Author of biography on Ataturk’s wife charged with insulting late leader
By SUZAN FRASER
AP Worldstream; Aug 18, 2006
A Turkish prosecutor has charged an author with insulting the revered
late leader Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in a biography about his wife,
the book’s publisher said Friday.
Ipek Calislar, the latest in a series of writers charged under Turkey’s
freedom-curbing laws, faces up to 4 1/2 years in prison if found
guilty of insulting Ataturk, said Vahit Uysal of Dogan Publishing.
The European Union _ which Turkey hopes to join _ has been exerting
heavy pressure on the country to get rid of repressive laws and to
improve freedoms.
The prosecutor also filed charges against Necdet Tatlican, an
editor for Hurriyet newspaper, which published excerpts of the book,
"Latife Hanim," Uysal said.
In the book, Calislar says that the Turkish leader, facing an
assassination attempt, left the presidential palace in a chador,
disguised as a woman.
The charges were initiated by a Hurriyet reader, Huseyin Tugrul Pekin,
who petitioned the prosecutor saying, "to claim that … Ataturk,
whom no one could even attempt to weigh his courage, would have done
something like this … is the greatest insult."
Trial was set for Oct. 5.
Calislar’s book is the first comprehensive biography of Latife Ussaki,
who was married to Ataturk for about two years until he divorced her
in 1925.
The book became a best-seller within days of its publication in June
and helped to dispel a long-held image of her as a reviled woman
blamed for the break up of the marriage. It portrayed her, instead,
as a strong-willed woman who advanced women’s rights in Turkey.
Calislar said Friday that the passage in question was based on accounts
from Latife’s sister Vecihe Ilmen and other sources.
"The assassination attempt … is a historic fact," Calislar said in
a statement e-mailed to The Associated Press. Ataturk’s escape in a
woman’s clothing "was a decision Ataturk made at a critical time and
was successful," she said.
"Historians may discuss the issue, but I don’t think that the issue
is of any concern to lawyers."
Calislar joins a long list of journalists and writers charged with
insulting Turkey, "Turkishness" or state institutions.
In the most prominent case, novelist Orhan Pamuk stood trial this
year on charges of insulting "Turkishness" for commenting on the
mass killings of Armenians by Turks around the time of World War I,
which a number of governments and scholars have said was the first
genocide of the 20th century.
The charges were dropped amid intense international pressure.
Turkey vehemently denies that the mass killings were genocide, saying
the death toll is inflated and Armenians were killed in civil unrest
as the Ottoman Empire collapsed.
On Sept. 21, author Elif Safak is to stand trial because of the words
uttered by a fictional Armenian character in her novel "The Bastard
of Istanbul."
In the book, an Armenian character refers to "Turkish butchers."
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government has made clear
it has no plans to change laws used to prosecute Pamuk and others,
saying the charges are eventually dropped and defendants are acquitted.
EU officials argue, however, that even if the charges are dropped,
the threat of prosecution remains as a deterrent against people
wishing to express opinions.