Anti-extremist warning for mentioning Turkish religious figure

On December 14, 2009, the Moscow prosecutor's office announced the issuance of warnings about the inadmissibility of extremist activities to the editor-in-chief of the Izvestia newspaper and the general director of DA LLC for the publication in February 2009 of an article by State Duma deputy Sergei Markov "New Russia and New Turkey in the New World."

As the prosecutor's office said in a statement, the article "endorses the activities of the leader of the banned religious association Nurcular." The organization was banned in April 2008. Let us remind you that we do not consider this ban to be legal.

The article was prepared by Izvestia and then reprinted by the Turkish magazine DA (Dialogue Eurasia) specifically for the visit of Turkish President Abdullah Gul to Moscow. It is noteworthy that the name of the banned organization is not mentioned even once, but it, among other things, talks about Fethullah Gülen, the informal leader of the international Muslim movement. Obviously, according to the prosecutor’s office, this movement is “Nurcular”. According to representatives of the magazine, Gülen is not only a leader, but also a member of Nurcular.

According to the law, only public justification of terrorism is considered extremism; therefore, public approval of certain activities of the leader of a certain (even unnamed) organization should not be considered extremism (especially since there is no evidence that this activity is associated with violence or calls for it).

Let us emphasize that we are talking specifically about warnings (and not warnings, as reported in some media) - documents that do not have legal consequences for the publications themselves, therefore, fortunately, in this case they managed to avoid unlawful punishment.

However, in our opinion, the prosecutor's office did not use the warning tool for its intended purpose: it is intended to prevent a violation of the law if there is reason to expect this, and not to react to an already accomplished fact.

Statement by the General Director of DA LLC and Chairman of the Eurasia Dialogue Platform in the Russian Federation

Sources

• The prosecutor's office identified violations of the legislation on countering extremist activities // Website of the Moscow City Prosecutor's Office. 2009. December 14.
• Izvestia received a warning for publishing an article about extremists // Lenta.ru. 2009. December 14.
• New Russia and new Turkey in the new world // Dialogue Eurasia. 2009. December 14.