TURK WRITER SAYS SHE LOOKS FORWARD TO START OF TRIAL
by Susanne Fowler

The International Herald Tribune
September 19, 2006 Tuesday

Elif Shafak, the Turkish author, is awaiting clearance from a doctor
to attend her trial that starts in Istanbul this week. She is being
prosecuted on charges she insulted "Turkishness" because characters in
her book, "The Bastard of Istanbul," refer to the deaths of Armenians
in 1915 as genocide.

"Of course the court will not be postponing this trial," Shafak said
Monday by telephone from the Istanbul hospital where she gave birth to
a daughter by Caesarean section on Saturday. "I am planning to attend,
hoping to attend."

Shafak said a decision would be made Tuesday.

The case is seen as a test of Turkey’s commitment to freedom of
expression as it negotiates to join the European Union.

"It’s no longer an Elif Shafak case, not a private case," said the
French-born Shafak, 34. "It should be turned into a trial against
Article 301," the section of the Turkish Criminal Code under which
she is being prosecuted.

The nationalists who sued her are rallying their supporters by
circulating statements urging a strong turnout.

Among those planning to appear in support of Shafak are envoys from
International PEN, the worldwide association of writers that is based
in London. Eugene Schoulgin, a PEN board member in Istanbul, said
Monday: "What will most likely happen in Shafak’s case is that there
will be one or two hearings and the case will either be dismissed or
she will be acquitted. But what is unacceptable is that Turkey opens
these kinds of trials in the first place."

Meanwhile, Shafak and her husband, Eyup Can, were welcoming their
daughter, Shehrazade Zelda, named for the storyteller of "The 1,001
Arabian Nights" and the wife of another novelist, F. Scott Fitzgerald.