GOVERNMENT AGENCY CALLS ON TURKEY TO DROP CHARGES AGAINST WRITER

The Associated Press
10/13/05 18:03 EDT

WASHINGTON (AP) – A U.S. government human rights group is calling
on Turkey to drop charges against Orhan Pamuk, a writer indicted for
speaking openly on the Armenian question.

The appeal was made by commissioners of the U.S. Helsinki Commission,
which monitors rights issues, mostly in Europe.

They sent a letter to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan,
urging him to authorize the removal of charges against Pamuk.

Pamuk is charged with “public denigration of the Turkish identity.”

“A stable democracy cannot blossom until the government ends the
practice of stifling free speech and removes the clouds of deception
and censorship from a true telling of history,” said Commission
Co-Chairman Rep. Christopher Smith.

The commission, known formally as the Commission on Security and
Cooperation in Europe, monitors progress in the implementation of
the provisions of the 1975 Helsinki Accords.

The Commission consists of 18 members of the U.S. Congress and
representatives from three cabinet agencies.

Eastern Turkey was once a heartland of Armenian culture but was
consumed by ethnic conflict as the Ottoman Empire splintered at the
end of World War I.

Yerevan says Turks slaughtered 1.5 million Armenians. Turkey strongly
denies there was any genocide, saying Armenians were killed due to
civil unrest.