Yet Another Turkish Author on Trial for Defaming “Turkishness”

Watch out aspiring Turkish authors…don’t attempt to write anything negative about the country, people, history or civilization of your country. Not only will your book -not- be a bestseller (at least in your own country), you’ll end up in court and possibly jail.

First it was the Nobel prize contender Orhan Pamuk , then two female authors, Perihan Magden and Elif Shafak and now, Ipek Calislar, the latest in a series of writers charged under Turkey’s freedom-curbing laws, faces up to 4 1/2 years in prison if convicted of insulting Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. International Herald Tribune has the story on this the latest of four Turkish authors detained for writing what they deemed to be the truth.