Yashar Kemal faces five year jail

[aoturkey at gn.apc.org]

Turkey's most famous author may face 5 years jail
	Turkey's most famous living author Yasar (Yashar) Kemal, 
also the only Turkish novelist to be shortlisted for the Nobel Prize 
for Literature, may face a prison sentence of up to five years if 
found guilty by a special State Security Court for violating a 
controversial law inhibiting the freedom of expression in that 
country. 
	Kemal, himself of Kurdish origin, appeared before an 
Istanbul court this month owing to an article published in the 
January 10 edition of the German news weekly Der Spiegel. 
Prosecutors later brought formal charges against him demanding 
up to five years jail!
	His Der Spiegel article, "Campaign of Lies," described the 
Turkish state as "a system of unbearable repression and atrocity," 
claiming that 70 years of official denial of the Kurdish identity in 
Turkey had justified a Kurdish rebellion and that the demand for 
an independent Kurdish homeland was also "a justifiable human 
right." 
		"We want him tried under article eight of the antiterror 
law," the State Security Court prosecutor told reporters Monday, 
noting that this article carried a two to five-year prison term and a 
fine of 50 to 100 million lira ($1,250-$2,500).   
	"They could convict me," Kemal agreed after appearing at 
court. "But in the eyes of the Turks and people around the world, 
I won't be guilty." 
		The investigation against this renowned author at 71 years 
of age was launched after Turkey's sensationalist press, led by the 
mass circulation daily Hurriyet, published translated paragraphs 
of the original Der Spiegel article. Kemal claimed the case was 
being built on this translation but agreed that the views worded 
were his. "By making such statements against Turkey," said 
Hurriyet columnist Emin Colasan, "he appears to be indenting to 
secure the Nobel prize." 
	Kemal appeared in Monday's hearing accompanied by a 
crowd of supporting artists, journalists and writers who are now 
organizing a campaign on his behalf. "I am a separatist, 
apparently," Kemal told them. "But I have not the smallest trace 
of guilt," he added, amid their applause. 
	A petition passed around the courthouse by his supporters 
pointed out that at least 100 Turkish intellectuals, among them 
prominent writers and academicians, had recently been jailed for 
speeches or writings mostly related to Turkey's Kurdish problem. 
		Turkey's tough anti-separatism laws have led to dozens of 
controversial convictions over the past two years, leading recently 
to the jailing of eight elected members of the parliament. 
		"Yashar Kemal told Der Spiegel democracy is limited 
here," Turkey's best-seller author Orhan Pamuk commented on 
the case. "The state is proving this...If someone is going to the 
state security court for writing such things, this shows the writer 
is telling the truth. I support wholly what Kemal wrote." 
		According to said leading actor-director Rutkay Aziz, 
Kemal did not want the division of Turkey as claimed, but was 
facing punishment "for wanting a peaceful solution for all the 
blood and tears." 
	Over 13,000 people have died in a decade-long bloody war 
between guerillas of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and 
government troops in Southeast Turkey but the government and 
military still maintain the problem has no social or cultural roots 
and is of "terrorist nature" alone. Ankara 
has recently turned down another offer by the PKK to lay down 
the arms and start a dialogue for a peaceful solution to the crisis 
within the framework of Turkish sovereignty. 
Turkey's human rights record over the Kurdish crisis has 
gone worse since 1990, filled with allegations of mass evacuation 
and torching of Kurdish villages, bombing of civilian targets, 
extensive torture and arbitrary detentions aside from a country-
wide roundup of intellectuals. The Yashar Kemal case is expected 
to further strain Ankara's relations with the West coming at a 
time Turkey is trying to secure a customs union agreement with 
the European Union. 
Already, Ankara has been stormed with protest messages 
coming from international organizations in Kemal's defense. In a 
telegram it sent to Prime Minister Tansu Ciller on Monday, the 
London-based international centre against censorship, Article 19, 
emphasized that this and similar cases were in violation of Article 
10 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human 
Rights (ECHR) which is also binding by Turkish law. "We urge 
your government to drop any charges pending against Yashar 
Kemal, and to reaffirm, in public, that he and other Turkish 
writers will be fully protected in the exercise of their professional 
activities," the telegram said. 
Ends