TURKISH PUBLISHER CONVICTED OVER ARMENIAN GENOCIDE CLAIMS
Robert Tait in Istanbul
guardian.co.uk,
June 19, 2008
The publisher of a book by a British author acknowledging the 1915
Armenian genocide has been convicted under Turkey’s notorious Article
301, despite reforms intended to make the law less draconian.
Ragip Zarakolu was sentenced to five months in prison after a judge
ruled that The Truth Will Set Us Free, written by George Jerjian,
"insulted the Turkish republic".
He is not expected to serve time after the judge ruled that his
sentence could be reduced to a fine, citing good behaviour.
The conviction came despite a letter of support from the author to the
court arguing that his book was intended to forge a "new understanding
of history between Turks and Armenians".
Translated into Turkish in 2005, Jerjian’s book tells the story
of the slaughter of 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman forces during
the first world war through the eyes of his Armenian grandmother,
who survived largely thanks to the protection of a Turkish soldier.
Turkey disputes allegations that the Armenians’ deaths were a result
of deliberate genocide.
Zarakolu, who was acquitted of a separate charge of insulting Mustafa
Kemal Ataturk, founder of the modern Turkish state, has been freed
on appeal.
The case, which has lasted more than two years, prompted MEPs, human
rights organisation and the international writers’ group, Pen, to
campaign on Zarakolu’s behalf.
His conviction is the first since Turkey revised Article 301 in April
under pressure from domestic and foreign critics who saw it as the
country’s most significant restriction on free speech.
The altered law banished the crime of insulting "Turkishness" and
reduced the maximum sentence from three to two years. It also lay down
that all prosecutions need prior approval from the justice minister.
Zarakolu, owner of the Belge publishing house, was originally
prosecuted under the previous provisions. The law was first introduced
by the ruling Justice and Development party (AKP) in 2005 and has
been used to prosecute 60 writers and journalists.
They include the Nobel prize-winning author, Orhan Pamuk, who told a
Swiss newspaper that no one in Turkey dared mention the Armenian deaths
or those of 30,000 Kurds. The charges against Pamuk were dropped.
The law was also used against Hrant Dink, a Turkish-Armenian newspaper
editor who was shot dead by a nationalist extremist in Istanbul
last year.
Dink, who campaigned for recognition of the crimes against Armenians,
was prosecuted three times and convicted once. The last charges were
dropped after his murder.