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8 minutes agoNobelist Orhan Pamuk risks three years in prison for insult to Turkey
Periskopi(5 years ago)
(5 years ago)Nobel Prize winner in Literature, Orhan Pamuk, is being investigated by the Turkish state for “insulting” by the founder of modern Turkey and mocking the Turkish flag in his new novel “The Nights of Murtaj”. Pamuk, who denies the accusations, published the book in Turkey in March. Situated on an imaginary island [...]
Pamuk, who denies the accusations, published the book in Turkey in March. Situated on an imaginary Ottoman island during an outbreak of bubonic plague in the early 1900s, the first complaint against the book was said in April, when a lawyer accused the writer of inciting <x0).
An Istanbul court decided not to forward the request due to lack of evidence, but the lawyer who filed the case, Tarcan Uluk, appealed the verdict and the investigation has now been reopened.
There is no disrespect for the heroic founders of national states founded by the ashes of empires or for Ataturk. Rather, the novel was written with respect and admiration for these heroic leaders”, he said.
The 5816 law, under which Pamuk is currently being investigated, aims to protect “the commemoration of Ataturk” from insulting any Turkish citizen. If convicted, Pamuk will face three years in prison. In a statement to the Turkish agency Biannet, Pamuk denied the latest charges.
He was supported by free - speech organizations worldwide that urged authorities not to prosecute him.
“Ohan Pamuk is Turkey's national treasure -- a literary asset whose words echo throughout the globe -- and should be celebrated as such, yet he finds himself once again as the target of his writings. Turkish authorities have repeatedly used libel criminal laws to silence those who dare to speak, and this case is no exception to”, said Burhan Sönmez, president of the World Writers' Association PEN International.
According to PEN America, at least 25 writers were imprisoned last year by the Turkish government -- the third highest number in the world. The Turkish Association of Editors also called on prosecutors to give up the investigation.
Pamuk has been prosecuted earlier for <x0 use” after mentioning in an interview the killings of Armenians and Kurds in 1915. These charges were dropped in 2006, the same year Pamuk won the Nobel Prize in Literature, praised as an author who “researching the melancholic soul of his hometown has discovered new symbols for the clash and combination of cultures”.
