The New York Times

Arts, Briefly

Compiled by PETER EDIDIN
Published: January 27, 2007

[other stuff removed from compilation]

A Novelist Under Threat

The Turkish novelist Elif Shafak has sharply curtailed her book tour
in the United States because of fears for her safety, her publisher
said yesterday. Ms. Shafak was scheduled to promote her new novel,
"The Bastard of Istanbul," in six cities, including Chicago, Los
Angeles and Seattle, but has canceled everything but a visit to New
York on Feb. 5. Ms. Shafak has been sued by a right-wing Turkish
attorney, Kemal Kerincsiz, who said her new novel’s characters were
guilty of "insulting Turkishness" by referring to the "millions" of
Armenians "massacred" by Turks. Ms. Shafak was placed under police
protection in Turkey, where she lives part time, after the murder of
Hrant Dink, a newspaper editor who was prosecuted for challenging the
official Turkish version of the 1915 Armenian genocide. Paul Slovak,
the publisher of Viking, said that while Ms. Shafak had received no
specific threats in the United States, she had been attacked as an
"enemy of the state" on ultra-nationalist Web sites. "It’s a situation
where you want to be as careful as you can and not take any chances,"
he said. JULIE BOSMAN