Description of Incident: Shafak, her publisher, Semi Sokmen and her translator were charged with ﾓInsulting Turkishnessﾔ because of the content of Shafakﾒs novel. However, on June 7, 2006, the Beyoglu Public Prosecutor agreed to dismiss the charges because Shafakﾒs novel is fictional. However, a member of the right wing legal group, ﾓUnity of Juristsﾔ disagreed with the dismissal and filed a complaint. Because of the complaint, the 7th High Criminal Court decided to reinstate the charges and to go on with the trial.

Other Turkish writers face similar charges of ﾓinsulting Turkishness.ﾔ This charge comes from Article 301/1 of the Turkish Penal Code stating ﾓA person who explicitly insults being a Turk, the Republic of Turkish Grand National Assembly, shall be imposed to a penalty of imprisonment for a term of six months to three years.ﾔ At least fifteen journalists, editors and publishers will go or have gone to trial based on this section of the Turkish Penal Code. One writer, Orhan Pamuk, was charged with ﾓinsulting Turkishnessﾔ after he stated in an interview thatﾔ thirty thousand Kurds and a million Armenians were killed in these lands and nobody but me dares to talk about it.ﾔ Others include Fatih Tas the publisher of a Noam Chomsky book, five journalists who criticized a 2005 conference on the Armenian genocide and Abdullah Yilmaz the editor in chief of the publisher of the Turkish edition of Mara Meimaridiﾒs novel, "The Witches of Smyrna."

Results of Incident: These actions are negatively affecting Turkeyﾒs application to join the European Union. The "Unity of Jurists," supporters of the ﾓinsulting Turkishnessﾔ proceedings, do not want Turkey to join the European Union and thus continue encouraging the proceedings to disturb the application process.

The trials for those charged with ﾓinsulting Turkishnessﾔ are often hostile and dangerous environments. At Orhan Pamukﾒs trial, supporters of the Prosecution threatened and spit on the defendants outside the courthouse. The defendants needed to be escorted out of the courthouse by the police because of the crowdﾒs violent behavior. A witness to the situation described it as ﾓattempted lynching.ﾔ

Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code increases the probability that writers and journalists will face prosecution and that those convicted will face imprisonment. The current situation for writers and journalists is worse than it was in the 1990s when many writers faced imprisonment because of their work. Turkey reforemd its Penal Code after receiving criticism from Europe in conjunction with their application to the European Union.