Slouching to Brussels; It's one thing to pass more liberal laws. It's another to enforce them. A progress report on the path to Europe.

Byline: Owen Matthews

Eren Keskin may not look like a battle-hardened fighter, with her towering beehive hairdo and Cleopatra eyeliner. But the walls of her dingy legal office in downtown Istanbul are filled with mementos from 20 years of bitter courtroom battles with the Turkish state--some won, most lost, both as attorney and as defendant. There's a photo of a lawyer beaten to death by police in 1994. There's an award from a German human-rights group for championing the cause of Kurdish women. But the walls are for history. The future is on her desk, the paperwork of the battles yet to be fought. In pride of place, a sheaf of fresh court summonses charging Keskin with treasonably insulting the state. "Free speech?" she says with a sigh. "Europe may think Turkey has changed. I haven't seen it much in practice."

Cases like these, pitting crusading lawyers like Keskin against Turkey's established order, are the test of how far the recent overhaul of Turkey's old, repressive legal system really goes. In September Turkey's Parliament voted in a liberalized penal code, with more than 450 new articles designed to guarantee freedom of expression, eliminate police torture and bolster the rights of minorities. The result was applause from the European Commission, which recommended that the European Union start accession talks with Ankara. At home, the reception has been more reserved. "The old laws were designed to protect the state against its citizens," says one civil-liberties lawyer in Istanbul, Gulseren Yoleri. "The new laws give the impression of protecting the citizens against the state."

Note his use of the term impression. So far, the reality is proving rather different. Lawyers and defendants alike complain that neither judges nor prosecutors understand the letter--or, more importantly, the spirit--of the new laws. Mehmet P., 26, sits in the foyer of Istanbul's Heavy Penalties Court awaiting a hearing for being a member of an illegal leftist organization. "I complained to the prosecutor that what I had done was not a crime anymore," he says. "He said, 'Does it matter what article we use if you are guilty?' "

Thousands of people are still in jail for crimes that no longer exist. One of them is Hakan Albayrak, a journalist imprisoned last year for writing a poem critical of Turkey's founding father, Kemal Ataturk. Another is Fatih Colak, a radio-show host jailed earlier this year for criticizing the ...