Bulent Ersoy could face a long jail term for her anti-military remarks
Posted on 06/24/2008 11:14:58 AM PDT by weegee
One of Turkey's best known singers, Bulent Ersoy, has gone on trial charged with attempting to turn the public against military service.
The charges were brought after she suggested it was not worth sacrificing soldiers' lives in Turkey's conflict with the Kurdish separatist PKK group. The transsexual singer made her comments on television last February.
The army was conducting a major operation against the PKK in northern Iraq at the time. Some 40,000 people have died since the conflict with the PKK began in 1984.
Ms Ersoy did not show up in court, saying she had to attend a concert, so the trial has been postponed until September, when she will be obliged to attend.
Ms Ersoy has already said she will stand by her comments. But she faces up to four-and-a-half years in prison if she is convicted.
Criticism risky
Hakkan Ozgur, one of those who submitted an official complaint against her, was in court for the start of the trial. "The Turkish military is fighting a war on terror," he said. "I believe making propaganda against this is illegal. It creates doubts in people over whether to go to the military. It sows doubt in the minds of those whose children are already serving." "The lives of our soldiers are at stake."
Ms Ersoy is Turkey's best known diva, adored across the country, says the BBC's Sarah Rainsford in Istanbul. She was already one of the country's most popular male singers, when in 1981 she underwent a sex-change operation.
But questioning the Turkish military can be a risky business, our correspondent says. Article 318 of the penal code - dissuading people from military service - is frequently used by the military against its critics.
Meanwhile critics say a separate article, making it a crime to insult the Turkish nation and its institutions, is used to stifle free speech. Ms Ersoy's trial may well scare many others into silence, our correspondent says.
Bulent Ersoy could face a long jail term for her anti-military remarks
What price Steve Earle or the Dixey Chicks?
BTW is that a woman?
Joey, have you ever been in a Turkish Prison?
I imagine some people in our great nation would like to see such laws here in the United States.
It said she is a trans-sexual woman.
A trans-sexual is somebody who has a sex change operation.
The homosexual community goes by the initials LGBT which is Lesbian, Gay, Bi-Sexual, and Transgendered.
What do they call the operation of someone who changes his race?
It is just as feasible a surgical process.
The DNA remains the same.
Just the outward appearance can be changed.
Um, scary, much?
Our great friends, the Turks...
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