The Law on Crimes Committed Against Atatürk, or the Law No. 5816, also colloquially known as the law on the protection of Atatürk, is a ''

lèse-majesté ''Lèse-majesté'' or ''lese-majesty'' ( , ) is an offence or defamation against the dignity of a ruling head of state (traditionally a monarch but now more often a president) or of the state itself. The English name for this crime is a mod ...

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the ar ...

of the

Republic of Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

adopted on July 25, 1951. Its subject is the crimes to be committed, or have been committed, against the founder and first

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

of the country,

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk Mustafa Kemal Atatürk ( 1881 – 10 November 1938) was a Turkish field marshal and revolutionary statesman who was the founding father of the Republic of Turkey, serving as its first President of Turkey, president from 1923 until Death an ...

. It was proposed (and passed) by the ruling Democrat Party due to the increase in attacks on Atatürk's statues and busts. Within the framework of this law, access to

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

Geocities GeoCities, later Yahoo! GeoCities, was a web hosting service that allowed users to create and publish websites for free and to browse user-created websites by their theme or interest, active from 1994 to 2009. GeoCities was started in November 1 ...

, and many blog sites from

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

was blocked in 2007. In November 2010,

Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...

removed videos from

after a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

company claimed that some of its

copyrights A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive legal right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, ...

were violated in the videos in question on

(which also contained insults against Atatürk). Thereupon, the relevant Turkish court lifted the access barrier that was imposed on

. However, after a short time, the company's claims were unfounded, and the videos in question were republished on the site; however, Turkish courts did not take a decision to block access again. In 2010,

Reporters Without Borders Reporters Without Borders (RWB; ; RSF) is an international non-profit and non-governmental organisation, non-governmental organization headquartered in Paris, which focuses on safeguarding the right to freedom of information. It describes its a ...

argued that Law No. 5816 violated freedom of expression, one of the basic tenets of the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

, and that it contravened international laws on human rights.Time to break out of legislative straitjacket that is stifling media freedom
'' Reporters Sans Frontières'', 1 Aralık 2010

Sections

# Anyone who publicly insults or swears at the memory of Atatürk is punished with imprisonment from one year to three years.
Anyone who destroys, breaks, spoils or pollutes statues, busts and monuments representing Atatürk or Atatürk's tomb is sentenced to a heavy prison sentence from one year to five years.
Anyone who encourages others to commit the crimes written in the paragraphs above is to be punished as the main perpetrator. # If the crimes listed in the first article are committed by two or more persons collectively in public or public places or by means of the press, the penalty to be imposed is increased by half. If the crimes listed in the second paragraph of the first article are committed by force or an attempt is made to be committed in this way, the penalty to be imposed is doubled. # Prosecution is made ex officio by the Public Prosecutor's Office for the crimes written in this Law. # This Law enters into force on the date of its publication. # The Minister of Justice enforces this Law.

References

{{Reflist 1951 in Turkey Mustafa Kemal Atatürk Turkish criminal law 1951 in law

Sections

See also

References