Pamuk Faces Charges for Speaking Out on Genocide
One of Turkey's best known writers, Orhan Pamuk, faces prosecution for "denigrating Turkish identity". The charge, which carries a three-year prison sentence relates to comments he made in an interview with a Swiss newspaper three years ago, condemning the massacre of Kurds and Armenians in the aftermath of World War I. Some 30,000 Kurds and one million Armenians are believed to have been killed in the massacres which Turkey has always officially denied. Pamuk is the author of several works translated into English, including Red, Snow, and the widely acclaimed Istanbul. In July he was one of several writers who campaigned for the release of Yektan Turkyilmaz who had been placed on trial for "smuggling" antiquarian Armenian books from Armenia into Turkey.