Trial of Turkish author adjourned The trial of Turkey's bestselling novelist, Orhan Pamuk, was today adjourned almost as soon as it opened.Every now and then the Turkish government does something utterly repressive that reminds you exactly why Turkey will never be a member of the EU. Hey Turks, your government is a repressive semi-authoritarian regime, and Pamuk is right to point out that 30,000 people had died in the Turkish military's ongoing conflict with the Kurdish insurgency in the south-east of the country.
Mr Pamuk is on trial for "denigrating" Turkishness, and faces up to three years in jail if found guilty. His case has attracted international concern over freedom of expression.
The presiding judge ordered a halt to the proceedings while the ministry of justice decides whether a new law making it a crime to insult the national identity could be applied to the novelist's case.
When truth is supressed at the hands of a government, we have a few names for that government: fascist, authoritarian, dictatorship, communist.
You know, it isn't any different than flag burning. There are people in this country who would make it a crime to burn the American flag. So what does that say about the United States?
Pamuk's book My Name Is Red is a good one.
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