Turkish foreign minister repeats call for penal code amendment News
Turkish foreign minister repeats call for penal code amendment

[JURIST] Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul [official profile, English version] said Monday that he favors amending the controversial Article 301 [Amnesty backgrounder; JURIST news archive] of Turkey's penal code [text, in Turkish] without eliminating the provision altogether. The article makes "insulting the Turkish identity" a crime. Gul expanded on his previous call to change [JURIST report] the Article, offering his support to a proposal by a group of trade unions and non-governmental organizations [JURIST report]. Gul also reiterated Monday that Article 301 can be changed if necessary [JURIST report] to protect the reputation of Turkey [JURIST news archive] in the international community. AP has more.Turkish Daily News has local coverage.

Turkey, which hopes to join the European Union (EU), faces pressure from the EU to abolish Article 301 [JURIST report] because it is frequently used to silence government critics.

THIS DAY @ LAW

UN General Assembly approves Palestine partition plan

The UN General Assembly approved UN Resolution Resolution 181 (II) on November 29, 1947, recommending that the British Mandate for Palestine be split into a Jewish state, an Arab state, and an international zone for Jerusalem. The vote in the assembly was 33 for to 13 against, with 10 abstentions. The resolution sparked a war between Palestinian Arabs and Jews in 1947 and a wider war after Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, and Lebanon invaded the new State of Israel in 1948. Read Resolution 181 (II).

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