“The government, particularly the police and judiciary, limited freedom of expression through the use of constitutional restrictions and numerous laws, including articles of the penal code prohibiting insults to the government, the state, “Turkish identity,” or the institutions and symbols of the republic. Other laws, such as the Anti-Terror Law and laws governing the press and elections, also restrict speech. Individuals could not criticize the state or government publicly without fear of reprisal, and the government continued to restrict expression by individuals sympathetic to some religious, political, and Kurdish nationalist or cultural viewpoints. Active debates on human rights and government policies continued, particularly on issues relating to the country’s European Union (EU) membership process, the role of the military, Islam, political Islam, and the question of Turks of Kurdish origin as “minorities”; however, persons who wrote or spoke out on such topics risked prosecution,” says State Department’s 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices. To remind, in September an Istanbul prosecutor charged novelist Orhan Pamuk with “insulting Turkish identity” in statements he made during a 2004 interview with a foreign publication. Pamuk was quoted as saying that 1 million Armenians and 30 thousand Kurds had been killed in the country. Prosecutors opened an investigation of Pamuk after a domestic periodical published a translation of the interview.
“Conditions in many prisons remained poor. Underfunding, overcrowding, and insufficient staff training were problems. Some inmates convicted for nonviolent, speech-related offenses were held in high-security prisons. Observers reported that the government made significant improvements in the food provided in the prisons, although there was a lack of potable water in some facilities. According to the medical association, there were insufficient doctors, and psychologists were available only at some of the largest prisons. Some inmates claimed they were denied appropriate medical treatment for serious illness,” the report says.
