From the Dept. of Be Careful What You Wish For:The European Court of Human Rights condemned Turkey on Tuesday over the killing of two men by security forces in 1996 during an operation against suspected members of the separatist rebel group, the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). The court ruled that Turkey had violated article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights on the right to life and also criticised the "inadequate inquiry" by the Turkish authorities into the killings of Omer Bayram and Ridvan Altun in the southern Adana region.
| I guess the Turks weren't too curious about the fate of the PKK guyz... |
In a separate case, Turkey was condemned by the Strasbourg-based court for violation of the right to freedom of expression after a member of the Popular Democratic party was sentenced to one year's jail and fined after an address to his party's congress in 1997. The court found that his address could not be qualified as a 'speech of hate' and his conviction by the State Security Court under an anti-terrorism law was "disproportionate" and "not necessary in a democratic society". It ordered damages of EUR 6,000 be paid to Tahir Han.
But in a second freedom of expression case, Turkey was cleared by the court over the two year prison sentence, later reduced to a small fine, given to an editor over insults to 'God, Religion, the Prophet and the sacred book' in a provocative publication entitled 'Yasak Tumceler' (the banned sentences). The court ruled that the conviction "aimed to provide a protection against offensive attacks concerning the questions considered as sacred by Muslims".
| Only Allenists must be protected from being offended, only Allenists have the human right to not be humiliated. Or even questioned. |