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Turkish punk band faces jail time for criticizing exams

Contributed by an Anonymous Source. Posted by aubin on Monday, July 16, 2007 at 11:00 AM (EDT)

Think those Not My President shirts caused a stir? In Turkey, you can be arrested for criticizing standardized tests. In an unusual report, a Turkish punk rock band called Deli has been charged for a old song bemoaning the test all Turkish high-schoolers must pass to have a shot at getting into college. According to prosecutors, the song is an insult to the state and thus a crime.

If convicted, the band and its manager face up to 18 months in jail, but could get just a fine or a warning. Turkey, which seeks European Union membership, retains strict limits on expression. The punk song is called "OSYM," the Turkish acronym for the state's student selection and placement centre that decides which students go to university, based on a yearly three-hour multiple-choice exam. A sample of the lyrics:

I have gotten lost, You have ruined my future,
I am going to tell you one thing: Shove that exam

Ironically, due to the age of the song, the band members themselves have already passed the exam itself.

Interviews (46 comments)

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Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way. Seriously.

BluthCo (July 16, 2007)

First.

2+ Replies

Someone (July 16, 2007)

so they all passed the exam?? what a bunch of posers.. "you ruined my life" way to speak too soon. you aced it asshole! turks are all thieving bastards

Someone (July 17, 2007)

fucking turks

Young hearts be jailed tonight duh.

Someone (July 16, 2007)

That's real talk.

Someone (July 16, 2007)

And yet we complain about censorship in America.

4+ Replies

T-Rock (July 16, 2007)

I hate this response. Should we wait to see censorship climb to Turkish levels before we start complaining? Brilliant idea.

Oh, and I'm from the Middle East (not born there, though), so I think this is pretty lame. I have a lot of love for all the people there, but they need to calm the hell down. Actually, it's not the people. Most are pretty relaxed when they don't have rockets falling on them. It's the government.

Someone (July 16, 2007)

so you're NOT from the middle east.

SalsaShark (July 16, 2007)

Yeah, I am trying to figure this out, too.

Did you live there for any significant period of time?

T-Rock (July 16, 2007)

Yeah, sorry for that. It was shitty wording. I'm Middle-Eastern by blood, but I'm born here. My mom was born in America, too. However, I do go back there from time to time (Syria, Jordan, Palestine). Good people. That's what I was trying to get across.

Banal242 (July 16, 2007)

Well, I'm from the Middle West.

Take that.

Someone (July 16, 2007)

ghandi

Someone (July 17, 2007)

Deli

Someone (July 16, 2007)

Of coarse we do, because we don't want our country to end up like this.

Someone (July 16, 2007)

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/07/15/bungee.death.ap/index.html

i think there is a messege here...

2+ Replies

Someone (July 16, 2007)

Carny rides really are held together by rubber bands and band-aids?

Someone (July 16, 2007)

One of us!
one of us!

TommyTumult (July 16, 2007)

I'm glad someone got that reference.

xmonachettix (July 16, 2007)

lol.

Bakla (July 16, 2007)

fucking bullshit, I'm glad to hear a punk band is pissing off the man, now how do we get this bands records so we can support them?

2+ Replies

Someone (July 17, 2007)

first you cut off your fucking hands then you fucking die then nobody fucking cares what you fucking think. Not every country is intimidated by a boycott or a reverse boycott. America is wet fucking ground and that's something that not a lot of anarchists will say here but despite our history a lot of areas of the globe are worse and.... shit.... is there a reason the "holy land" is a god-forsaken shit-hell?

Yeah! Too many cooks in the muhfucking kitchen. Quite honestly I think when "god" told "Adam and Eve" to get out of the "garden" of "Eden" I think he meant to stay the fuck out. I mean what good has come out of that region ever? Oil? Shit might cause the extinction of mankind but shit? Fuck y'all! I'm gonna fuck y'all slut girls when yer all dead cuz you got a little flustered. AND I'm gonna shit on yer couch.

Fuck Y'all. You wanna stop me? Pu

show rest of comment

Someone (July 17, 2007)

awwww kisses

Someone (July 16, 2007)

nerds

Someone (July 16, 2007)

eat your heart out, rise against

1+ Reply

SalsaShark (July 16, 2007)

That list was so incredibly juvenile and half-assed it hurt to read.

lostcausegiveup (July 16, 2007)

wow, kinda puts things in perspective,. doesn't it?

capitalist_pig (July 16, 2007)

Turkey's a messed up country. They want all the trappings of Europe and the West with none of the freedoms. The problem is a large percentage of people living in Turkey are Muslims who want a Muslim government, but in order to be "Western" the state has to remain secular. However, they cannot allow too much freedom of religion (a hallmark of Western Society) or the state could become Muslim and not be Western. I guess my point is, the Turkish government is fucked up for a vairety of reasons including arresting some singers in a punk band for a song that "insults the state."

7+ Replies

T-Rock (July 16, 2007)

The state has nothing to do with religion in this case, but I know what you're saying. In alot of cases (like this one), it's just the government being authoritarian. There's nothing Muslim about standardized tests, as far as I know. People want to put the blame solely on religion, but it's really not the case. It's an issue, but not the only one. Lest we forget that Saddam Hussein was pretty irreligious in every way.

However, in many cases things have worked out fairly well between religion and state (in Arab countries, I mean. Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, etc. Authoritarian, but really not too bad.) I'm just going by what personal experience I have.

FuckYouOiOiOi (July 16, 2007)

yeah, and saddaam hussein kept those religious nutballs in line. you ever hear of the sunnis and shitheads when he was in power? now their in a civil war.

Someone (July 16, 2007)

You're basically right, but you forgot to factor in the Turkish military which is basically the strongest guarantor of the secularization of the Turkish government. And they accomplish this mostly by threatening a coup from time to time to scare the Islamic political parties into shutting the fuck up about sharia and so on. Add to that the racial/territorial clusterfuck that is the Turkish response to the Kurds and to the lesser extent the native Armenians and you have a pretty patchy democracy.

jacknife737 (July 16, 2007)

Yeah its almost like a catch-22 situation with regards to the military/secularization issue going on.

Someone (July 16, 2007)

How do you know about Turkey? Its an interesting topic but not too many Americans are clued in if you know what I'm saying.

Someone (July 16, 2007)

Did you miss the millions marching a month ago to protest the increasing Islamic influence in government? Turkey's still the most secular Middle Eastern country. In fact, this story has nothing to do with Religioin, but more with Nationalism. It's illegal to criticize turkey in Turkey. They charged Orhan Pamuk (won nobel prize last eyar for literature) for what they deemed anti-Turkish writing.

jacknife737 (July 16, 2007)

" this story has nothing to do with Religioin, but more with Nationalism"

Quoted for truth.

DiscoFucker (July 16, 2007)

.Org team, make sure to have a follow up once a decision is passed. I want to know how this turns out.

Someone (July 16, 2007)

Turks suck.

1+ Reply

T-Rock (July 16, 2007)

New Bomb Turks?

danperrone (July 16, 2007)

those lyrics are deep as hell

2+ Replies

Banal242 (July 16, 2007)

Say hello to the new Hellcat band.

FuckYouOiOiOi (July 16, 2007)

its not just about lyrics dumbass its about vocal delivery you stupid fucker.

jacknife737 (July 16, 2007)

i really hope everything works out for the band.

Someone (July 16, 2007)

Anyone wonder if thi is just a publicity stunt? I mean, they new what would happen if they released that song. They did it anyway. Yeah, they could get 18 months in jail, but that probably wont happen. Six months from now, when they get a fine, and a slap on the wrist, how many records will they have sold? Enough to ay the fines? More? Who the FUCK owned this record before this post?

2+ Replies

Scruffy (July 16, 2007)

Work on your reading comprehension. This song is years old. It is not a recent publicity stunt. And since when is there anything wrong with a punk band speaking out against a truly tyrranical government, when its policies directly limit their freedoms?

I have had a bad day dealing with selfish, arrogant, dickheaded people. So try not to get too offended when I tell you to get your head out of your hind end and grow up a little.

Someone (July 16, 2007)

dude, chill.

Someone (July 17, 2007)

This is an old news. Thing is in Turkey we live post-pragmatic American law trend/ bullshit; means everybody sue everbody include goverment but no one get jailed or killed. Beside that this natonalism thing opened by the US foreign policies-İt's a reflect ideas of dark ages upon. we don't want to American goverment use the military airports to bomb people in Iraq or anywhere else and we don't want to American military give money and guns to the terrorist which stays in the east border. So it's politic? Not that way. American majority belives everything that their goverment done is great. When our goverment says that this song is dengerous, majority of Turkish people just laughed. American people live İn America and see the world with the Bush's eyes. Yea we're stupid bastards and we're ignorant as hell but we know we live in the eart and we're part of it.

Turkish_Cypriot (July 17, 2007)

So long as the American Jewish lobby continue to supprt the military generals of Turkey. Stupid laws that forbid freedom of speech will continue to dog emerging democracies like Turkey as well as the broader middle east. Thus hindering thier development and leaving them at the mercy of Israel/America.

Someone (July 29, 2007)

People claiming Middle-Eastern heritage living in the US 'blowjob-bubble' know....FUCK-ALL! Are you all 16, or what? You disgust me with your so-called 'punk' pretensions'. Thank fuck I live in a civilise and 'cultered' part of this globe. Go Europe....Go Turkish people who strive to live up to Ataturks' foresight and reject his militaristic tendencies. Peace to you all, especially if you're 40+ years old...otherwise FUCK OFF and grow some grey pubic hair kiddies.

Hi to Bora, Kawanch, Derin, Emre & the old-core Istanbul punks if they are reading this!

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