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TAKE ACTION: Please cut and paste this letter onto your personal or Institutional letterhead protesting the charges against writer Orham Pamuk. September 2, 2005 Prime Minister Racep Tayyip Erdogan TC Easbaskanlik Ankara, Turkey Fax: +011 90 312 417 0476 Excellency, I wish to add my name to this appeal from PEN Canada, the Canadian centre of the international writers’ organization, International PEN. PEN Canada is shocked that author Orhan Pamuk is to face trial for "public denigration" of Turkish identity. According to our information, Pamuk will be brought before an Istanbul court on December 16, where he faces up to three years in prison for a comment published in a Swiss newspaper earlier this year. On February 6, Pamuk told Das Magazin, "thirty thousand Kurds and a millionArmenians 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. Debate on these issues has been stifled by stringent laws, some leading to lengthy lawsuits, fines and, in some cases, prison terms. Article 301/1 of the Turkish Penal Code, under which Orhan Pamuk will be tried, is a case in point. PEN Canada sees it extraordinary that a state that has ratified both the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights, both of which see freedom of _expression_ as central, should have a Penal Code that includes a clause that is so clearly contrary to these very same principles. To quote Article 301/1: “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.” To compound matters, Article 301/3 states, “Where insulting being a Turk is committed by a Turkish citizen in a foreign country, the penalty to be imposed shall be increased by one third.” So, if Pamuk is found guilty, he faces an additional penalty for having made the statement abroad. Pamuk is one of Turkey's most well known authors, whose works have been published worldwide in over 20 languages. In 2003, he won the International IMPAC award for My Name isRed . His 2004 novel Snow has met with similar acclaim. His most recent book, Istanbul, is apersonal history of his native city. In early 2005, news of the interview for which Pamuk will stand trial led to protests and reports that copies of his books were burned. He also suffered death threats from extremists. PEN Canada is concerned that Orhan Pamuk will be tried for a statement made in an interview for an overseas publication, which is in direct contravention of the United Nations Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights, to which the Turkish government is a signatory. We therefore strongly protest the decision to bring Pamuk to trial. PEN Canada also takes this opportunity to urge that the legal harassment of two other writers, who are Honorary Members of our organization, cease immediately. One is publisher Ragip Zarakolu, who is facing a series of charges concerning his Belge Publishing House’s publication of two books critical of Turkish treatment of Armenians and Kurds, as well as an article that Zarakolu penned in 2003 that was critical of Turkish treatment of Kurds in Iraq. We also call on your government to revoke the 12 ½ year sentence handed down in 2002 to journalist Asiye Güzel Zeybek. By that time, the former editor-in-chief of the Marxist newspaper Atilim,who had been brutally tortured while in Turkish custody, had fled to Sweden. Sincerely, Oana-Valentina Suciu Lecturer, Faculty of Political Sciences, University of Bucharest Str. Sf. Stefam 24, sector 2, Bucharest, Romania *** sustineti [romania_eu_list] prin 1% din impozitul pe 2005 - detalii la http://www.europe.org.ro/euroatlantic_club/unulasuta.php *** YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS
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