TURKISH PROSECUTOR PROBES ATHEIST BOOK

The Associated Press
Nov 28 2007

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) – A Turkish prosecutor has launched a probe into
whether a book by best-selling atheist writer Richard Dawkins is an
attack on religious values – a move that could lead to the prosecution
of the book’s Turkish publisher.

Publisher Erol Karaaslan said Wednesday he would be questioned by an
Istanbul prosecutor on Thursday as part of the official investigation
into Dawkins’ book, "The God Delusion."

Karaaslan could face trial and up to one year in prison if the
prosecutor concludes that the book "incites religious hatred" and
insults religious values, Milliyet newspaper reported. Karaaslan is
both the publisher and translator of the book.

The investigation of the British scientist’s book comes at a time when
Turkey has been criticized for targeting writers and intellectuals
for expressing opinions. The European Union, which Turkey hopes to
join, is pressing Ankara to change laws that curb free expression,
calling them inconsistent with the bloc’s free speech standards.

Turkey said this month it would soften a much-criticized law that makes
denigrating Turkish identity, or insulting the country’s institutions,
a crime.

The Nobel Prize-winning author Orhan Pamuk was among the highest
profile Turks snared by the law, when he commented on the mass killings
of Armenians by Turks in the early 20th century.

Historians estimate up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed by
Ottoman Turks around the time of World War I, an event widely viewed
by genocide scholars as the first genocide of the 20th century.

Turkey, however, denies the deaths constituted genocide, saying that
the toll has been inflated and that those killed were victims of
civil war and unrest.

A probe was launched into "The God Delusion" after one reader
complained that passages in the book were an assault on "sacred
values," Karaaslan said.

No one was available for comment at the prosecutor’s office.

The book has sold some 6,000 copies in Turkey since it was published
by Karaaslan’s Kuzey publishing house in June.