevention on the Internet ( Internet Ortamında Yapılan Yayınların Düzenlenmesi ve Bu Yayınlar Yoluyla İşlenen Suçlarla Mücadele Edilmesi Hakkında Kanun) .

[9] Listed exhaustively in Art. 8 a) of the “Internet Act”: Induction to suicide, Art. 84; sexual abuse of children, Art. 103 I; Favoring drug abuse, Art. 190; Provision of substances hazardous to health, Art. 194; Immorality, prostitution and unauthorized staging of a game of chance, Art. 226–228 tStGB.