Harmonize This!

All the omens point to an eventual accession of Turkey to the European Union. When that happens, “harmonization” will occur, and the laws of Turkey will be adjusted to fit EU standards. But, like other member countries, Turkey will claim certain opt-outs, and those laws and regulations will be exceptions.

Also like the rest of the EU, Turkey will be entitled to issue a warrant for the arrest of anyone who breaks any of its laws, even those that are not in agreement with EU standards. In addition, under the provisions of the European Arrest Warrant, Turkey can expect that anyone so accused will be delivered from anywhere in the EU, without the necessity of any judicial action on the part of the country where the alleged malefactor is detained.

The following news articles will serve as a reminder of the sorts of things that are against the law in Turkey. First case in point: the crime of insulting Kemal Ataturk:

Turkey: German Academic Faces Probe for Insulting Ataturk

ANKARA, DECEMBER 2 — Ankara’s public prosecutor initiated an investigation yesterday into derogatory remarks purportedly made about the founder of modern Turkey by an academic from a German university. Ronald Munch, from the University of Bremen, has been accused of insulting Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, as daily Hurriyet reports today.

In a speech at the European Parliament in Brussels on November 13, Munch said if Ataturk were alive today, he would have to stand trial for war crimes. The text of Munch’s speech will be requested from Belgium. After the text is analyzed and if the prosecutor finds the case to be within its mandate it can seek a one to three year prison term for Munch. Alternatively, the prosecutor can conclude there is a lack of grounds for legal action.

Law Number 5816 of the Turkish Criminal Code, or TCK, deals with crimes against Ataturk. According to Article 1 of this law, “Those who publicly insult or swear at the memory of Ataturk can be sentenced to a prison term of between one to three years.” Article 2 of the law states a conviction can be doubled if the crime is committed collectively or through the media. Article 12 of the TCK states if a foreigner commits a crime against Turkey that person will be tried upon entering Turkey. (ANSAmed)

Notice that the perpetrator of the alleged crime is neither a resident nor a citizen of Turkey. Yet the Turkish court claims jurisdiction over him, and will arrest him if he enters Turkey. Once Turkey is in the EU, under the European Arrest Warrant Prof. Munch could be extradited to Turkey from Germany without the necessity of any legal procedure within Germany.

Next example: anyone who refers to the unpleasant events in Anatolia during 1915 and 1916 as a “genocide” is subject to prosecution in Turkey. Once again, it was a German — a citizen of the EU — who uttered the forbidden words, so the European Arrest Warrant would apply if Turkey were in the EU.

Pause for a moment and consider all the European academics who accept the Armenian Genocide as a historical fact — they are potential Euro-criminals:
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Turkey: Press, Kasper’s Words on Armenia Disrupt Relations

ANKARA, NOVEMBER 25 — Statements made on Sunday by Cardinal Walter Kasper to Radio Vaticana about the recognition by the Holy See of the Armenian genocide have “thrown a shadow on the process of normalisation underway between Turkey and Armenia”.

This is how the nationalist and Islamic line Turkish newspaper “Turkiye”, commented the president of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity, who had stated that the genocide “is a fact”, as Pope Wojtyla did in his pastoral visit to Armenia during which he also visited the memorial for the victims of the genocide. The newspaper commented, furthermore, with a not so subtle sarcasm, the fact which the words of the high prelate came in an “interesting moment”, meaning in a moment in which in the difficult relations between Turkey and Armenia, one can just make out a glimpse of dialogue.

Just yesterday, in Istanbul, the Armenian Foreign Minister, Eduard Nalbandian met his Turkish counterpart, Ali Babacan, who according to reliable sources in the local media, mentioned the idea of a possible resuming of “de facto” diplomatic relations between the two counties if Yerevan were to accept the start of an historic investigation on the massacres of Armenians at the time of the Ottoman Empire.

Ankara has refused up until now to establish diplomatic relations with Armenia, ex Soviet republic, independent since 1991, due to the efforts made by Yerevan for the recognition of the massacre of 1.5 million Armenian carried out between 1915 and 1916 as genocide. Ankara rejects the genocide definition and sustains that there were about 300,000 Armenian killed, all victims of a bloody civil war at the time. (ANSAmed)

One can understand that there might be legitimate debate among historians as to whether Ottoman actions against the Armenians in 1915 should be classified as genocide. But in Turkey, the debate is closed, and referring to the events as “genocide” is against the law.

How far is the European Union willing to go when it accepts Turkey as a member? How many new classes of criminality will “harmony” require?



Hat tip: Insubria.

8 thoughts on “Harmonize This!

  1. The funny thing is that if the anti-Armenian genocide law was accepted as an exception by the EU as a favor to Turkey, the first in line to be extradited would be those EU governments which recognized officially the genocide, beginning with the dhimmi government of France.
    I like this fantasy: to paraphrase the KGB defector Yuri Bezmenov, the useful idiots should be the first to rot in a Turkish prison (a lot of fun in a Turkish prison – heh. That’s why the detainees revolt once or twice a year).

  2. The facts are even worse than described in the above article.

    When (not if!) Turkey will become a EU member, the provisions of the so called EU arrest warrant will allow TURKISH POLICE to travel to ANY EU country to arrest any EU citizen who has broken Turkish national law outside Turkey in any country of the EU!

    Example for this provision: The denying of the holocaust is a crime in Germany. It is not in Britain. If a British citizen in Great Britain denies the holocaust, German police can arrest him in Great Britain!

    1984 was a walk in the park compared to what’s cooking in the EU!

  3. Until Islam is understood as the oldest surviving imperialism, nothing good comes from the infidel fools denying Mohammadism’s own dismal dogmas.

    Ignorance is death.

  4. I forgot to mention the Turkish law that will undoubtedly prove even more fun than the Armenian holocaust denying stuff:

    “INSULT of the TURKISH NATION” is a crime in national Turkish law.

    THAT could well be the straw, breaking the camel’s back. When Turkish police will come to arrest German or Dutch citizens for insulting the “honor” of Turkey, the people of Western Europe might finally react in a more decisive fashion to the islamisation of their lands.

  5. There was a mini-genocide also in 1937 mentioned by Muench – on Armenians, Greeks (Assyrians) and alavites.
    Area: Tulci – territory captured and turkified.

    The Turkish generals freely mention this in EU offices saying “there would be no national state for Turks without doing so”.

    Ronald Muench might get 3 years…

  6. Perhaps we should all watch Midnight Express as homework and as a reminder of how bad turkish prisons really are. This movie is 30 years old but a fair guess is the conditions hasn’t improved much since then.

  7. One can only imagine that anyone in Europe who warns against the Islamization of the EU will be in serious jeopardy of being sent to Turkey to face whatever charges they can cook up. Or anyone who draws a cartoon Muslims find offensive. With Turkey in the EU freedom of speech will be dead in Europe. Scary stuff.

  8. Briliantly put, Baron!

    In fact, your “Harmonize This!” is so categorical and even arisocratic, proper of a Baron, that it reminds me of the reply of the King Juan Carlos of Spain to Chavez: “porque no te callas!” (Why don’t you shut up!).

    But it seems to me that you do that because you are conforabily sit somewhere the other side of the Atlantic. Myself… I would not dare to say such a thing so categorically, I would just say:

    “No, no, please, please don’t do it, do not harmonise nothing, please don’t…” and then I would hide under some table or bed or any whole available. This because I do believe that the European Union will find a way to harmonise all that Turkish… costumes and Central Asian traditions…

    You know Baron, three days ago I saw a perfectly neutral news program in Prime Time. I was siting with many people I did not knew and the majority of them looked more interested in the news than I was. This neutral program noticed how the Irish PM had met with Barroso and had finally promised to find a way to emend the referendum to the Lisbon Treaty soon. This was presented as a great democratic step forward for the Union, as if, the Irish who voted were not really representing themselves. The Irish Eurocrats, are the only Irish who can represent the other Irish.

    … and that’s why I cannot say: Harmonize this! Because I am scared, very scared of the Turks. Well, not that much but still…

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