Nobel Prize-winning writer in literature Orhan Pamuk is being investigated by the Turkish state for "insulting" the founder of modern Turkey and mocking the Turkish flag in his new novel "Plague Nights".
Pamuk, who denies the allegations, published the book in Turkey in March. Located on an imaginary Ottoman island during a bubonic plague outbreak in the early 1900s, the first complaint against the book was filed in April, when a lawyer accused the writer of inciting "hatred and hostility" by insulting Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and mocked the flag of Turkey. An Istanbul court decided not to pursue the claim due to lack of evidence, but the lawyer who raised the case, Tarcan .lük, appealed the decision and the investigation is now reopened.
Pamuk has previously been prosecuted for "insulting" after mentioning in an interview the killings of Armenians and Kurds in 1915. These charges were dropped in 2006 - the same year Pamuk won the Nobel Prize in Literature, recognized as an author that "in search of the melancholy spirit of his hometown he has discovered new symbols for the clash and intermingling of cultures."
Law 5816, under which Pamuk is now being investigated, aims to protect the "memory of Ataturk" from insulting any Turkish citizen. If convicted, Pamuk faces up to three years in prison.
Shën.red. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk is considered one of the most important political leaders of the twentieth century. He undertook reforms which modernized Turkey into a secular nation. His policies are known as Kemalism and include political, social, cultural and religious reforms that separated Turkey from the Ottoman tradition. Some scholars have said that his father, Ali Riza, was Albanian, a claim that has been denied by others.
In a statement to the Turkish news agency Bianet, Pamuk denied the latest allegations.
"In the 'Plague Nights', for which I worked for five years, there is no lack of respect for the heroic founders of nation-states founded by the ashes of empires or for Ataturk. "On the contrary, the novel is written with respect and admiration for these freedom-loving and heroic leaders," he said.
He was supported by free speech organizations around the world, which urged authorities not to prosecute him.
"Orhan Pamuk is the national treasure of Turkey, a literary treasure whose words resonate all over the globe and should be celebrated as such, yet he finds himself once again the target of his writings," said Burhan Sönmez, president of the worldwide PEN International Writers Association. "Turkish authorities have repeatedly used criminal defamation laws to silence those who dare to speak out, and this case is no exception."
According to PEN America, at least 25 writers were jailed last year by the Turkish government, the third highest number in the world. The Turkish Publishers Association also called on prosecutors to drop the investigation.
Sources: Guardian, PEN America
