Professor-Novelist May Face Trial, Prison Over Allegations of “Turkish Insult”

The Chronicle of Higher Education and other media outlets report that Elif Shafak, a faculty member at the University of Arizona, and a Turkish citizen, is facing charges that her latest novel, The Bastard of Istabul, violates Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code in that it suggests that Turkey committed genocide during the last century. These charges are similar to those writer Orhan Pamuk faced last year, and that those Turkey has brought against journalists and even a member of EU’s Parliament. Reactions in the EU and in other countries against such prosecutions threaten Turkey’s bid to join the European Union. Read more in an article in the Los Angeles TImes here.