Defamation
Cases May Harm Turkey EU Bid
By
Amberin Zaman
Special to The Times
July 14, 2006
ANKARA, Turkey — Six months after internationally acclaimed author Orhan
Pamuk was cleared on charges of insulting the Turkish identity, another
best-selling novelist is facing similar charges.
Elif Shafak could serve up to three years in jail if convicted over
remarks made by a fictional character in her latest book, "The
Bastard of Istanbul." The novel touches on one of the most sensitive
subjects in Turkey, the Armenian genocide.
Shafak's case is likely to further tarnish the image of Turkey, which is
engaged in membership talks with the 25-member European Union. EU
politicians and diplomats are expressing concern over the number of cases
brought against Turkish writers and journalists under Article 301 of the
penal code, which outlines penalties for defaming the Turkish Republic or
"Turkishness."
Olli Rehn, the European official supervising membership talks, said
Wednesday that Turkish courts were failing to comply with EU standards.
Rehn's statement came after a court Tuesday confirmed the conviction of
Hrant Dink, an ethnic Armenian journalist, who was given a six-month jail
sentence for writing an article in which he exhorted Armenians to overcome
their hatred of Turks. The article was construed as an insult to Turks.
The court postponed Dink's sentence and asked a local court to review the
case. Rehn said the ruling served as an example that could be followed in
similar cases.
According to the Turkish Publishers' Assn., 47 writers are being
prosecuted on charges that include insulting Kemal Ataturk, the founder of
modern Turkey, and "inciting racial hatred."
The cases fly in the face of broad reforms introduced in 2002 that helped
persuade the EU to open long-delayed membership talks with Turkey. The EU
repeatedly has warned that it could suspend the talks if Turkey continues
to breach accession requirements.
Shafak's book is the story of an Armenian family in San Francisco and a
Turkish family in Istanbul whose lives intersect over nine decades.
Its references to the slaughter of some 1.5 million Armenians by the
Ottoman Turks during and after World War I are by Shafak's own admission
"difficult to digest" because the overwhelming majority of Turks
deny that the genocide took place.
However, the book has topped best-seller lists, selling more than 50,000
copies since its publication in March. "The feedback I received has
been very, very positive," Shafak, 35, said in a recent interview.
Ragip Zarakolu, president of the publishers' association, said such works
are gaining a wider audience because more Turks are seeking to explore
their country's past.
But the books also face a nationalist backlash.
Zarakolu is facing three court cases over books he has published. Two of
them deal with the Armenian genocide.
Kemal Kerincsiz, a right-wing lawyer, filed charges against Shafak last
month. In one of the passages, presented by Kerincsiz as evidence against
the author, an Armenian character says, "I am the grandchild of
genocide survivors who lost all their relatives in the hands of Turkish
butchers in 1915."
Shafak argued that comments made by fictional characters could not be used
to press charges, and the case was throw out. An appeals court, however,
overruled that decision last week.
Kerincsiz and his ultra-nationalist lawyers group known as the Turkish
Jurists' Union also filed the complaint against Pamuk for asserting in an
interview with a Swiss newspaper that "1 million Armenians and 30,000
Kurds died in these lands, but no one but I dares talk about it."
Shafak says she believes the wave of prosecutions is part of a broader
campaign by those who oppose EU membership.
"In my country there is a clash of opinions between those who want
Turkey to join the EU and to become a more open society and those who want
to keep Turkey as an insular, xenophobic, nationalist and closed
society," she said.
Support for EU membership among Turks plunged over the last year to 43%
from 74%, according to one survey. And a 13-nation Pew Global Attitudes
report that was released in June said only 16% of Turks surveyed had a
favorable opinion of Christians and 15% had a favorable opinion of Jews.
