THREE YEARS’ IMPRISONMENT WITH ACCUSATION OF "INSULTING TURKISH IDENTITY" THREATENS TURKISH INTELLECTUAL

Noyan Tapan
Armenians Today
Mar 14 2007

ANKARA, MARCH 14, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. Three years’
imprisonment with the accusation of "insulting Turkish indentity"
threatens Turkish intellectual, professor Atila Yayla.

During a lecture organized in 2006 November in Izmir Yayla had
criticized the political line of the founder of Turkish Republic –
Kemalism, and had declared: "In the future they will ask us why we
paste Ataturk’s pictures and erect monuments to that man everywhere."

According to the Turkish Daily News, the lawsuit brought against
Yayla mentioned that Yayla "insulted" Ataturk by using the expression
"that man" when speaking about him.

To recap, immediataly after the above mentioned statement of the
Turkish intellectual he was dismissed from his post of lecturer.