TURKEY: Turkey's "provocative" plan to prosecute novelist Orhan Pamuk shows that some members of its judiciary are resisting reforms vital to Ankara's drive to join the European Union, the EU's enlargement chief said yesterday.
Mr Pamuk faces up to three years in jail for backing allegations that Armenians suffered genocide at Ottoman Turkish hands 90 years ago - a highly sensitive issue in Turkey, due to start EU membership talks on October 3rd. Turkish prosecutors are also investigating comments by the best-selling author that some 30,000 Kurds were killed more recently in Turkey in separatist clashes with security forces.
"I find a recent decision to prosecute writer Orhan Pamuk raises serious concern," EU enlargement commissioner Dr Olli Rehn told the European Parliament's foreign affairs committee.
"A decision . . . to bring the court case on December 16th . . . cannot be just a coincidence. I think it is a provocation." December 16th is the first anniversary of an EU decision to open entry talks with Turkey.
Mr Pamuk's comments during an newspaper interview drew an angry reaction from Turkish nationalists and politicians.
The public prosecutor in Istanbul's Sisli district found Mr Pamuk's remarks violated Turkey's revised penal code, which deems denigration of the "Turkish identity" a crime.
Dr Rehn said he was worried some Turkish prosecutors interpreted the code in a way that breaches the European Convention of Human Rights, undermining Turkey's quest to join the EU. - (Reuters)