Novelist faces jail for talking Turkey
Reuters reports that Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk faces up to three years in jail for backing allegations that Armenians suffered genocide at Ottoman Turkish hands 90 years ago, according to his publisher.
“A lawsuit has been filed against Orhan Pamuk that could result in a three-year prison sentence,” Iletisim Publishing said in a statement faxed to Reuters.
Pamuk made his comments about the Armenians and the Kurds during an interview published on Feb 6, 2005, in Das Magazin, the weekly supplement of Swiss newspaper Tages Anzeiger.
“Thirty thousand Kurds and 1 million Armenians were killed in these lands and nobody but me dares to talk about it,” Pamuk was quoted as saying in the interview.
His remarks drew an angry reaction from Turkish nationalists and politicians at the time and the author even received anonymous death threats.
The public prosecutor in Istanbul’s Sisli district found Pamuk’s remarks violated Turkey’s newly revised penal code, which deems denigration of the “Turkish identity” a crime, the publisher of Iletisim, Tugrul Pasaoglu, told Reuters.
Pasaoglu said the first hearing in Pamuk’s trial was scheduled for December 16.
Hopefully, Ankara’s desire to join the EU - which means that it will have to meet European standards on freedom of expression - will outweigh Turkish sensitivies about their past.
Wednesday 31 Aug 2005 | Paul | Turkey
Orhan Pamuk is a great liar.He looks only for fame and prestige.He is a converted jew.He has jewish lobby behind him.His nowel full of historical hoaxes.He reminds me Salman Rushdie.Orhan pamuk is charlatan in the sense Of Marcel Proust and Harold Pinter.
Whenever I see references to the “Jewish Lobby” or allusions to a “Zionist Conspiracy”, I am always reminded of the scene in Cabaret where Michael York’s landlady asks “If all the Jews are bankers, how can they be communists too?”
People who buy in to these types of contradictory conspiracy theories invariably belong to the worldwide conspiracy of horses arses.
Orhan Pamuk should not be facing prosecution - nor should he be receiving death threats - simply for talking about something you’d rather he didn’t mention.
Except it doesn’t become a “contradictory conspiracy theory” just becuse you say so. Everyone knows Rotshield sponsored the “Russian” revolution.
Everyone? Which everyone?
Hehe, wherever you go there is these smartasses using the word conspiracy as a form of proof, let’s say you believe in coincidence theories mr Paul…
I’m sure you think that you’ve been really clever posting under a name that is - to your small mind - abusive. So to save you any further embarrassment I just wanted to point out that what you have actually done is underline the fact that you are racist, stupid and paranoid and, therefore, immediately discredited anything you might say.