Out of the 278 legislative reforms proposed by the UN Human Rights Council Universal Periodic Review Working Group, Turkey has agreed with 203 of them and has rejected 75.

It should be mentioned that most of those 75 laws are related to the right to freedom of speech. One of them is the infamous Article 301. Turkey doesn’t want to repeal that Article, claiming that Article 301 doesn’t contradict freedom of speech, reports ermenihaber.am, according to Agos Weekly.

Article 301 of the Turkish Criminal Code prescribes punishment “for those who humiliate the Turkish nation, state, the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, the government, the court, soldiers or police officers.”

Hrant Dink was sentenced for offending the Turkish state under Article 301, and famous Turkish historian Taner Akcam and writer Orhan Pamuk have been accused under that Article. However, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) condemned Turkey for sentencing Dink under Article 301 and viewed the initiation of an investigation against Taner Akcam in 201 as a violation of the law.

The US, France, Cyprus, Armenia and Iran have also made calls to repeal Article 301.

The reforms proposed by the UN and sharply rejected by Turkey relate to issues such as the elimination of discrimination in the field of education, protection of the rights of ethnic minorities, the granting of a legal status to patriarchates, provision of an opportunity to receive an education in the native language and lifting of the economic blockade against Armenia.