A columnist of a daily newspaper supporting the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) had called for caliphate last December out of a municipal vehicle in İstanbul. The non-prosecution decision has been taken by the public prosecutor's office.
Hasan Köse, a columnist of the pro-AKP daily Milat had made an announcement out of a vehicle belonging to Üsküdar Municipality, a conservative municipality controlled by the AKP, in İstanbul, in December 2016. He had said, “We should establish the unity of Islam as soon as possible and we should choose our caliphate.” A video footage had been recorded.
İstanbul Anadolu Chief Public Prosecutor's Office has taken non-prosecution decision for the announcement of the Islamist columnist since he reflected ‘his personal opinion’.
The decision stated that there was no crime element since ‘personal political opinions and solutions of problems within the frame of his conception were expressed’.
DEFENDING SECULARITY IS A CRIME
While making anti-republican Islamist propaganda is not considered as a crime by the contemporary Turkish judiciary system, members the leftist organisation Halkevleri, which had called for the defence of secularity just after the massacre in the nightclub in the new eve in İstanbul, were arrested in last January 5 in İstanbul.
The next day, seven university students from the same organisation distributing a secularism declaration in a university were battered and taken into custody in İzmir.
