Turkey minister vows EU-sought free speech reform

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - A Turkish minister pledged on Wednesday that Ankara would move to amend a widely attacked law on freedom of speech that makes it an offence to "insult Turkishness" following renewed EU criticism.

Economy Minister Mehmet Simsek said the European Commission's annual progress report on Turkey, which called on Tuesday for faster reforms of freedom of expression and religion, was "fair, constructive and balanced."

"We know what is missing and certainly we are committed to addressing those (shortcomings)," he told the European Policy Centre think-tank.

Simsek said the centre-right government wanted to change article 301 of the penal code, used to prosecute writers and thinkers notably for comments on the mass killings of Armenians in 1915, and improve the rights of non-Muslim minorities.

He was the second minister in 24 hours to suggest that Ankara will move ahead with amending the article used to try Nobel literature laureate Orhan Pamuk among others without waiting for a more far-reaching reform of the constitution.

"I know that article 301 seems like the most important issue. Our government wants to amend it and we will," he said.

DIGESTING CHANGE

But Simsek cautioned that it would take longer to change old mentalities to secure freedom of expression and religion in a more sustainable way.

"It's easy to change legislation but it takes a long time to digest the changes, to change the mentality," he said. "So you change article 301, but then some other article comes up and is used to restrict freedom."

President Abdullah Gul, speaking at a news conference during an official visit to Azerbaijan, said there was a determination to amend the article.

"This article damages Turkey's image. Everybody (in foreign countries) thinks there is a ban on freedom of expression and thought. This is a big injustice against Turkey," Gul was quoted by Turkish state-run news agency Anatolian as saying.

A former international investment banker who switched to politics only this year, Simsek, a fluent English-speaker said Turkey did not plan or intend to invade Iraq to wipe out Kurdish separatists who have carried out cross-border attacks.

"If there is a military incursion, it will be purely aimed at rooting out terrorism camps and therefore it will be limited in scope," he said.

"Quite clearly the preferred choice is to get our allies, the United States and also Iraqi authorities, to respond ... and to prevent terrorists using Iraqi soil as a safe haven or staging post."

Asked what the impact on Turkey's EU membership bid, economy and foreign investment of military action could be, Simsek said he could not speculate on a hypothetical question "because it all depends on the nature and duration of any incursion".

But he added: "I do believe the Turkish economy is strong enough to withstand such a shock. We have had numerous, at least a dozen such operations in the past and I don't believe it will have a lasting, significant impact on the Turkish economy."

(Additional reporting by Paul de Bendern in Ankara, editing by Mark John)