Incitement To Commit Crime
Article 214 of the Turkish Penal Code regulates the relevant offense and punishes the acts of “public incitement to commit a crime” in paragraph 1 and “public incitement to kill each other” in paragraph 2.
In this offense, if the crime that is the subject of the incitement has not been committed, the act of incitement is considered as a preparatory act and is not punished. However, in the case of public incitement, contrary to this general rule, it is regulated that the inciter should be punished in the event that such an incitement has not resulted. The reason is the threat of the act against public peace.
The wording of the law mentions incitement to commit a crime. Here, incitement is to encourage others to commit certain acts by revealing or strengthening their impulses towards crime with an action that will affect people, or by destroying or weakening the thoughts that prohibit or prevent it.
In this crime, the means used in incitement are not important, it is sufficient that the means are suitable for incitement. Incitement can be carried out through means such as speech, writing, radio, television, cinema, theater, etc. Incitement can also be related to the future and the current period and can even be conditional.
Article 214/1 of the TPC, in which the law regulates the relevant offense, states that the incitement must be public. In the regulation, the act of incitement is penalized even if the act of incitement does not produce results, since public incitement is dangerous in terms of public peace.
In this respect, it is not necessary that the act of incitement is committed in public or in public places. The fact that the public incitement here is the incitement carried out in front of many people is sufficient for the crime to occur.
In addition, the subject of the incitement must be a crime, and the law in which the crime takes place does not have any importance, nor is it required to be a crime that must be investigated or prosecuted ex officio.
214, the term “offense” in the article does not cover public incitement to commit an administrative offense, but regulates incitement related to judicial offenses.
Public incitement is sufficient for the completion of the crime, and it is not important whether the crime to which the incitement is directed has been committed or not. However, if the crime that is the subject of the incitement has been committed or an attempt has been made in the execution of this crime, the instigator is punished as the instigator of this crime (TPC, art. 214, f.3).
On the other hand, incitement to commit a crime is an intentional crime, and it is sufficient to commit the crime with general intent in terms of the moral element of the crime.
In terms of this crime, the intent is to have the consciousness of ensuring that a certain crime is committed by others and the will to incite the commission of that crime.
In addition, in the relevant article, the penalty is aggravated if the act of incitement is committed through “press and publication” (TPC, Article 218).