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Pamuk's Lawyer Slams Turkish Justice Minister

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  • Pamuk's Lawyer Slams Turkish Justice Minister

    PAMUK'S LAWYER SLAMS TURKISH JUSTICE MINISTER

    Reuters, UK
    Sept 29 2006

    ANKARA (Reuters) - A lawyer for best-selling novelist Orhan Pamuk
    chided Turkey's justice minister on Friday for suggesting his client
    was to blame for the controversy surrounding an article of the penal
    code blasted by the EU.

    The liberal daily Radikal this week quoted Justice Minister Cemil Cicek
    as saying Pamuk had caused Turkey much trouble by "acting unethically",
    first confirming and later denying comments attributed to him about
    Turkish massacres of Armenians.

    His comments sparked a case under article 301 that makes it a crime to
    insult Turkish identity. Though Pamuk was acquitted on a technicality,
    his trial drew condemnation from rights groups and the European Union
    as a violation of free speech.

    In an open letter published in Friday's Radikal, lawyer Haluk Inanici
    denied Cicek's suggestion that Pamuk had ever retracted his comment
    that a million Armenians and 30,000 Kurds had been killed on Turkish
    territory.

    "In saying our client has brought down much trouble on Turkey, is
    it your wish that people, intellectuals in this society not express
    their views?" Inanici asked Cicek.

    "Is it ethical behavior to avoid a proper discussion of article 301?

    As justice minister, is it not your duty to prepare a climate for
    discussion?"

    The lawyer accused Cicek of exploiting Pamuk's name for political
    purposes and to divert attention away from the "anti-democratic
    and anachronistic" nature of article 301, which the EU and Turkish
    liberals want to see modified or scrapped.

    "It is not ethical to try to belittle our client and hold him
    responsible for implementation of 301," Inanici said.

    Turkey's centre-right government, which began EU entry talks last
    year, says more time is needed to assess whether it is necessary
    to change article 301. Cicek, a nationalist-minded conservative,
    is known to oppose any revision of the article.

    Pamuk, author of novels such as "Snow" and "My Name is Red", is one
    of a large number of writers, journalists and scholars prosecuted
    under article 301, though none has yet gone to jail.

    An Istanbul court last week dismissed a case against leading woman
    novelist Elif Shafak for comments made by her fictional characters,
    also on the Armenian issue.

    Turkey fiercely denies claims that 1.5 million Armenians perished in
    World War One in a systematic "genocide" by Ottoman Turkish forces.

    It says both Christian Armenians and Muslim Turks died in partisan
    fighting that raged at that time.
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