Article 299 of the Turkish Penal Code deems it illegal to "Insult the
President of Turkey
The president of Turkey, officially the president of the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Cumhurbaşkanı), is the head of state and head of government of Turkey. The president directs the executive branch of the national govern ...
"''.'' A person who is sentenced for a violation of this article can be sentenced to a prison term between one and four years and if the violation was made in public the verdict can be elevated by a sixth. Prosecutions often target critics of the government, independent journalists, and political cartoonists. Between 2014 and 2019, 128,872 investigations were launched for this offense and prosecutors opened 27,717 criminal cases.
Turkey's article 299 and article 125, which allows one party to sue for insult despite lack of sufficient evidence, are arguably used as
strategic lawsuit against public participation, known internationally as SLAPP.
Origins
Insulting the President has been prohibited since the promulgation of the Turkish Penal Code in 1926, but initially under the article 158 and a difference was made between an aggressive and a disrespectful publication.
The first was seen as a serious violation, while the latter was punished with prison terms between six months and three years.
The article was valid until June 2005.
History
In June 2005, article 158 was replaced with article 299, and the punishment was elevated to between one and four years.
If the violation was made in public, the punishment shall be elevated by a sixth and in order a person can be prosecuted according to this article, the
Ministry of Justice A Ministry of Justice is a common type of government department that serves as a justice ministry.
Lists of current ministries of justice
Named "Ministry"
* Ministry of Justice (Abkhazia)
* Ministry of Justice (Afghanistan)
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has to give its consent. During the presidency of
Abdullah Gül
Abdullah Gül (; ; born 29 October 1950) is a Turkish politician who served as the 11th President of Turkey, in office from 2007 to 2014. He previously served for four months as Prime Minister from 2002 to 2003, and concurrently served as bo ...
, several hundred people were accused for having violated the article, more than five-hundred were prosecuted.
The prosecutions surged after
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan took office as president in 2014 and since, thousands of people have been investigated and sentenced for insulting the president.
In 2016, it was attempted to abolish Article 299.
In the appeal to the
Constitutional Court
A constitutional court is a high court that deals primarily with constitutional law. Its main authority is to rule on whether laws that are challenged are in fact unconstitutional, i.e. whether they conflict with constitutionally established ...
of Turkey it was advocated that in the past, insulting the president had a different juridic value than insults to other state employees but, since the transition from a government led by a prime minister to a government led by a president, the office of the president became evidently an important and executive political office and all state employees should be treated equally before the law.
Furthermore, the article is contrary to the
European Convention of Human Rights
The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR; formally the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms) is an international convention to protect human rights and political freedoms in Europe. Drafted in 1950 by th ...
.
The appeal was not successful as the Constitutional Court ruled in December 2016 that the article shall remain in the Penal Code as the President represents not only a person but the whole Turkish nation.
It also deemed the law to be in accordance to the legal benefit and even though the law grants the right to criticize, it shall not tolerate insults.
Criticism
The
Venice Commission
The Venice Commission, officially European Commission for Democracy through Law, is an advisory body of the Council of Europe, composed of independent experts in the field of constitutional law. It was created in 1990 after the fall of the Berlin ...
of the
Council of Europe criticized the application of the article in 2016.
The
European Court of Human Rights
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR or ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court, is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights. The court hears applications alleging that ...
has frequently ruled that convictions violate
Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights
Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights provides the right to Freedom of Expression and Information. A fundamental aspect of this right is the freedom to hold opinions and receive and impart information and ideas, even if the receive ...
.
[
Cartoonist , prosecuted under the law for a caricature of Erdogan, stated "someone going to court due to a cartoon is a very sad thing" and that government officials "don't have a sense of humour" and "don't want - or like - freedom of speech or criticism". CHP chair ]Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu
Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu (born Kemal Karabulut, 17 December 1948) is a Turkish economist, retired civil servant and social democratic politician. He is leader of the Republican People's Party (CHP) and has been Leader of the Main Opposition in ...
retweeted a cartoon deemed offensive, stating "You cannot stop criticism and humour by putting them in prison."[
]
Prominent examples
Canan Kaftancioglu, a leader of the Republican People's Party (CHP), was charged and sentenced for insulting the president in September 2019. She vowed to appeal the verdict. Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the president of the CHP, was also sentenced for a tweet including a cartoon depicting several animals resembling Recep Tayyip Erdogan
Recep may refer to:
People Surname
* Aziz Recep (born 1992), German-Greek footballer
* Sibel Recep (born 1987), Swedish pop singer
Given name
* Recep Adanır (born 1929), Turkish footballer
* Recep Akdağ (born 1960), Turkish physician and polit ...
with the caption Land of Tayyip. Sebahat Tuncel
Sebahat Tuncel (born 5 July 1975) is a Turkish politician of Kurdish origin, women's rights advocate, former nurse and member of the Parliament in Turkey. She was elected a member of parliament while being in prison.
Early life and education ...
of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), while imprisoned for another case, was sentenced to almost one year imprisonment for saying the president is an enemy of Kurds and women which was deemed an insult of the president by the court. Merve Büyüksaraç, the Miss Turkey
Miss Turkey ( tr, Türkiye Güzellik Kraliçesi) is a national beauty pageant in Turkey. The pageant was founded in 1929, where the winners titled as Miss Turkey Universe, Miss Turkey World and Miss Turkey Supranational.
History
Miss Turk ...
of 2006 was delivered with a suspended fourteen months prison sentence for an instagram post with a satirical poem about Erdogan. An investigation was also initiated against a group of women who chanted the slogan "Jump, jump, you're Tayyip if you don't" during the International Women's Day on the 8 of March. Senol Buran, an employee at the Cumhuryet newspaper, was jailed and prosecuted for insulting the president for saying to the police he'd refuse to serve Erdoğan a cup of tea. In April 2021 a new law entered into force which deprived students of the right to sleep at University dorms if they were sentenced for insulting the Turkish president.
Statistics
{, class="wikitable"
!Year
!Sued
!Prison sentences
!Comments
, -
, 1982-2014 , , 1,816 , , n.a. , , [{{Cite web , title=Erdoğan sued 38.581 people for "insulting the president" in six years - english , url=https://bianet.org/5/94/249380-erdogan-sued-38-581-people-for-insulting-the-president-in-six-years , url-status=live , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210827080926/https://bianet.org/5/94/249380-erdogan-sued-38-581-people-for-insulting-the-president-in-six-years , archive-date=2021-08-27 , access-date=2022-01-09]
, -
, 2014 , , 132 , , 40 , ,
, -
, 2015 , , 1,953 , , 238 , ,
, -
, 2016 , , 4,187 , , 884 , ,
, -
, 2017 , , 6,033 , , 2099 , ,
, -
, 2018 , , 6,270 , , 2,775 , ,
, -
, 2019 , , 13,990 , , 4,291 , ,
, -
, 2020 , , 9,773 , , 3,665 , ,
, -
! Total , , 44,154 , , 13,992 , ,
References
Law enforcement in Turkey
Censorship in Turkey