Over the past few years, Turkey has seen a number of prosecutions of publishers, novelists, and even a MEP for "crimes" such as publishing a map showing "the traditional Kurdish region", mentioning the Armenian genocide, and pointing out the dirty history of the Turkish military of provoking clashes with Kurdish separatists in order to justify its own existence. All of these charges have been brought under Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code, which bans "insulting Turkishness". That clause has now been amended.
But while this is a battle, it's not the war. While it will no longer be a crime to "insult Turkishness" (whatever the hell that is), it will still be illegal to "insult the Turkish nation" - a clause which could still be interpreted to cover much of the above. And while prosecutions will now recover the consent of the Minister of Justice, given the authoritarian bent of Turkish politics, I'm not sure how much protection this really is. OTOH, it will at least prevent outraged groups of ultranationalists using the law to persecute anyone who doesn't share their peculiar view of Turkish history.
The EU has welcomed the change, but is pushing for further reform. And so they should. "Insulting the state" is not the sort of thing that should be a crime in a democracy which has pledged to respect freedom of speech. If Turkey wants to be thought of as a modern democracy and a serious candidate for EU membership, it needs to keep its promises and expunge this law utterly from its books.
