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PROMINENT TURKISH NOVELIST CHARGED OVER COMMENTS
Southeast European Times
Sept 1 2005
Prominent Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk could face a prison sentence
of up to three years if convicted on charges of "public denigration
of Turkish identity" brought against him Wednesday.
(The Washington Post, Independent, RIA Novosti - 01/09/05; AP, Reuters
- 31/08/05; RFE/RL -- 14/04/05 - 26/04/05; The New Yorker - 30/08/04)
Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk will be tried in December for
controversial remarks about the massacres of Armenians and Kurds.
[AFP]
A prominent Turkish novelist, who nine years ago described prisons
in his country as "hell", now faces the prospect of jail time for
speaking his mind. On Wednesday (31 August), an Istanbul prosecutor
charged Orhan Pamuk with insulting his country's national character
over comments he made about the mass killings of Armenians and Kurds.
"Thirty thousand Kurds and 1 million Armenians were killed in these
lands and nobody but me dares to talk about it," Pamuk was said
in an interview published by the Swiss newspaper Tages Anzeiger on
6 February.
Turkey denies allegations that genocide was conducted against
Armenians in 1915. It insists that the estimates of the dead have been
exaggerated, arguing also that people from all ethnic communities
died in the turmoil of civil war as the Ottoman Empire collapsed,
eventually giving way to the Turkish Republic in 1923.
Pamuk's comments concerning Kurds, meanwhile, refer to a decades-long
conflict between separatist rebels and government forces, beginning
in 1984.
Although the writer did not refer to the killings as "genocide,"
his remarks angered nationalists and politicians, prompting death
threats as well as accusations of treason published in some Turkish
newspapers. In March, a senior official in Turkey's Isparta Province
ordered the seizure and destruction of copies of his books.
Nearly seven months after Pamuk's interview with the Swiss paper,
the public prosecutor in Istanbul's Sisli district decided that his
remarks violated the country's penal code and indicted him on charges
of "public denigration of Turkish identity". The writer, whose trial
is due to begin 16 December, could face a prison sentence of between
six months and three years.
Turkey revised its penal code this year in a bid to bring it in line
with international standards and to meet the EU requirements for
membership. But writers' and journalists' organisations view the
changes as insufficient.
According to the Washington Post, Turkish law allows authorities to
imprison people for differing with the government's line on issues of
"fundamental national interest", including the 1915 killings.
Pamuk was "just trying to point out that first you have to face it
-- a tragedy or a dispute or a problem, at least," Tugrul Pasaoglu,
the writer's publisher and an editor at Iletisim publishing house
in Istanbul, said Wednesday. "If you don't talk about it, then you
can't find a solution."
Pamuk, 53, is one of Turkey's most famous novelists in at least
a generation. His literary career began with the publishing of
"Cevdet Bey and His Sons" in 1982. Since then he has written "The
White Castle," "The Black Book" and "My Name Is Red". In May, he was
shortlisted for the BBC Four Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction for
"Istanbul," his personal memoir of growing up in Turkey's biggest
and busiest city.
In an article published by The New Yorker in August last year, John
Updike said Pamuk qualifies as Turkey's "most likely candidate for
the Nobel Prize".
The long list of prizes Pamuk has won for his novels include the 2003
Impac Dublin Literary Award for "My Name Is Red" and the prestigious
peace prize of the Association of German Publishers and Booksellers,
which he received earlier this year.
http://www.setimes.com/cocoon/setimes/xhtml/en_GB/features/setimes/features/2005/09/01/feature-01
Southeast European Times
Sept 1 2005
Prominent Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk could face a prison sentence
of up to three years if convicted on charges of "public denigration
of Turkish identity" brought against him Wednesday.
(The Washington Post, Independent, RIA Novosti - 01/09/05; AP, Reuters
- 31/08/05; RFE/RL -- 14/04/05 - 26/04/05; The New Yorker - 30/08/04)
Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk will be tried in December for
controversial remarks about the massacres of Armenians and Kurds.
[AFP]
A prominent Turkish novelist, who nine years ago described prisons
in his country as "hell", now faces the prospect of jail time for
speaking his mind. On Wednesday (31 August), an Istanbul prosecutor
charged Orhan Pamuk with insulting his country's national character
over comments he made about the mass killings of Armenians and Kurds.
"Thirty thousand Kurds and 1 million Armenians were killed in these
lands and nobody but me dares to talk about it," Pamuk was said
in an interview published by the Swiss newspaper Tages Anzeiger on
6 February.
Turkey denies allegations that genocide was conducted against
Armenians in 1915. It insists that the estimates of the dead have been
exaggerated, arguing also that people from all ethnic communities
died in the turmoil of civil war as the Ottoman Empire collapsed,
eventually giving way to the Turkish Republic in 1923.
Pamuk's comments concerning Kurds, meanwhile, refer to a decades-long
conflict between separatist rebels and government forces, beginning
in 1984.
Although the writer did not refer to the killings as "genocide,"
his remarks angered nationalists and politicians, prompting death
threats as well as accusations of treason published in some Turkish
newspapers. In March, a senior official in Turkey's Isparta Province
ordered the seizure and destruction of copies of his books.
Nearly seven months after Pamuk's interview with the Swiss paper,
the public prosecutor in Istanbul's Sisli district decided that his
remarks violated the country's penal code and indicted him on charges
of "public denigration of Turkish identity". The writer, whose trial
is due to begin 16 December, could face a prison sentence of between
six months and three years.
Turkey revised its penal code this year in a bid to bring it in line
with international standards and to meet the EU requirements for
membership. But writers' and journalists' organisations view the
changes as insufficient.
According to the Washington Post, Turkish law allows authorities to
imprison people for differing with the government's line on issues of
"fundamental national interest", including the 1915 killings.
Pamuk was "just trying to point out that first you have to face it
-- a tragedy or a dispute or a problem, at least," Tugrul Pasaoglu,
the writer's publisher and an editor at Iletisim publishing house
in Istanbul, said Wednesday. "If you don't talk about it, then you
can't find a solution."
Pamuk, 53, is one of Turkey's most famous novelists in at least
a generation. His literary career began with the publishing of
"Cevdet Bey and His Sons" in 1982. Since then he has written "The
White Castle," "The Black Book" and "My Name Is Red". In May, he was
shortlisted for the BBC Four Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction for
"Istanbul," his personal memoir of growing up in Turkey's biggest
and busiest city.
In an article published by The New Yorker in August last year, John
Updike said Pamuk qualifies as Turkey's "most likely candidate for
the Nobel Prize".
The long list of prizes Pamuk has won for his novels include the 2003
Impac Dublin Literary Award for "My Name Is Red" and the prestigious
peace prize of the Association of German Publishers and Booksellers,
which he received earlier this year.
http://www.setimes.com/cocoon/setimes/xhtml/en_GB/features/setimes/features/2005/09/01/feature-01