|
BRUSSELS - Turkey's plan to prosecute novelist
Orhan Pamuk shows that some members of its judiciary
are resisting reforms vital to Ankara's drive to
join the European Union, the EU's enlargement chief
said yesterday.
Pamuk faces up to three years in jail for backing
allegations that Armenians suffered genocide at
Ottoman Turkish hands 90 years ago -- a highly
sensitive issue in Turkey, which is due to start EU
membership talks on Oct. 3.
Turkish prosecutors are also investigating comments
by the best-selling author that some 30,000 Kurds
were killed more recently in Turkey in separatist
clashes with security forces.
''I find a recent decision to prosecute writer Orhan
Pamuk raises serious concern," EU Enlargement
Commissioner Olli Rehn told the European
Parliament's foreign affairs committee.
''I must say that a decision of the district judge
in Istanbul to bring the court case on Dec. 16 . . .
cannot be just a coincidence, I think it is a
provocation."
Dec. 16 is the first anniversary of a decision by EU
leaders to open entry talks with Turkey, provided
that the country overhauls its penal code and
extends its customs agreement with the EU to new
member states, including Cyprus.
Pamuk's comments about the Armenians and the Kurds
during a newspaper interview drew an angry reaction
from Turkish nationalists and politicians at the
time, and the author received anonymous death
threats.
The public prosecutor in Istanbul's Sisli district
found Pamuk's remarks violated Turkey's revised
penal code, which deems denigration of the ''Turkish
identity" a crime.
Rehn said he was worried that some Turkish
prosecutors interpreted the code in a way that
breaches the European Convention of Human Rights,
undermining Turkey's quest to join the EU.
Any violation of human rights in Turkey is likely to
weaken already fragile support for the country's EU
membership among the bloc's citizens and
politicians.
Ankara has long denied that Armenians suffered
genocide, or systematic killing, at Ottoman hands
during and after World War I, saying they were
victims of partisan fighting which also claimed the
lives of many Muslim Turks.
Turkey is also very sensitive to portrayals of the
Kurdish issue.
www.boston.com
Top |
® 