The trial of best-selling Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk was adjourned today amid mounting concern in the European Union that the case could challenge freedom of expression.
A judge in Istanbul said the trial would restart on February 7th, 2006, to give the Justice Ministry time to decide whether the case was in line with judicial procedures.
Mr Pamuk faces a possible three-year jail term for "insulting Turkish identity" by saying that a million Armenians were killed in massacres 90 years ago and 30,000 Kurds in recent decades - issues he says are taboo in the country.
EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn underlined EU concern about limits on freedom of expression in Turkey, which only started membership talks with the bloc in October.
Turkey's best known novelist, and author of My Name is Redand Snow, is charged under Article 301 of the revised Turkish penal code, which has been widely criticised abroad.
The Pamuk interview with a Swiss newspaper in February was published before Turkey's new penal code went into effect. Under the previous legislation, the justice ministry must decide whether such cases go ahead.