What is the Crime of Blackmail?
The crime of blackmail is regulated in Article 107 of the Turkish Penal Code.
Blackmail
Article 107- (1) Any person who, by mentioning that they will perform or refrain from performing an act they have a right to or are obligated to do, compels another person to do or refrain from doing something contrary to the law or which they are not obligated to do, or to provide an unfair advantage, shall be punished with imprisonment from one to three years and a judicial fine of up to five thousand days.
(2) In cases where a threat is made to disclose or attribute matters that would harm the honor or reputation of a person with the intention of providing a benefit to oneself or another, the penalty shall be imposed in accordance with the first paragraph.
Blackmail is a specific manifestation of the crime of threat. In the crime of blackmail, the perpetrator compels the victim to act in a certain way by mentioning that they will perform or refrain from performing an act they have a right to or are obligated to do. Although the term "compulsion" is used in Article 107/1 of the Turkish Penal Code, there is no physical intervention regarding the victim's physical integrity in blackmail. In this respect, it bears a resemblance to the crime of threat. However, whereas the crime of threat involves intimidating someone with an unlawful attack to be carried out in the future, the crime of blackmail involves taking advantage of the victim's difficult situation to turn it into a subject of threat in order to gain an advantage or compel the victim to a certain behavior.
The legal interest protected in this crime is the individual's freedom of decision-making and acting in accordance with the decision they have made. Behaviors involving blackmail must be objectively capable of affecting people's freedom.
Anyone can be the perpetrator of this crime. However, as regulated in Article 107 of the Turkish Penal Code, blackmail can be committed by a person who holds a right and obligation regarding a matter.
No specific qualifications are required for the victim of the crime. As in the crime of threat, the victim must be in a position to understand and perceive the harm directed towards them. Although Article 107 of the Turkish Penal Code does not explicitly state that the victim's relatives may be among those who might suffer harm, in terms of the intended commission of the crime under the Turkish Penal Code, it is not required that the person compelled to provide an unfair advantage and the person who would be affected or harmed by the perpetrator's act or omission be the same person.
For the crime of blackmail to occur, it is sufficient that the victim is compelled. It is not necessary for the crime to occur that the victim performs the requested act in the face of this compulsion. The compulsion here is not considered a physical form of coercion.
The material element of the crime of blackmail is "compelling a person to do or refrain from doing something contrary to the law or which they are not obligated to do, or to provide an unfair advantage." The crime of blackmail differs from the crime of threat regarding the behavior that constitutes the material element. In blackmail, there is an abuse of exercising a right or fulfilling an obligation for the purpose of forcing another to engage in a certain behavior or to provide an unfair benefit. To avoid the negative consequences that exercising a right or complying with an obligation would cause for them, the victim submits to the perpetrator's will and is compelled to engage in a behavior they would not perform of their own free will.
The moral element of the crime of blackmail is that the perpetrator acted with the specific intent to gain an advantage. If a threat to damage a person's honor and reputation is made without such a purpose, the crime committed is not blackmail, but threat. It is sufficient for this crime to occur that the perpetrator acted with the intention of gaining an advantage. Furthermore, whether the advantage has actually been obtained is irrelevant to the commission of the crime.