It was only yesterday that I posted
an item on a few of the literary delights of Turkey.
Now comes news from the
Berliner Zeitung (courtesy of signandsight) of a Turkish writer facing four-and-a-half years in prison if found guilty of insulting the founder of modern Turkey.
Ömer Erzeren reports on new charges being brought against an author in Turkey. "After Orhan Pamuk and Elif Shafak, now the Istanbul journalist Ipek Calislar is being arraigned. Prosecutors
are calling for four and a half years' imprisonment for 'crimes against Ataturk,' stipulated in a law dating back to 1951. Calislar is the author of 'Latife Hanim' (Mrs Latife), a biography of the wife of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the Turkish Republic. The trial is scheduled to start in October. The case rests on Calislar's portrayal of an incident from the early days of the Republic. During an attempted putsch, Latife organised Ataturk's escape by dressing him in a chador, while she fooled the putschists by dressing in men's clothing and impersonating her husband."
Read more about the case
here.
--Marshal Zeringue
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