[BRIEF NOTE] More on Turkey and Orhan Pamuk

[rfmcdonald]

From The Telegraph:

An internationally acclaimed Turkish novelist who faces prosecution for speaking out about the mass slaughter of Armenians last century has said the case against him shows his country may not be ready to join the European Union.

Orhan Pamuk, who faces up to three years in jail if convicted at his trial in December of "denigrating Turkey", said that reforms promised by the Turkish government in return for a guarantee of talks on EU membership had not materialised.

Prosecutors provoked a furore across Europe last month by announcing the action against him under the country's recently adopted penal code, which is supposed to bring Turkish criminal law more closely into line with that of EU countries.

In his first interview since the prosecution was announced, Pamuk declared: "Unfortunately I do not believe that Turkey has come very far in this respect. Nothing has happened over the past year. Turkey has sat on the promises that Europe has given and taken it easy."

Although forbidden to comment directly on his own case, the best-selling author added: "Turkey has not changed so much. Laws have been changed, but the thought processes, our culture and our way of seeing things... that has not changed much.

"There have been legal and political changes in the hope of EU membership. But the trial opened against me shows... that the state prosecutors have not changed very much. It shows that there is not much tolerance in society."

Pamuk's comments, in an interview with a German newspaper, come as several countries, including France, have stepped up their effort to block Turkey's entry to the EU after public opposition to the inclusion of such a large, predominantly Muslim, country.