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Turkey's EU bid hurt by charge

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  • Turkey's EU bid hurt by charge

    The Australian, Australia
    Sept 2 2005

    Turkey's EU bid hurt by charge
    Emma-Kate Symons, Paris
    September 03, 2005

    TURKEY faces a new stumbling block in its bid for EU membership after
    it sparked a free-speech row by charging its most celebrated
    contemporary writer with "denigrating national identity".

    Best-selling author Orhan Pamuk, whose novel Snow told of a Turkish
    poet's struggles against Islamist radicals forcing girls to wear
    Muslim garb in a remote town, could be jailed for three years for
    attacking the Ottoman massacre of Armenians after World War I.

    Turkey has consistently denied murdering Armenians between 1915 and
    1923. Pamuk has been condemned in the Turkish press and received
    death threats since he told a Swiss newspaper last year that "30,000
    Kurds and 1million Armenians were killed in these lands and nobody
    but me dares to talk about it".

    At a meeting of Europe's foreign ministers in Wales yesterday, former
    Europe minister Denis MacShane, a British Labour MP, said: "It is a
    sickening blow to all pro-Turks in Britain and Europe ... that the
    Turkish authorities seek to persecute this great European writer.

    "I will continue to support and argue for (Turkey's) right to start
    EU membership talks. But if the authorities persist with this attack
    on a great European writer, then many of us who are strong supporters
    of Turkey will be forced to change our minds."

    Turkey is pressing for full EU membership but is confronted by
    mounting anger over its treatment of Pamuk, who has gone into hiding,
    and continuing questions over its refusal to recognise Cyprus, an EU
    member.

    Turkey invaded the island state in 1974 and Cyprus is now divided
    into Turkish and Cypriot zones.

    Pamuk's English translator, Maureen Freely, said Ankara had "shot
    itself in the foot" with the move.

    "This is a man who loves his country deeply, defends it fiercely,
    especially when abroad, and who cannot imagine living anywhere else,"
    Ms Freely said. "There is no doubt that it (Pamuk's trial) will raise
    questions about the wisdom of Turkey's EU membership bid."
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