A Familiar Pattern of Denial

[Sen.Blutarsky 0]

I suppose this shouldn’t be suprising behavior for a country where “Mein Kampf” is a bestseller and conspiracy rumors percolate about like a million coffee grounds. Will the EU stick to its guns and demand reform or merely acquiesce?


Turks Defer Trial of Novelist Who Cited Armenian Deaths

The New York Times
December 17, 2005

By Sebnem Arsu

ISTANBUL, Dec. 16 - A Turkish court put off the trial of a prominent novelist on Friday after a brief hearing, giving the government until Feb. 7 to decide whether to go ahead with criminal proceedings against him. The charge involves his mentioning the killing of a million Armenians by the Turks in 1915 when he gave a magazine interview, in which he also said 30,000 Kurds had been killed since the late 1980's.

Angry nationalists booed the bestselling writer, Orhan Pamuk, and jostled the police as they escorted him into the packed courthouse, where the proceedings were monitored by observers from the European Union, which Turkey hopes to join in coming years.

"I am sorry that I could not testify," Mr. Pamuk said in a statement issued by his publisher, after the court decided that the Justice Ministry in Ankara had to give authorization for the trial to proceed.

"Dragging out cases of thought crimes which shouldn't be begun in the first place and starting new ones are not good for Turkey, for our democracy," he said. He remains free but could face a jail term of six months to three years if convicted.

Policemen with plastic shields escorted Mr. Pamuk, 53, from the courthouse into a minivan under a barrage of eggs hurled by angry protesters, while shouts of "Traitor Pamuk!" echoed in the narrow street.

Mr. Pamuk is accused of "insulting Turkish identity" in the interview last February in Das Magazin, a Swiss publication. He was quoted as saying the mass killing of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire in 1915 and the deaths of the Kurds in Turkish operations against the separatist group P.K.K. in the 1980's were still forbidden subjects in Turkey.

While historians are widely agreed that the 1915 massacres constituted genocide, the subject remains taboo in Turkey, which says the killings were related to World War I clashes after Armenian militants joined forces with Russia.

Article 301 of the Turkish penal code, revised last summer as part of Turkey's efforts to meet the legal and economic standards required to join the European Union, still criminalizes public comments that "denigrate Turkishness" or criticize the state, the army or the founder of the republic, Ataturk. Nearly 60 intellectuals have been charged under it.

At the end of the hourlong hearing, Joost Lagendijk, a Dutch member of the European Parliament and an advocate of Turkish membership in the union, expressed disappointment that the government had not dismissed the trial. "Now it is up to the government to take the responsibility," he said. "They can say that the penal code was reformed not to restrict the freedom of speech but to allow for more."

The Turkish justice minister, Cemil Cicek, speaking to NTV news television, accused journalists of stirring up emotions and said there was no reason to criticize the court's decision, because it was powerless to proceed without an order from the Justice Ministry. "The question has been asked, so one should wait for the reply," he said.

Denis McShane, a member of the British Parliament who was observing the proceedings, said he had been hit in the face by a nationalist lawyer during the melee.

On Thursday, the European Union's enlargement commissioner, Olli Rehn, said it was not Mr. Pamuk - whose novels, including "Snow," "My Name Is Red" and "The Black Book," have been translated into 34 languages - but Turkey that would be on trial. He called on the government to prove that the changes in the penal code were not simply window dressing to convince Europe that it could start talking with Turkey about membership in the union.

Another European Parliament member at the trial, Camiel Eurlings of the Netherlands, said, "If Turkey wants to continue toward the E.U., and I hope it will, then really freedom of expression is a fundamental necessity."

Prof. Mehmet Altan of Istanbul University, who was acquitted of a similar charge, predicted that the charges against the novelist would not stick. "This was a provocative plot by those who are trying to block Turkey's entry into the E.U.," he said. "The case served its purpose, so they've done with it."


Copyright 2005The New York Times Company

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/17/international/europe/17turkey.html?oref=login


Blutarsky 2008. No Prisoners!

[kallend 2,150]

You and Armenians kind of remind me of John Rich and guns.

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[Sen.Blutarsky 0]

Quote

You and Armenians kind of remind me of John Rich and guns.

Of course, neither John Rich nor I has anything on you and your obsession with President Bush and Vice President Cheney.


Blutarsky 2008. No Prisoners!

[AlexCrowley 0]

He believes that every american should have several and that they shouldnt have to be registered?

TV's got them images, TV's got them all, nothing's shocking.

[Sen.Blutarsky 0]

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He believes that every american should have several and that they shouldnt have to be registered?

Then by corollary those rabidly voiciferous British expats we keep here should have to be registered because they're powered by expanding hot gas.


Blutarsky 2008. No Prisoners!

[waltappel 1]

I import stuff from Turkey and have some Turkish friends. You would have to experience it first hand to really appreciate the depth of their nationalism. It gets pretty extreme and, at times, a bit comical.

I subscribe to a newsletter of an American Turkish association and on a fairly regular basis they put out an item that "Turkey is under attack once again!!!" or something like that and it will be something I see as either extremely minor or even funny.

There was one complaint (not from the association, but from an individual member) who had plenty to say about an episode of The Simpsons.

As I recall, the Simpson family was flying over Turkey and Homer made the comment, "Stupid Cypress-splitting jerks!!!". Now THAT comment, if you know something about what is behind it, is EXTREMELY funny, in my view.

I don't know why they can't let go of the Armenian genocide thing and move on, but it ain't gonna happen in our lifetime. The Turks are extremely proud of their heritage and absolutely will not accept anything that can be construed as tarnishing it.

Mustafa Kemal Attaturk, "the father of the Turks", would probably win if there were a popularity contest between him and God/Allah in Turkey. He instilled an enormous pride in country among the Turks and you can even see it in their constitution.

If we had a visionary leader like Attaturk in the US, we might well be much like they are.

As I say, I really don't get it why they are so sensitive about it but I've seen it and it ain't goin' away and even I would not joke with a Turk about it.

Walt

[AlexCrowley 0]

Damn right !

We're also more efficient, cheaper and better value for money than our american counterparts that have a tendancy to be greedy, oversized, poorly engineered and totally lack imagination and creativity.

TV's got them images, TV's got them all, nothing's shocking.

[skydyvr 0]

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. . . and totally lack imagination and creativity.

When you all get a man on the moon, or at least a man in space, or . . . um . . . at least a decent bottle rocket design going, please feel free to express yourself as above truthfully.

. . =(_8^(1)

[AlexCrowley 0]

TV's got them images, TV's got them all, nothing's shocking.

[skydyvr 0]

Quote

. . =(_8^(1)