Posted on 09/21/2006 7:12:24 PM PDT by blam
Turkish novelist wins free speech case
By David Rennie, Europe Correspondent
(Filed: 22/09/2006)
A best-selling novelist was yesterday cleared by a Turkish court of insulting her country in a case regarded as the latest test of free speech for a nation vying to join the European Union.
Both the government in Ankara and the European Commission expressed relief when Elif Shafak was acquitted of the charge of "insulting Turkishness".
A protester in Istanbul vents her anger on a poster of Elif Shafak
Nationalists had brought the case after she wrote a novel in which fictional characters discussed the massacre of Armenians in the First World War.
Ms Shafak, 35, who gave birth to her first child at the weekend, was still in hospital in Istanbul, so did not witness unruly scenes as nationalist lawyers and supporters clashed verbally with the judge, demanding he throw international observers out of the courtroom in Istanbul.
Finally Judge Irfan Adil Uncu said: "The court concluded. . . there was insufficient evidence to suggest that she committed a crime."
Though others have been tried for denigrating Turkishness, this was the first prosecution based on a work of fiction.
One of the Armenian characters in Ms Shafak's best-selling novel, The Bastard of Istanbul, speaks of "Turkish butchers" and of "genocide", while others talk about being "slaughtered like sheep" during the 1915-17 massacres.
Ms Shafak said after her acquittal that "a culture of lynching" was emerging in Turkey. "I am concerned about an idea that has recently developed in Turkey, the idea that 'those who do not think like us are co-operating with the enemy'," she said.
The European Commission said that, despite the acquittal, it would only be satisfied with the repeal of article 301, which has been used to prosecute about 40 writers and journalists. The enlargement spokesman, Krisztina Nagy, said in Brussels that "a significant threat to freedom of expression" remained in Turkish law.
Defying nationalist complaints about pressure from the EU, the Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said his government was open to proposals to reform article 301. Kemal Kerincsiz, the leader of the group of nationalist prosecutors who brought the case, told the BBC: "We are right to bring these cases. Characters in a novel may be fictitious, but the authors are real. In our culture, no one can brand their ancestors murderers."
The Religion of Peace. AKA: The Religion of Free Speech.
additional:
EU hails acquittal of Turkish writer, demands legal changes
Deutsche Presse Agentur
Published: Thursday September 21, 2006
http://rawstory.com/news/2006/EU_hails_acquittal_of_Turkish_write_09212006.html
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.