The new Turkish Penal Code

One can find a great many deficiencies in the new Turkish Penal Code (TCK), and also we can talk about other complementary legal arrangements. However, nobody can deny its essence, which actually turns upside down the intellectual map in which Turks define themselves as citizens and directs their entire lives as humans. What does the current map look like? A single-minded ideology is inscribed upon Turks’ minds every moment of their lives. This ideology centers on the notion that citizens might wrong the state and ways to shape them so that they don’t do so. So what’s the essence of the new TCK? The state is an extremely powerful tool. If it isn’t reined in, it will restrict citizens’ exercise of freedom. Even if the TCK, just like any other penal code, promotes certain values to the citizens in order to promote peaceful co-existence, the real task is to prevent freedom from being violated by the state. Up to now the dominant ideology has aimed at restricting the citizens, but now the target is to limit the state.

This initiative is truly a very radical one. Those who contributed to it have served their country well. However, laws have their essence, just as people and analysts and lawmakers create and change this essence. However, people will implement these laws as well! They have their intellectual map, and they implement laws through the ideologies shaping this intellectual map. If the laws’ essence and the ideology shaping the intellectual map aren’t in sync, the intellectual map will dominate its practice. At this point, I think there’s nothing we can do about it. We can adjust our laws to EU norms and become an EU member this way. However, if we don’t modernize our intellectual map, we’ll only be a headache for the EU. I thank all the people who prepared the TCK. However, a revolution of the intellectual map will require further efforts.”