Salman Rushdie has written an essay asking how Turkey can send its greatest writer to jail and still be considered for membership in the EU.
If you don't know what's going on, it involves public remarks made by the widely admired Orhan Pamuk in which he spoke out on verboten topics - the mass killings of Armenians during World War I and the killings of Kurds in more recent times.
On September 1, 2005, Pamuk was indicted by a district prosecutor for having “blatantly belittled Turkishness” by his remarks. If convicted, he faces up to three years in jail. Article 301/1 of the Turkish penal code, under which Pamuk is to be tried, states that “a person who explicitly insults being a Turk, the Republic or Turkish Grand National Assembly, shall be sentenced to a penalty of imprisonment for a term of six months to three years . . . Where insulting being a Turk is committed by a Turkish citizen in a foreign country, the penalty shall be increased by one third.” So, if Pamuk is found guilty, he faces an additional penalty for having made the statement abroad.
Pamuk's trial is set to begin in December.
Posted by armand at October 16, 2005 02:03 PM | TrackBack | Posted to International Affairs