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Former Turkish DMOZ Editor Draws 10 Months In Jail
makne writes "H. Ertas, a Turkish editor of the Open Directory Project (www.dmoz.org) has been sentenced to 10 months in prison after being found guilty of editing a category about the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK). Ertas's lawyer, Suna Coskun, explained that his client had worked as a voluntary editor at the Open Directory Project during his studies at the Euphrat-University and had been responsible for the Kurdish category. At the same time he became interested in Kurds and undertook his own research into the subject. As a voluntary editor, he had sorted the directory submissions but could not be responsible for their content. Therefore there could be no penalty under international law, according to Coskun. His activities could in no way be understood as 'support for a terrorist organisation' and thus Ertas' release was appropriate. The court sentenced Ertas to 10 months in prison and a fine of 416 million Turkish lire ($293). The sentence is not eligible for probation." (Read on for more.)
By email, makne writes "I don't know the editor personally, but the editor was first arrested two years ago, then released on parole until now. Members of the editor community
have tried to help him in any way they can, with no apparent success. The editor resigned from the ODP in 2002."
Makne also provided this link to a summary (from the Kurdish point of view) of earlier attempts to stifle Kurdish sites, including a campaign to have DMOZ's then-parent company Netscape remove the Kurdish category from DMOZ.
Also note that USA acknowledged recently PKK/Kadek being a terrorist organization.
No comment on whether they are or not (I haven't a clue), but that means jack. They said that the African National Congress was a terrorist organization.
I'm glad I live in an open and free country like the USA where chilling tactics like this aren't used! Imagine if people were punished for merely providing a forum for other people to post information!
Oh wait
- JoeShmoe
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-- I wonder which will go down in history as the bigger failure: the War on Drugs or the War on Filesharing
My grandfather was an I.R.A. terrorist who fought in the Irish War of Independence (1919-21). The Catholic Church excommunicated him for his allegianaces too. Oh and he certainly killed plenty of Black and Tans.
Oh, but then the I.R.A. won the war, and he got a medal and a soldier's war pension, and the Catholic Church reinstated him. He never bothered with the Church again or with collecting his pension.
Today's terrorist could be tommorow's war hero. The British government even today would have you think that my grandfather was a terrorist, but the Irish nation is living proof that it isn't always so clear cut. It's terribly important that people decide for themselves who are the terrorists and who are not. Governments that think that they can decide for their citizens are merely tyrants, and tyrants often fall when they become intolerable.
Si tacuisses philosophus mansisses. If you had kept quiet, you would have remained a philosopher.
I spent some time in Turkey not too long ago. I heard nothing from the people I met there about Turks' issues with Kurds. Rather they were all convinced the reason Turkey wasn't a shoe-in to the EU its its economic status. Just a bit of info.
:-))
Where in Turkey did you go? (I'm only curious!
Living in a country in the EU, I can tell that both the economical AND the humanitarian issues are high on the list of issues taken in consideration. Another issue is border control.
About a year and a bit ago, Sherman Austin was arrested and ended up doing about a year for providing a link on a website to another website with info on making molotov cocktails.
,years ago, a guy did a long sentence for providing information on how to legally avoid voting (compulsary voting in australia).
When Ashcrofts boys leant on him and threatened him with charges of terrorism, he made a plea bargain that would get him a coupla months jail. The judge ignored the bargain and gave him a year.
Groups like the EFF have basically said if he didnt do the plea bargain , he probably would of been released on grounds of first amendment, but he plead thinking he'd only be in a short stay. Effectively the judge denied him the chance for a real defence against a long sentence.
In australia
And in britain, the servers of journalist group indymedia where siezed without explaination or warning , and now it seems without legal grounds.
Journalists are arrested *daily* around the world for writing articles that offend governments.
Turkey aint the only ones up to this sort of crap.
Excuse the Unicode crap in my posts. That's an apostrophe, and slashdot is busted.
Unfortunately as a US taxpayer, I have to finance US military aid to Turkey to the tune of billions of dollars. Locking up people who write about the Kurds in Turkey is small potatos, the Turks have been massacring Kurds for years. If anyone remembers, they even invaded Iraq (which the US administration didn't want) just to kill Kurds that were in Iraq. This is the thing that Saddam Hussein was lambasted for - gassing Kurds (although the US sent him helicopters after he did that of course too). Yet the Turks have been doing it, are doing it, and will be doing it. This never appears on the US corporate media of course, just the tragedy that a candidate not on the privatization fast track might win the Ukranian election.
An amazing thing about Turkey is its attitude to foreigners: it's warm, caring and hospitable. No where else in the world in my rather extensive travels have I met this level of friendliness and courtesy -- especially not in Europe. Foreigners are treated here with respect and with great interest.
Turkey is also a country bordered by aggressor nations: Iran, Iraq, Syria. In addition, it has an internal population that is not just separatist, it's terrorist. Israel is in the same boat and is much harsher on its opposing poplulation -- and yet Israel has international support.
I have watched the changes the Turkish government is making to enter the EU. You can't imagine how much pride they're swallowing to have their history and honor stepped on by Belgian chocolatiers, French pastry-chefs, German schnitzel-makers, English fish-and-chips vendors... There is NO WAY that any of you would tolerate such treatment in your own countries. Further -- the rank-and-file Turk doesn't want EU membership.
Nobody seems to complain about the Turks when they're assisting US/NATO military operations, disallowing the transit through their waters of former Soviet aircraft carriers on their way to the Red Chinese military, managing the flow of Iraqi oil to the West...
I am saddened by all your ignorance. Your education on Turkey has come from watching "Baron Munchausen" and "Midnight Express" too many times ("Midnight Express" is a hugely FALLACIOUS piece of shit, btw).
France is the worst, but you would be surprised how few limitations there are on what intelligence services in Europe can do when "national security" is involved.
It simplifies the laws by clarifying them.
Why are clear laws good? Well, they make it easier to determine when you've crossed them. If some deluded people choose to interpret a very general law in a way that justifies their actions, that could land them in jail. Having clear, specific laws makes it a lot easier to be a law abiding ciztizen. That is a good thing.
Also, it is the job of the legislative branch to legislate and determine what should be punished and what should not. If you cut all clarifications in the law away, you end up with little less than "you must not be evil". While that contains the essence of all laws, you leave it to the judges to determine what is good and what is evil, and that is NOT their job. Their job is to uphold the law.
Hate to burst your bubble, but you can. It is in fact ALL law is; a clear specification of what is good and bad behaviour, ie. morality/ethics.
"I don't know that Atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered patriots." -George H.W. Bush
When I was programming at USC we had some Chinese grad students come to the U.S. right after Tianenmen square. After some months I asked them what they thought of the U.S. supporting the government of China with things like most favored nation trading status.
They replied that it is absolutely a good thing. The corrupt leaders would otherwise continue to get whatever Western products they want while the average citizen would get no goods, no exposure to the West, and the Chinese economy would not do as well which would be a hardship on the working man.
In the view of these students, the U.S. has to "hold its nose while dealing with these stinky situations" because that's the only way things will improve in the world.
Hate to burst your bubble, but you can. It is in fact ALL law is; a clear specification of what is good and bad behaviour, ie. morality/ethics.
To quote a friend, 'morality is between you and God, ethics are between you and your fellow man'. Trespassing is not immoral, but it can be argued that it is unethical. Speeding, however is neither - it's just a regulation. Take another example: tax law - it isn't really a moral obligation or an ethical duty to pay uncle sam, especially if you believe you're being taken advantage of, but it is law.
"We returned the General to El Salvador, or maybe Guatemala, it's difficult to tell from 10,000 feet"
Unfortunately, Turkey is not the only one with such issues. Check this article from the Seattle Times about Sami, a Saudi Ph.D. student from Idaho that was stupid enough to help out with maintaining a web site. In post 911 America this can mean that you get locked up for two years and finally get kicked out of the country for minor visa application errors.
And even learned the language and can still speak it a bit now, ten years later. You obviously know very little about Turkey if you claim that Turkish prisons weren't that bad. I knew from quite a few turks who had landed up in them (and it isn't that hard to land up in a Turkish prison, just piss someone with money or influence off and bob's your uncle) that they were and are very harsh places.
I also had some Kurdish friends who ran a restaurant, and they were regularly rounded up and stuffed into prison whenever the PKK had done something again. In fact the only local Kurd who wasn't regularly rounded up was the local mafia boss who had, wait for it, money and influence.
There are very nice and friendly Turks, but there's one hell of a lot of fascist bigotted corrupt arseholes as well.
Actually that's not quite right. Nihilism is frankly a negative and annihilating attitude towards existence.
Now, personally I consider it very unspiritual and damaging to sully one's mind with fanciful ideas about the personality and nature of a personified God. I just think it's an intellectually dishonest foundation on which to base your relationship with the world and other people. (And I'm sure you'll agree that the personified God idea is too nebulous to be the "rock" of which Jesus spoke to Simon Peter.)
However this doesn't mean that I don't see an intrinsic goodness to the universe and to human nature, and it doesn't mean that I'm not trying to improve myself and become a more empathetic person and to transcend the veils of narrow self-identification.
See what I'm saying? Nihilism is not the only alternative to personified God worship.
-- thinkyhead software and media