Writer Pamuk threatened following comments about Turkey's past: Greens ask Erdogan to step up efforts to defend free speech

Members of the Greens/EFA Group in the European Parliament have written to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and urged him to better protect freedom of expression in Turkey. Daniel Cohn-Bendit, Joost Lagendijk and Cem Özdemir were motivated to write the letter by a recent hate campaign towards prominent novelist Orhan Pamuk. Turkey's best selling novelist has been threatened and defamed since making remarks in an interview with a Swiss newspaper about the lack of public acknowledgement of the past killings of Armenians and Kurds in Turkey. Pamuk's books have since been destroyed and pictures of him defaced.

In the letter the Green MEPs criticise the violent and heated atmosphere that has been instigated and orchestrated by biased media reports and political forces. They also condemn what appears to be a campaign against dissenting voices, and call for Prime Minister Erdogan to do more to protect the fundamental rights of Turkish citizens to speak freely and openly discuss difficult issues.

Joost Lagendijk, is the Chair and Cem Özdemir is a member of the Parliament's Turkey Delegation, and Daniel Cohn-Bendit is Co-President of the Greens/EFA Group. The text of the letter follows.

Note for editors:The Greens/EFA Group will hold a conference next week on "The Future of the Past: Armenians in Turkey," from 15:00-17:00, on Tuesday, 12 April 2005 in room LOW S2.2 of the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

Source: www.greens-efa.org/cms/pressreleases/dok/101/101576.writer_pamuk_threatened_following_commen@en.htm