In Turkey, a year of attacks and trials

Houston Chronicle, TX
Jan 19 2007

In Turkey, a year of attacks and trials

By The Associated Press

– – Jan. 19, 2007: Hrant Dink, editor of the Turkish-Armenian
newspaper Agos, is slain by a gunman in Istanbul.

_ Dec. 19, 2006: Writer Ipek Calislar acquitted of insulting Turkey’s
founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, in a biography in which she said
Ataturk dressed as a woman to escape an assassination attempt.

_ Nov. 1, 2006: Archaeologist Ilmiye Cig acquitted of inciting
religious hatred by claiming that Islamic-style head scarves were
first used more than 5,000 years ago by priestesses initiating young
men into sex.

_ Sept. 21, 2006: Author Elif Safak acquitted of "insulting
Turkishness" for her fictional characters’ statements about the
killings of Armenians.

_ July 27, 2006: Writer and journalist Perihan Magden acquitted of
turning people against military service by defending a conscientious
objector in her weekly magazine column.

_ July 11, 2006: A court confirmed a six-month sentence imposed on
Dink for "attempting to influence the judiciary" after his newspaper
ran articles criticizing a law that makes it a crime to "insult
Turkishness."

_ Feb. 7, 2006: A trial adjourned for five prominent Turkish
journalists charged with insulting the country’s courts by
criticizing the court-ordered closure of an academic conference on
the Armenian issue. Two nationalist lawyers are removed after a fight
breaks out in the courtroom.

_ Jan. 23, 2006: A court drops charges of "insulting Turkishness"
against author Orhan Pamuk on a technicality. Pamuk was charged after
discussing the deaths of Armenians in Turkey with a Swiss newspaper.
He won the Nobel Prize for literature later in the year.