Turkey jails translation publisher
Turkish publisher Ragip Zarakolu has just been handed down a two year prison sentence for the crime of “insulting the Turkish Nation”. Now you might be wondering just what kind of major insult Zarakolu could have perpetrated that could have insulted the entire nation; well it seems that his crime was to have published a Turkish translation of “The Truth Will Set Us Free (Armenians and Turks reconciled)” by British author George Jerjian.
The book itself centres upon an age old bitterness regarding the struggle between the Armenians and the Ottoman Turks in the early 20th century resulting in a long alleged genocide against the Armenians by the Turks. The book though, instead of apportioning blame, looks to research both sides’ arguments in a non-partisan manner and to offer some suggestions as to a peaceful path to a final reconciliation between the two parties.
Unfortunately, in democratic Turkey, even semi-critical comments regarding Turkish history can very easily become classed as criminal acts. Turkey, by the way is a member of the OSCE states (The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe) whose participants have all committed to the Helsinki Agreement which provides for the free flow of information and ideas.
All I can say is that it’s a good job that I’m not in Turkey right now; otherwise this blog might land me in the same position as Ragip Zarakolu!