Author Faces Trial for ‘Insulting Turkishness’

National Public Radio (NPR)
SHOW: Weekend Edition Saturday 1:00 PM EST
July 22, 2006 Saturday

ANCHORS: SCOTT SIMON

In her new novel, The Bastard of Istanbul, author Elif Shafak
writes about two families, one Turkish, living in Istanbul, and the
other Armenian, living in California. An Armenian character hears
that a family member will marry a Turk and says, Only a handful of
Turks come from Central Asia, right? Then the next thing you know,
they’re everywhere. What happened to the millions of Armenians who are
already there, assimilated, massacred, orphaned, deported, and then
forgotten? How can you give your flesh and blood daughter to those
who are responsible for our being so few, and in so much pain today?

For those words and more, Ms. Shafak, who is a Turk, faces three
years in prison under that nation’s Article 301 for insulting
Turkishness. Now, Ms. Shafak has been on our show before. She filed
a story last year that took us on a journey down an Istanbul street
where she once lived. Ms. Shafak also teaches Near East Studies at
the University of Arizona. She commutes back and forth between Turkey
and Arizona. She joins us now from Istanbul.

Ms. Shafak, thanks very much for being with us.

Professor ELIF SHAFAK (Author, The Bastard of Istanbul): Thank you
for having me.

SIMON: And please tell us the legal side first. I gather that the
charges were first rejected by a lower court. Then what happened?

Prof. SHAFAK: First, the prosecutors interrogated me and my Turkish
publisher. At the end of that process, the prosecutor decided there
would be no need for a trial. And we were all relieved because we
thought the case had been dropped.

SIMON: Yeah.

Prof. SHAFAK: But it turns out, when they heard the prosecutor’s
decision, these ultranationalist lawyers, they took the complaint
to a higher court and somehow eventually they managed to have the
prosecutor’s decision repealed. So we went back to square one, may
be to an even worse point, in sense that trial was automatically
initiated. And right now we are waiting to hear the dates of the
hearings. There will be several hearings. It will be a long legal
battle from now on.

SIMON: Of course, very famously, last year another famous Turkish
novelist, Orhan Pamuk, was brought up on charges of Article 301,
and then eventually the government got rid of the case. There was a
lot international outcry. Is that the best you can hope for in this
situation? Do you want to go to trial?

Prof. SHAFAK: I’m hoping, you know, a similar outcome will take
place. I’m hoping that the case will be dropped eventually. But what is
frustrating is, as you walk in and out of the court, usually there’s
a bunch of ultra-nationalists tramping outside.

SIMON: Mm hmm.

Prof. SHAFAK: (Unintelligible) very, very aggressive, so that process
is also a bit unnerving for me. Just this week we had a negative
conviction under Article 301.

SIMON: Mm hmm.

Prof. SHAFAK: The editor-in-chief of the Armenian newspaper,
(unintelligible) conviction was verified by the higher court. So that
was an unexpected development. There are several intellectuals going
through this process, unfortunately.

SIMON: Mm hmm. And it has been reported in the press – I’m not breaking
a news story here – that you’re also expecting a child soon.

Prof. SHAFAK: That is correct, yes.

SIMON: If you’re amenable to the question, where would you like your
child to be born?

Prof. SHAFAK: Originally, I was planning to come back to the States.
But under these circumstances, it would be more difficult for
me to travel. So I decided to stay in Istanbul. But I’m fine with
that. I mean, as long as the child is healthy, that’s fine. I am not
complaining about that.

SIMON: Ms. Shafak, has your novel appeared in Turkey yet?

Prof. SHAFAK: Yes. And my experience has been quite positive, ever
since the day the book came out. I have been giving readings all over
Turkey from the Diyarbakir to Isnis. The book sold more than 50,000
copies. And it became a bestseller for three months. So the general
reception of the book was quite positive, both in the media and in
the civil society.

That said, I did also receive some hateful messages, some poisonous
letters and reactions. And, interestingly, most of them came from
the Turks living in the States. I sometimes tend to think the Turks
living abroad tend to be more conservative, sometimes more nationalist,
than the Turks in Turkey.

But other than that, my experience with the society in Turkey has
been quite positive, actually. That’s why I think what’s going on
right now is a backlash.

SIMON: Is a backlash to the success of the book?

Prof. SHAFAK: It is a backlash in a more general sense, as well. I
think in Turkey there’s a clash of opinions. On the one hand
are the people who are much more cosmopolitan minded, much more
multi-cultural, who want to keep Turkey as an open society, who very
much wholeheartedly support the E.U. process. But on the other hand
are the people who want to maintain Turkey as an enclosed society,
more xenophobic, more nationalist, more insular. So there’s a clash
of opinions between these two sides.

SIMON: Ms. Shafak’s current novel is The Bastard of Istanbul.

Elif Shafak, thank you very much.

Prof. SHAFAK: Thank you. I appreciate it.

Our conversation with the past has been broken. But our history, our
stories lie here in the layers just beneath our feet. As a storyteller,
it is my job to collect them. Sometimes I liken my writings to walking
on a pile of rubble. Atop the pile, I stop and listen for the sounds
of breathing amid the stones. Look to the stories beneath your feet.

SIMON: This is WEEKEND EDITION. I’m Scott Simon.