SCHISM: FREE SPEECH VS. ‘INSULTING TURKISHNESS’
by Ivan Watson
NPR
Oct 5 2006
All Things Considered, October 4, 2006 · Acclaimed novelist Elif Safak
was acquitted last week after being taking to trial for “insulting
Turkishness” when a fictional character described the Armenian genocide
in her latest book.
Armenian-Turkish newspaper editor Hrant Dink wasn’t so lucky. He
received a six-month suspended sentence for talking about the genocide,
and faces two more trials for similar charges.
It may look like a battle over freedom of speech. In fact,
the defendants say the Armenian Genocide, and the law that bans
“insulting Turkishness,” have become a political football between
Turkish ultranationalists and pre-European politicians.
Anti-Turkish European politicians have entered the fray by passing
laws forbidding citizens to deny that a genocide of Armenians took
place in 1915.
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