Turkish Writer's Trial Delayed

The Judge presiding over the prosecution trial of Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk delayed proceedings on December 16th, stating the prosecution had to first be approved by Turkey's Ministry of Justice. As a previous post noted, Mr. Pamuk is on trial for telling a Swiss newspaper that "30,000 Kurds and 1 million Armenians were killed in these lands, and nobody but me dares to talk about it." According to prosecutors, that comment violated Article 301 of Turkey's legal code, which criminalizes criticism of "Turkishness," of state institutions and of the revered founder of the republic, Ataturk. Mr. Pamuk is just one of dozens of journalists and scholars who are facing chargers under Article 301.




If Mr. Pamuk's is successfully prosecuted for violating Article 301, Turkey's chances of being accepted into the European Union could be irreconcilably damaged.

Click here to read an in-depth article on the trial from the Washington Post.

-- JB