The Offence of Provoking People to be Rancorous and Hostile (TPC art. 216/1)

Many of contemporary states governed by the rule of law, have not been insensitive to the conduct of provoking a group of people having certain features to be rancorous and hostile against another group within the society. Thus, in order to secure public order or safety, and to ensure the protection of social peace uninterruptedly, states criminalized the act of provoking people to be rancorous and hostile in their penal codes. This offence is laid down under paragraph 1 of article 216 of the Turkish Penal Code. The offence of provoking people to be rancorous and hostile has been examined in this study. In the first section of the study all of which is two sections; after providing general overview of the offence of provoking people to be rancorous and hostile, historical development of the offence, the status of some international documents and countrys' legislations, protected legal value and the concepts indicated within the crime will be explained. Within the second section; the elements of the crime in line with commonly held views, its legal character and the concept of "Clear and imminent threat against public order" and objective punishability condition will be addressed in detail. Furtermore, in this section; emphasis will be put on committing the crime through press which is the qualified and mostly committed type of the offence, its particular appearances investigation and hearing procedures, and sanctions. The offence in question is committed by openly provoking a group of people belonging to a different social class, religion, race, sect, or coming from another origin, to be rancorous or hostile against another group. However, since expression of the thoughts in a free environment is essential for the existence of democratic societies, the threat to public security required in the second paragraph should be clear and imminent.