The trial of Orhan Pamuk, right, the Turkish novelist due to go before a court on 16 December, has been delayed. The Instanbul judge presiding over the case said the prosecution could not go forth until it received approval from the ministry of justice. Photo of Pamuk: Matthias Zeininger. (16-DEC-05)
Prior to the trial, Human Rights Watch issued a statement saying the Turkish judiciary must acquit Pamuk. Failure to dismiss the indictment against him would call into question Turkey’s commitment to free expression, they said.
The charges stem from an interview given by Orhan Pamuk to the Swiss magazine in 6 February 2005 in which he is quoted as saying that “thirty thousand Kurds and a million Armenians were killed in these lands and nobody but me dares to talk about it”. Pamuk was referring to the killings by Ottoman Empire forces of thousands of Armenians in 1915-1917.Turkey does not contest the deaths, but denies that it could be called a “genocide”. His reference to “30,000” Kurdish deaths refers to those killed since 1984 in the conflict between Turkish forces and Kurdish separatists.
Pamuk is be tried under Article 301/1 of the Turkish Penal Code, which states, ?A person who explicitly insults being a Turk, the Republic or Turkish Grand National Assembly, shall be imposed to a penalty of imprisonment for a term of six months to three years?. But his defence team has argued that the alleged offence took place before the current penal code had come into being. Therefore, they claim the author should be tried under the previously existing code.
His trial has been condemned both by human rights groups and the European Union. Supporters and opponents alike turned out to witness the proceedings, and Human Rights Watch sent an observer.
Orhan Pamuk is Turkey’s most widely known novelist. His writing has been translated into thirty-five languages.
The next hearing was set for 7 February 2006.
