Compensation for Candidate Oran

Oran's lawyer Oya Aydin evaluated the decision, saying: "applying legal sanctions to these kinds of publications which offer other-minded people as targets to racists will have a deterrent effect."

Compensation

The court responded to Oran's complaint that he was being offered as a target for racist attacks and awarded him 3,000 of the 5,000 YTL general damages demanded.

Lawyer Aydin saw the court decision as positive, saying that one reason for the frequency of attacks up to now has been the fact that the judiciary has protected those producing such aggressive publications.

Targets: Oran, Pamuk, Calislar

The Türksolu magazine had targeted Baskin Oran, writer Orhan Pamuk, journalist Oral Calislar and many other people on its website in July last year, publishing a "survey".

Oran's lawyers had reacted by applying to court; a precautionary decision was taken against the publication on 3 August 2006.

The publication coincided with a time in which Prof. Dr. Baskin Oran and Prof. Dr. Ibrahim Kaboglu, former member and former president of the Prime Ministerial Human Rights Advisory Board (BIHDK) respectively, were being tried after the publication of the "Minority Rights and Cultural Rights Working Group Report". They had suggested the term "citizen of Turkey" ("Türkiyeli") as an alternative to the ethnically biased "Turk".

Not the first complaint

The Diyarbakir Bar Association twice filed a suit against the magazine on 12 and 26 September 2005. The titles of the articles concerned were "Turkish Son, Turkish Daughter, Protect Your Turkishness", "Where there is a Kurd, There is a Problem", and "Close Ranks Children, What You Hear from Afar is the Howling of Jackals". (EÖ/AG)