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Turkey Charges Novelist Over Remarks About Mass Deaths

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  • Turkey Charges Novelist Over Remarks About Mass Deaths

    TURKEY CHARGES NOVELIST OVER REMARKS ABOUT MASS DEATHS
    Orhan Pamuk could face three years in prison for speaking about his
    nation's alleged slaying of Armenians and, more recently, Kurds.

    By Amberin Zaman, Special to The Times

    Los Angeles Times, CA
    Sept 1 2005

    ANKARA, Turkey - Orhan Pamuk, one of Turkey's best-known novelists,
    has been charged with insulting the nation and its people for speaking
    out against the mass deaths of Armenians during and after World War
    I and the more recent killings of Kurds, his publisher said Wednesday.

    Pamuk will go on trial in December and could face three years in
    prison under the country's revised penal code, which deems denigrating
    Turks and Turkey a punishable offense, Iletisim Publishing said in
    a written statement.

    Officials declined to comment on the charges. Turkish law prohibits
    Pamuk from commenting on his case while it is pending.

    Pamuk drew nationalist ire here and even received anonymous death
    threats after he told the Swiss daily newspaper Tagesanzeiger in an
    interview published Feb. 6 that "30,000 Kurds and 1 million Armenians
    were killed in these lands and nobody but me dares to talk about it."

    Turkey has long denied that more than 1 million members of its
    once thriving Armenian community were the victims of systematic
    annihilation between 1915 and 1923. Armenians and many others label
    the campaign genocide.

    The Turkish government position is that several hundred thousand
    Armenians died as a result of exposure, famine and disease as they
    journeyed to Syria after being deported for collaborating with invading
    Russian forces.

    Pamuk's most recent bestselling novel, "Snow," explores tensions
    between Turkey's secular elite and religious conservatives.

    News of Pamuk's case came a day before European Union foreign ministers
    were scheduled to meet in Wales, mainly to discuss Turkey's bid to
    join the 25-member bloc. The EU has long cited Turkey's checkered
    record on human rights as the chief obstacle to membership.

    Turkey won a date to open membership talks after its parliament passed
    numerous reforms that, among other steps, eased restrictions on the
    language spoken by the country's large Kurdish minority. The talks
    are scheduled to begin Oct. 3. Several countries, including France,
    are seeking to block Turkey's entry amid mounting public opposition
    to the inclusion of a large, poor and predominantly Muslim country.

    Other critics charge that Turkey's new penal code, which came into
    force in June, still falls short of EU standards by proscribing free
    debate of the Armenian tragedy and criticism of Turkey's 1974 invasion
    of the Mediterranean island nation of Cyprus.

    "How can Turkey possibly claim to be a European country if it has
    such laws on the books and prosecutors can bring such cases?" British
    novelist Maureen Freely, who translated "Snow" to English, said in an
    editorial published Wednesday in the Independent, a London newspaper.

    Some EU diplomats speculated that the case against Pamuk was timed by
    elements within the Turkish government seeking to derail the country's
    membership in the alliance.

    "This can only be the work of those within the Turkish state who
    stand to lose influence under the [EU-oriented] reform process,"
    said a Western diplomat who asked not to be identified, reflecting
    a common practice among envoys. "How else can one explain the case
    being launched so long after Pamuk's statement?"

    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
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