American Teacher Expelled from Turkey Wins Lawsuit in European Court

BY HARUT SASSOUNIAN

I recently became aware of the Turkish government’s expulsion of an American teacher, violating her freedom of expression.

In an article published by the Gatestone Institute on April 8, 2018, Turkish journalist Uzay Bulut mentioned that Norma Jeanne Cox, a lecturer at Istanbul University, and subsequently at the Middle East Technical University in Gaziantep, Turkey, had spoken to “her students and colleagues about the 1915 Armenian genocide, the forced assimilation of Kurds, and protested against the film The Last Temptation of Christ. For these ”˜crimes,’ she was arrested, fired from her job and ultimately deported. The [Turkish] Ministry of the Interior claimed that Cox had been expelled and banned from re-entering Turkey due to ”˜her separatist activities, which were incompatible with national security.’ In a suit she filed with the European Court of Human Rights — which in 2010 convicted Turkey of violating her freedom of expression — Cox argued that her rights had been violated by Turkey because of her Christian faith and dissenting opinions.”