It looks like bestselling Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk is in more
hot water with the Turkish governemnt. Now, he may be facing new charges for allegedly insulting the Turkish military during an interview he did with a German newspaper.
Pamuk is already on trial under article 301 of Turkey's revised penal code for telling a Swiss newspaper no one dared discuss the alleged massacre of a million Armenians 90 years ago and the deaths of 30,000 Kurds in the past two decades.
The issue of freedom of speech has dogged every stage of Turkey's efforts to join the European Union. While the EU agreed to start entry talks with Turkey in October, such court cases are likely to hinder Ankara's progress towards full membership.
Nihat Tuna, of publishers Iletisim Yayinlari, said the prosecutor of an Istanbul court that charged Pamuk for denigrating Turkish identity had begun an investigation under the same article.
"This is a preliminary investigation. It does not mean that another case against Pamuk will be launched," Mr Tuna said.
*****
The 53-year-old author of best-sellers My Name is Red and Snow is seen by many as a contender for the Nobel Prize for Literature.
His novels deal with the clash between past and present and the values of East and West from the point of view of a bourgeois intellectual.
It's a disgraceful situation: Mr. Pamuk can't do author interviews or discuss his books because every time he opens his mouth, the Turkish prosecutors charge him with another crime.
