News item | 7/14/2023 | 14:51
It is explicitly forbidden to publicly condone, deny or downplay the horrors of the Holocaust. This has been decided by the cabinet on the proposal of Minister of Justice and Security Yesilgöz-Zegerius. Discrimination and racism are already banned. With this ban, victims and surviving relatives of genocide and other war crimes will also be specifically protected against particularly hurtful statements that deny and trivialize these types of international crimes.
Minister Yeşilgöz-Zegerius: “Unfortunately, denial of this kind of heinous crimes against humanity is the order of the day. For example, we regularly see that the monster of anti-Semitism rears its head again. This worries me immensely and we should not leave it unanswered, because the lesson of the Holocaust is not a history lesson. This is also about the here and now. It is about discrimination, exclusion and ultimately: destruction. It’s about humanity and compassion. It’s about good and evil, and raising your voice when you see one turn into the other. Let us continue to tell these stories, now that the victims of these crimes are less and less able to do it themselves. Not timid and whispering, but confident and full of conviction.”
With this specific criminal law prohibition, the government is implementing the European obligations to explicitly criminalize certain forms of public condoning, denial or far-reaching downplaying of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. Abusive forms of condoning, denial or trivialization of these international crimes will carry a maximum prison sentence of 1 year. The ban is part of the European criminal law re-implementation bill.