Thursday, Sep 21 2006 9:56 am GMT+2

Elif ªafak’s trial begins
Thursday, September 21, 2006

ISTANBUL – Turkish Daily News — Novelist and TDN writer Elif ªafak
will today face the court on charges of insulting Turkishness for
what a fictional character in her book, "The bastard of Istanbul,"
says about the killings of Armenians in 1915.

"The Bastard of Istanbul" is a sweeping saga of four generations of
women moving between Turkey and the United States and recounting the
tale of an Armenian family that fled the massacres of 1915, leaving
behind a child who was reared as a Turk and a Muslim.

Charges against ªafak are based on the controversial Turkish Penal
Code (TCK) Article 301 that criminalizes any insult to the state,
state institutions, top officials and Turkishness.

Many other famous journalists and novelists have been subject of trials
based on the article and the government is under pressure to change it.

ªafak, who last weekend became a mother, will not attend Thursday’s
court session.

YTL 5,000 for insulting the PM:

Birgun daily columnist Erbil Tuºalp was found guilty yesterday of
insulting Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, with the Ankara
25th Criminal Court ordering the journalist to pay YTL 5,000 in
compensation.

Tuºalp was found guilty of insulting the prime minister for comments
he made in an article, where he asked if Erdogan had suffered from
a high-fever as a child and used the term, "psychotic aggressive,"
to describe him.

Tuºalp’s lawyer argued the comments were not insults, but criticisms,
failing to convince the court.

Erdogan had asked for YTL 10,000 in compensation.

–Boundary_(ID_pux6HxliC5wIMMJtktS7 sg)–