MHP Deputy Chairman Tunca Toskay has said his party is considering petitioning the Constitutional Court to nullify the recently passed amendment to a controversial law.

- 12 / 05 / 2008 10:38

Opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Deputy Chairman Tunca Toskay has said his party is considering petitioning the Constitutional Court to nullify the recently passed amendment to a controversial law used to prosecute writers for insulting Turkishness.

Toskay, who paid a visit to his party's provincial chairman in western Muğla province on Saturday, noted that the reform to Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK) did not arise from the needs of Turkey and the Turkish nation.

"We wish to take the amendment to this article to the top court," he said.

The reform to the controversial article of the TCK, which has been used to prosecute intellectuals, journalists and activists for "insulting Turkishness," was published in the Official Gazette and took effect last Thursday.

The reform makes it a crime to insult the Turkish nation, rather than "Turkishness," and the justice minister's permission is required to open a case under 301.

The maximum sentence will be two years instead of the previous three.

"The amendment to Article 301 allows people to insult the Turkish nation. We resisted its approval in Parliament. Now, we wish to petition the Constitutional Court to nullify it. We don't have the ability to do so on our own [as the MHP doesn't have the required number of deputies in Parliament to take a law to the top court to annul it]," said Toskay.

He called on the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) to support his party in taking the amendment to the top court.

"Either the CHP should take the 301 reform to the Constitutional Court itself or support us with their signatures so that we can have the top court revise the amendment," he added.

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