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January 25, 2006

Turkey: Islamist Government Drops Charges Against Novelist - But Other Cases Remain

We reported on the case of acclaimed Turkish novelist, Orhan Pamuk (left), who was in court on 16 December, facing charges under Article 301 of Turkey's penal code, which prohibits anyone "who explicitly insults being a Turk, the Republic or Turkish Grand National Assembly", and carries penalties of up to three years in jail.

Pamuk's crime was to have said in an interview in February 2005: "one million Armenians and 30,000 Kurds were killed in these lands and no one but me dares talk about it." The interview had appeared in the Swiss magazine Das Magazin.

On the day of Pamuk's trial, the judge Metin Aydin, adjourned the case until February 7 2006. He claimed that as the Penal Code had undergone a revision, he needed clarification from the Justice Department whether the case was being brought under the older or the revised version.

The responsibility was thereby placed squarely back in the hands of the government, which is currently the AKP or Justice and Development Party, led by prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The AKP is an Islamist party, and Erdogan was imprisoned for inciting religious hatred in 1998. He was given a 10 month sentence (but only served four months) for reciting a poem which included the lines:

"The mosques are our barracks, the domes our helmets, the minarets our bayonets and the faithful our soldiers..."

The AKP has recently sought to challenge rulings concerning Turkey's secular rules forbidding the wearing of Muslim headscarfs (hijabs) in universities. Erdogan's wife wears the hijab at public meetings.

It has increased taxes on alcohol, and imposed "alcohol-free" regions in some cities. Erdogan himself has supported the removal from the constitution of the ruling which prevents religious indoctrination for children under 12. He wishes children as young as 4 to receive Islamic education, taught at imam hatip seminaries, of which Erdogan is a graduate.

Turkey has been attempting to join the European Union, and the trial of Pamuk was cited by some as evidence that Turkey's administration was currently incompatible with standards of justice and freedom expected of nations negotiating entry.

The court hearing in December drew a crowd of protesters, angered at Pamuk's denigration of Turkey, and one woman managed to swat the novelist with a folder. Some demonstrators kicked and lunged at Pamuk's car as he was driven away.

The decision of the judge to pass responsibility for the case into the hands of Turkey's Justice Minister, Cemil Cicek. It appears that the government has decided to make no recommendations, and the case is now officially dropped, as reported in the print edition of Monday's Telegraph.

Comments on the case have come in two well-written articles, one by Hugh Eakin in the Slate and one by J Simpson in the Globe & Mail.

Eakin reminds that other cases against other authors are still pending. We have drawn attention to two of these other cases, those of editor Hrant Dink and Abdullah Yildiz. Yildiz published a book by Greek author Mara Meimaridi, entitled "The Witches of Smyrna", which apparently contains comments that Turks are dirty and have poor oral hygiene, who still awaits his trial under Article 301.

Hrant Dink (pictured, right) is editor of Turkish magazine Agos, and because he, like Orhan Pamuk, made mention of the massacre of 1 million Armenians around the time of World War1. On 7 October he was given a six month suspended sentence under Article 301. He is appealing against the sentence. He is also facing another similar charge at Sanliurfa, in southeastern Turkey, begun on 28 April 2005 and still unfinished, relating to comments made at a conference in 2002.

Hugh Eakin argues that Pamuk has managed to offend both the hardliners within Turkey but also European allies. He has exposed the deep Islam/secular tensions in Turkey in his novel Snow, offending the authorities, and he is alienating some of his non-Turkish supporters, because he is not conforming to the usual role of "dissident".

So in the end, Turkey's greatest writer has offended both Turkish hard-liners and German conservatives for failing to make his allegiances clear. But it is arguably Pamuk's mixed message—that Turkey desperately wants and needs Europe even as it thumbs its nose at fundamental European notions of justice and truth—that will prove most accurate in hindsight. Under the current regime, Turkey has become both more democratic and more comfortable with its Muslim heritage; during Ramadan last fall, the major public debate was about whether Muslims could break the fast with sex.

But the changes have happened too quickly, and under too much pressure from Brussels, for Turkish society to be really at ease with it all. And the most painful part of that transition, as postwar Europe itself has shown, may be coming to terms with history.

J SImpson commented:

Mr. Pamuk recently explained his situation to readers of The New Yorker as part of a "new global phenomenon," whereby newly enriched elites in developing countries both ape the West but defend themselves against charges of having abandoned their countries' traditions by "brandishing a virulent and intolerant nationalism."

It's happening to Mr. Pamuk in Turkey, and it should stop, for Turkey's sake.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at January 25, 2006 9:39 AM

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