Turkish Authorities Drop Charges Against Novelist

Turkey has dropped criminal charges of “insulting Turkishness” against novelist Orhan Pamuk after a five week trial. Pamuk made comments to which the Turkish government objected, including remarks that Turkey had participated in genocide against Armenians, in an interview given to the Swiss newspaper Tages Anzeiger in February of 2005. The Turkish government has always maintained that it has never committed genocide. Some member states of the EU have objected that Turkey’s criminal code punishes free speech. Read more here. Read a prior post here.