SUPREME COURT ALLOWS COMPENSATION CLAIMS AGAINST ORHAN PAMUK

BIA Magazine
May 15 2009
Turkey

Although a criminal case against him was dropped, the Supreme Court
has decreed for the second time that people can claim compensation
from the writer.

Orhan Pamuk faced a trial under the controversial Article 301 after
saying "30,000 Kurds and one million Armenians were killed on this
soil" in an interview in Switzerland. He was accused of "denigrating
Turkishness". The Ministry of Justice withheld permission for
prosecution, so the case was dropped.

The criminal case was dropped, yet he still faces compensation claims.

Six people filed compensation claim Pakize Alp Akbaba, president of the
Istanbul Mothers of Martyrs Solidarity and Support Association, lawyer
Kemal Kerincsiz, himself now a detained defendant in the Ergenekon
trial, and four other people have demanded 36,000 Liras compensation.

The Å~^iÅ~_li 3rd Civil Court of First Instance in Istanbul has twice
rejected the compensation claims.

According to the Radikal newspaper, the Å~^iÅ~_li court had decreed
that no one could claim compensation for "an attack on personal rights"
just for being a member of the Turkish nation.

However, the plaintiffs lodged an appeal, and the 4th Chamber of the
Supreme Court of Appeals decreed that the plaintiffs fulfilled the
conditions for making a claim. If personal rights had been attacked,
it decreed, the legislation should be applied.

The Supreme Court pointed out that according to Article 66 of the
Constitution, "Everyone connected to the Turkish State with the bond
of citizenship is Turkish", and that just as individuals had honour,
feelings of belonging to a nation were also part of personal values.

When the Å~^iÅ~_li court rejected the compensation claim for a second
time, the case was sent to the Supreme Court of Appeal’s General
Assembly, which again overturned the local court’s decree.

It now remains to be seen whether the Å~^iÅ~_li court will resist
the Supreme Court a third time…