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TURK 'GENOCIDE' AUTHOR FACES JAIL
BBC
Thursday, 1 September 2005, 18:03 GMT 19:03 UK
Orhan Pamuk is accused of publicly denigrating Turkish identity One
of Turkey's best-known novelists faces three years in jail for making
controversial comments on his country's killing of Armenians and Kurds.
Orhan Pamuk has been charged with insulting Turkey's national
character. He was quoted in a Swiss paper as saying that only he had
dared to say that Turkey killed 30,000 Kurds and a million Armenians.
Turkey accepts thousands of Armenians were killed by Ottoman Empire
forces in 1915-17, but strongly denies genocide.
The "30,000 Kurds" referred to by Mr Pamuk are those who have died
since 1984 in the conflict between Turkey and Kurdish separatists.
'Public denigration'
Turkey - which is keen to improve its human rights record ahead of
European Union entry talks next month - is sensitive over both the
Armenian and Kurdish issues.
Mr Pamuk's comments angered Turkish nationalists and politicians when
they were quoted in the magazine of Swiss newspaper Tages Anzeiger
in February.
A prosecutor in Istanbul has now indicted Mr Pamuk on charges the
remarks amounted to a "public denigration" of Turkish identity.
This is a crime under the newly country's revised penal code,
criticised by freedom of speech advocates.
The author, whose works including My Name is Red and Snow have
been translated into 20 languages, is expected to stand trial on 16
December, his publisher Tugrul Pasaoglu said. "We have to wait for the
court. Then he [Mr Pamuk] will make his speech in the court," he said.
The EU has said Turkey must meet European standards on freedom of
expression. The row over the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman
Turks between 1915 and 1917 has festered for decades.
Armenia alleges that the Ottoman Empire systematically arranged the
deportation and killing of 1.5 million Armenians.
Fifteen countries, including France, Switzerland, Russia and Argentina,
have classified the killings as genocide.
Turkey says up to 300,000 Armenians and at least as many Turks died
during civil strife in eastern Turkey during World War I, but rejects
the term "genocide".
BBC
Thursday, 1 September 2005, 18:03 GMT 19:03 UK
Orhan Pamuk is accused of publicly denigrating Turkish identity One
of Turkey's best-known novelists faces three years in jail for making
controversial comments on his country's killing of Armenians and Kurds.
Orhan Pamuk has been charged with insulting Turkey's national
character. He was quoted in a Swiss paper as saying that only he had
dared to say that Turkey killed 30,000 Kurds and a million Armenians.
Turkey accepts thousands of Armenians were killed by Ottoman Empire
forces in 1915-17, but strongly denies genocide.
The "30,000 Kurds" referred to by Mr Pamuk are those who have died
since 1984 in the conflict between Turkey and Kurdish separatists.
'Public denigration'
Turkey - which is keen to improve its human rights record ahead of
European Union entry talks next month - is sensitive over both the
Armenian and Kurdish issues.
Mr Pamuk's comments angered Turkish nationalists and politicians when
they were quoted in the magazine of Swiss newspaper Tages Anzeiger
in February.
A prosecutor in Istanbul has now indicted Mr Pamuk on charges the
remarks amounted to a "public denigration" of Turkish identity.
This is a crime under the newly country's revised penal code,
criticised by freedom of speech advocates.
The author, whose works including My Name is Red and Snow have
been translated into 20 languages, is expected to stand trial on 16
December, his publisher Tugrul Pasaoglu said. "We have to wait for the
court. Then he [Mr Pamuk] will make his speech in the court," he said.
The EU has said Turkey must meet European standards on freedom of
expression. The row over the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman
Turks between 1915 and 1917 has festered for decades.
Armenia alleges that the Ottoman Empire systematically arranged the
deportation and killing of 1.5 million Armenians.
Fifteen countries, including France, Switzerland, Russia and Argentina,
have classified the killings as genocide.
Turkey says up to 300,000 Armenians and at least as many Turks died
during civil strife in eastern Turkey during World War I, but rejects
the term "genocide".