Maybe it´s more your ability to think critically I´m sure you recall how people here were brain-washed by the government and media to believe that if you criticize the war in Iraq and the president then you´re un-patriotic and anti-American and many people actually BELIEVED it. Being American doesn´t protect anybody from being simple minded and lack critical thinking skills, but at least nobody gets thrown to jail if the do happen to question everything 

I hope I´ll get a list of "10 things you can´t say here" when I visit Turkey. Otherwise I´ll probably rot in prison there.

I´m sorry, I have difficulty understanding the point you´re making and how it relates to my question. If you´re saying that freedom of expression means you can say whatever you want, then no, I don´t think that´s what it means - definitely there are social rules that apply and consequences of making statements against those rules. Just like there are rules on this forum about what one can say and consequences of it as well. But what freedom of speech guarantees is that you won´t get jailed for having an opinion and expressing it.

What my question inquired about is, for the Turkish people, do they even question the legality or validity of the law that makes it a crime to insult turkishness? Does anybody consider if to be contrary to the guarantees of the constitution? Or do people think it´s ok? And what exactly is "turkishness"? Are there specifications which say what you can or cannot say? Obviously Ataturk is one, any others?

+1000 

"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."      Voltaire

How does Turkey reconcile the guarantee of freedom of expression and dissemination of thought in its constitution with laws in the penal code that make insulting Turkishness a crime? Wouldn´t the law be unconstitutional?

I agree with you on that one, I think it´s one of the most shameful events in American history. I was referring to the war in Afghanistan when I said it was in response to the 9/11.

You´re assuming that you know what my feelings and opinions are about the war in Iraq, probably because I´m in the USA, and of course, you all know what Americans are like and what they think. I´m no more responsible for actions of my government than you are for the actions of yours. My power ends with my vote in the elections, which does not always result in the win of my candidate. I do not think the war in Iraq is justified, I hope Bush gets tried as a  war criminal, and I´m probably as outraged at what´s happening as you are. But I do think that war differs from terrorism in that you know who your enemy is, your intended target are not civilians (although they are mostly affected and all too many die), and you identify yourself as being at war. Targeting innocent civilians, who are not involved in any way in military actions, who do not have the opportunity to fight back and who don´t even know you´re coming, is an act of terrorism and incredible cowardice, no matter how justified you feel in it.

I hope you don´t mean that acts of terrorism are ok, because the Americans, Jews, (and you forgot to throw the Christians in the mix) brought it on themselves? In my book there´s a difference between an act of war and an act of terrorism. Whereas I agree with you on the main points (about USA supporting Israel - you need to consider the huge Jewish lobby in the USA as well to understand why, and about the huge mess created by Bush), I don´t think that´s justification for terrorism. And let me remind you, the wars were a response to acts of terrorism (9/11/01) and not vice versa. When it comes to India and Pakistan, I´m not sure if it is about Kashmir ... the terrorists did target mainly Americans, Brits, and Jews (based on the reports I´ve seen). It seems to me to be another act against the "evil West".

I was sort of tongue in cheek with the religion as a cause (I don´t think it´s a direct cause, but definitely a contributing factor), but the topic intrigued me enough to do some research. I found this article http://www.meteck.org/causesTerrorism.html, which I found to be very interesting. Definitely it points out that there´s no single cause of terrorism. So how can we get rid of the cause if we can´t even isolate it?

 Religion?

http://users.telenet.be/orientaal/classroom.html

http://www.dilmer.com/practice/

http://cali.arizona.edu/maxnet/tur/

Here´re some websites that have a lot of audio materials for the study of Turkish:

http://langmedia.fivecolleges.edu/turkish/index.html

http://www.international.ucla.edu/turkishtutor/

You could also buy a book that has some CDs - I´m using "Teach Yourself Beginners Turkish" and "Teach Yourself Turkish" - both of which come with CDs.

I hope that helps.