Article 301 discussed in new Turkish book

A new non-fiction book explores the role of the Turkish media and government in the 2007 murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink.

Dink, who was editor-in-chief of Agos, was shot outside his office in Istanbul on Jan. 19, 2007. At the time he was on trial for violating Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code, which condemns insults directed toward Turkish identity. Dink had written and published a well-researched article suggesting that Sabiha Gokcen, the adopted daughter of first president Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and Turkey's first female pilot, was of Armenian origin, and this suggested link between the nation's founder and its opposed enemy was considered blasphemous.

The Hrant Dink Murder – The Media, Judiciary, State by judiciary reporter Kemal Goktas examines the murderous consequences of Article 301, which has also been used against novelists Elif Safak and Orhan Pamuk.

Turkish novelists protest dam

Despite withdrawal of international monetary support, the Turkish government will proceed with construction of the controversial Ilisu Dam in the southeast of the country.

Novelists Orhan Pamuk and Yasar Kemal, as well as pop singer Tarsan, have protested its erection because they say it lacks sufficient funds, proper environmental planning, and a resettlement plan for the citizens of nearby Hasankeyf, a ten thousand-year-old city with a majority Kurd population. The city, which has spanned nine civilizations, will be largely destroyed by the proposed dam, along with its cave churches, mosques, and Islamic tombs.

The World Monuments Fund listed the ancient city as one of the hundred most endangered historical cities in 2008.

Orhan Pamuk Re-Trialed

Nobel-Prize winning author Orhan Pamuk is to be tried a second time for violating article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code, which punishes "contempt of the Turkish national identity." The offense--telling a Swiss magazine interviewer "we Turkish have killed 30,000 Kurds and a million Armenians and nobody, apart from me, dares to speak about it in Turkey"--was dismissed by the Supreme Court in January of 2008 but is to be tried again under the assumption that the judges were incorrect the first time.

If found guilty this time, Pamuk, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2006 for his "quest for the melancholic soul of his native city" Istanbul, may face fines running to millions of dollars, since every Turkish citizen will be entitled to seek compensation for defamation of the Turkish image.