BY OKTAY EKSI
HURRIYET- Europe, European countries and Europeans always think that they are right. You could see a typical example in yesterday's newspapers. Ahead of general elections to be held in the Netherlands on Nov. 22, two separate Dutch parties removed three Turkish-origin politicians from their lists of candidates to run for a seat in Parliament. Christian Democrat Appeal (CDA) officials decided to expel Ayhan Tonca and Osman Elmaci from the party because they denied the existence of the so-called Armenian genocide. The Labor Party of the Netherlands also expelled Erdinc Sacan for the same reason. Elmaci and Tonca were first flexible in the face of this pressure. But as they were expected to state it in written form, they resisted. And they were expelled after this resistance.
If such a thing happened in Turkey, then we would be labeled fascists. EU inspectors (!) would come and go, and members of the European Parliament would come and its most elegant members would publicly make the following threat: `Turkey has to make up its mind if it wants to become an EU member and stop excluding people for their views. Otherwise you can't be a member.' Now what about the Netherlands, which touts its democracy and thinks itself a country of tolerance? Are we going to congratulate them and say: `Well done. It's good when you do it. You've done an appropriate job for democracy, freedom of speech and a model society of tolerance.' Don't they insist on the Copenhagen criteria? Is there a statement in the Copenhagen criteria that makes it legal to put pressure on the thoughts of others?
Article 301 is cited in discussions of freedom of expression in Turkey, but nothing is said about the law on denying the so-called Armenian genocide. What we have done will be labeled assimilation and a crime, but what they do is called integration and is applauded. People are free to condemn Turkey.