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**Joseph** · 07-17-2006, 10:54 AM

U. of Arizona Professor Faces Charges in Turkey Over New Novel

By AISHA LABI

Elif Shafak, a professor of Turkish and women's studies in the university's department of Near Eastern studies, has been charged with "denigrating Turkishness" in The Bastard of Istanbul. "The novel deals with the question of 'memory and amnesia,' mainly through Turkish and Armenian women's stories," Ms. Shafak explained by e-mail. "It deals with two particular taboos in Turkish society. One of them is a political taboo -- the Armenian question. The other is a sexual taboo -- incest. The novel is highly critical of both the nationalist and sexist fabric of Turkish society."

The Turkish government officially rejects the widely accepted view that the killings of as many as 1.5-million Armenians during the waning days of the Ottoman Empire constituted genocide. Ultra-nationalist lawyers and prosecutors in Turkey have vigorously pursued those who even suggest otherwise. The nationalists cite thecontroversial Article 301 of Turkey's penal code, which criminalizes insults to the republic, Turkishness, and various state institutions.

Last year Turkey's most internationally acclaimed novelist, Orhan Pamuk, went to trial on similar charges for remarks he had made in an interview with a Swiss publication. The trial was adjourned soon after it began and the charges dropped.

Ms. Shafak, a Turkish citizen who only recently came to the United States and who returns regularly to her homeland, could be jailed if she is tried and convicted under Article 301.

The Bastard of Istanbul, which Ms. Shafak wrote in English and then had translated into Turkish, has sold more than 50,000 copies in Turkey since its publication there in March, she said. The book, whose English edition will be published in January by Viking Penguin, includes several passages that have enraged nationalist critics.

In one, for example, a character says: "I am the grandchild of genocide survivors who lost all their relatives in the hands of Turkish butchers in 1915, but I myself have been brainwashed to deny the genocide because I was raised by some Turk named Mustapha! What kind of a joke is that ..."

Fatma M�ge G��ek, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, helped found the Workshop for Armenian-Turkish Scholarship and moderates an affiliated online-discussion group. She is a native Turk who lives in the United States but spends time each year in Turkey. In an e-mail message, she said that what distinguishes Ms. Shafak's work "is her usage of the Turkish past, both in terms of her knowledge of religious heterodoxy as well as her use of Ottoman words: These elements add layers of depth to her novels that are often missing in others, especially since she combines these with her very wide reading of Western literature and literary theory."

Despite the book's controversial content, Ms. Shafak said, it drew an overwhelmingly positive response until she was notified, in June, that Kemal Kerin�siz, the head of the nationalist Turkish Lawyers' Union, had filed a complaint against her. She and her publisher were interrogated by the public prosecutor of a local district court, who also subjected the novel to a thorough inspection. At the end of that process, Ms. Shafak said, the prosecutor concluded that there "was no element of insult" and dismissed the case. Until last week, Ms. Shafak thought that that was the end of the saga.

Instead, Mr. Kerin�siz, whose group has brought several such actions against writers, had taken the case to a higher court, which he persuaded to reinvestigate the matter. Ms. Shafak now faces the possibility of a trial later this year, which could coincide with the anticipated birth of her first child, in September. If convicted, she could be sentenced to up to three years in jail.

Representatives of the University of Arizona could not be reached for comment on the case over the weekend.

Many human-rights advocates have noted that cases like Mr. Pamuk's and Ms. Shafak's complicate Turkey's bid to join the European Union, and Ms. Shafak believes that that is precisely the intention of people like Mr. Kerin�siz. Modern Turkey includes those who would make society more democratic, Western, and open, and those who prefer the country to remain "insular, xenophobic, nationalistic, enclosed," she said. "And precisely because things are changing in the opposite direction, the panic and backlash produced by the latter group is becoming more visible and audible."

**Joseph** · 07-20-2006, 08:12 AM

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
*
An Insult to Turkey
July 19, 2006
Another Turkish writer is in the crosshairs of the country's nationalists. The twist for Elif Shafak, whose latest novel, "The Bastard of Istanbul," became a best-seller this spring, is that the offending words are uttered by fictional characters.
The 34-year-old writer, who is six months pregnant, faces three years in prison if convicted under the country's Article 301 for "insulting Turkishness." The novelist Orhan Pamuk, as well as more than 60 other Turkish writers and journalists, have been charged under this law for things they've written or said.
Kemal Kerincsiz, an ultra-nationalist lawyer who files Article 301 petitions through his "Unity of Jurists" association, has done more than anyone to soil Turkey's good name in recent years by trying to scuttle free speech. In Ms. Shafak's case, he objected to several paragraphs from her story of parallel families -- one Turkish in Istanbul and the other Armenian in California -- that touches on taboo subjects, such as the 1915 massacre of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey.
In one scene, a character says, "I am the grandchild of genocide survivors who lost all their relatives in the hands ofTurkish butchers in 1915, but I myself have been brainwashed to deny the genocide because I was raised by some Turk named Mustapha!" To Mr. Kerincsiz, that's a crime, since official Turkey doesn't acknowledge that a genocide took place. A lower court threw out the case in June but a higher one reinstated it this month.
"This has been happening not because things aren't changing [in Turkey] but precisely because they are . . . and not in ways these people want to see," Ms. Shafak, who's written for these pages, told us in Istanbul. "They deliberately want to stop the process [to join the European Union]. . . . This [prosecution] in no way reflects the civil society in this country."
Other writers have come to Ms. Shafak's defense. The newspaper Radikal joked that the court call fictional witnesses. "I'm frustrated that though [the ultra-nationalists] are marginal they can manipulate the political and judicial arena in the country," Ms. Shafak says. "They're exploiting the flaws in the Turkish judicial system."
Though the pro-EU, mildly Islamist government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan recognizes that Article 301 prosecutions hurt Turkey's chances in Brussels as well as the country's international reputation, the ruling elites give little overt support to the persecuted writers. This vibrant, rapidly changing democracy, a model for the Muslim world in so many other respects, would be far stronger were the politicians to do the right thing -- and repeal Article 301.

**Joseph** · 07-24-2006, 04:14 AM

NPR Interview

Author Faces Trial for 'Insulting Turkishness'

National Public Radio (NPR)
SHOW: Weekend Edition Saturday 1:00 PM EST
July 22, 2006 Saturday

ANCHORS: SCOTT SIMON

In her new novel, The Bastard of Istanbul, author Elif Shafak
writes about two families, one Turkish, living in Istanbul, and the
other Armenian, living in California. An Armenian character hears
that a family member will marry a Turk and says, Only a handful of
Turks come from Central Asia, right? Then the next thing you know,
they're everywhere. What happened to the millions of Armenians who are
already there, assimilated, massacred, orphaned, deported, and then
forgotten? How can you give your flesh and blood daughter to those
who are responsible for our being so few, and in so much pain today?

For those words and more, Ms. Shafak, who is a Turk, faces three
years in prison under that nation's Article 301 for insulting
Turkishness. Now, Ms. Shafak has been on our show before. She filed
a story last year that took us on a journey down an Istanbul street
where she once lived. Ms. Shafak also teaches Near East Studies at
the University of Arizona. She commutes back and forth between Turkey
and Arizona. She joins us now from Istanbul.

Ms. Shafak, thanks very much for being with us.

Professor ELIF SHAFAK (Author, The Bastard of Istanbul): Thank you
for having me.

SIMON: And please tell us the legal side first. I gather that the
charges were first rejected by a lower court. Then what happened?

Prof. SHAFAK: First, the prosecutors interrogated me and my Turkish
publisher. At the end of that process, the prosecutor decided there
would be no need for a trial. And we were all relieved because we
thought the case had been dropped.

SIMON: Yeah.

Prof. SHAFAK: But it turns out, when they heard the prosecutor's
decision, these ultranationalist lawyers, they took the complaint
to a higher court and somehow eventually they managed to have the
prosecutor's decision repealed. So we went back to square one, may
be to an even worse point, in sense that trial was automatically
initiated. And right now we are waiting to hear the dates of the
hearings. There will be several hearings. It will be a long legal
battle from now on.

SIMON: Of course, very famously, last year another famous Turkish
novelist, Orhan Pamuk, was brought up on charges of Article 301,
and then eventually the government got rid of the case. There was a
lot international outcry. Is that the best you can hope for in this
situation? Do you want to go to trial?

Prof. SHAFAK: I'm hoping, you know, a similar outcome will take
place. I'm hoping that the case will be dropped eventually. But what is
frustrating is, as you walk in and out of the court, usually there's
a bunch of ultra-nationalists xxxxxing outside.

SIMON: Mm hmm.

Prof. SHAFAK: (Unintelligible) very, very aggressive, so that process
is also a bit unnerving for me. Just this week we had a negative
conviction under Article 301.

SIMON: Mm hmm.

Prof. SHAFAK: The editor-in-chief of the Armenian newspaper,
(unintelligible) conviction was verified by the higher court. So that
was an unexpected development. There are several intellectuals going
through this process, unfortunately.

SIMON: Mm hmm. And it has been reported in the press - I'm not breaking
a news story here - that you're also expecting a child soon.

Prof. SHAFAK: That is correct, yes.

SIMON: If you're amenable to the question, where would you like your
child to be born?

Prof. SHAFAK: Originally, I was planning to come back to the States.
But under these circumstances, it would be more difficult for
me to travel. So I decided to stay in Istanbul. But I'm fine with
that. I mean, as long as the child is healthy, that's fine. I am not
complaining about that.

SIMON: Ms. Shafak, has your novel appeared in Turkey yet?

Prof. SHAFAK: Yes. And my experience has been quite positive, ever
since the day the book came out. I have been giving readings all over
Turkey from the Diyarbakir to Isnis. The book sold more than 50,000
copies. And it became a bestseller for three months. So the general
reception of the book was quite positive, both in the media and in
the civil society.

That said, I did also receive some hateful messages, some poisonous
letters and reactions. And, interestingly, most of them came from
the Turks living in the States. I sometimes tend to think the Turks
living abroad tend to be more conservative, sometimes more nationalist,
than the Turks in Turkey.

But other than that, my experience with the society in Turkey has
been quite positive, actually. That's why I think what's going on
right now is a backlash.

SIMON: Is a backlash to the success of the book?

Prof. SHAFAK: It is a backlash in a more general sense, as well. I
think in Turkey there's a clash of opinions. On the one hand
are the people who are much more cosmopolitan minded, much more
multi-cultural, who want to keep Turkey as an open society, who very
much wholeheartedly support the E.U. process. But on the other hand
are the people who want to maintain Turkey as an enclosed society,
more xenophobic, more nationalist, more insular. So there's a clash
of opinions between these two sides.

SIMON: Ms. Shafak's current novel is The Bastard of Istanbul.

Elif Shafak, thank you very much.

Prof. SHAFAK: Thank you. I appreciate it.

Our conversation with the past has been broken. But our history, our
stories lie here in the layers just beneath our feet. As a storyteller,
it is my job to collect them. Sometimes I liken my writings to walking
on a pile of rubble. Atop the pile, I stop and listen for the sounds
of breathing amid the stones. Look to the stories beneath your feet.

SIMON: This is WEEKEND EDITION. I'm Scott Simon.

**Joseph** · 07-25-2006, 06:25 AM

In Istanbul, a writer awaits her day in court

Bestselling novelist Elif Shafak is the latest writer to face trial for "insulting Turkishness". She tells Richard Lea about her work, the charges that have been brought against her, and how the Turkish language has become a battleground

Monday July 24, 2006
Guardian Unlimited

'[My work is like] walking on a pile of rubble left behind after a catastrophe'... Elif Shafak

"Nobody was expecting this," says bestselling Turkish novelist Elif Shafak. A decision in Istanbul's seventh high criminal court earlier this month reopened her prosecution on charges of "insulting Turkishness". She faces a maximum jail term of three years if convicted.
Shafak joins a roster of more than 60 writers and journalists to be charged under Article 301 of the Turkish criminal code since its introduction last year. University professors, journalists and novelists such as Perihan Magden, Orhan Pamuk and now Shafak have been charged under legislation drawn so broadly as to criminalise a wide range of critical opinions. Writers not only face the prospect of a three-year jail term, but the prosecutions also lay them open to a campaign of intimidation and harassment waged by rightwing agitators.

"The protests are maybe even more unnerving than the actual trial," Shafak told the Guardian today from her home in Istanbul. "Although their number is very limited they are very aggressive, very provocative." She describes crowds of protesters slapping and jostling defendants both inside and outside the courtroom, shouting and throwing coins and pens.
The charges against Shafak open up new ground. She is not accused of "insulting Turkishness" because of her campaigning journalism or her academic work, but for remarks made by a fictional character in her latest novel, The Bastard of Istanbul.

The novel, which was originally written in English, was published in a Turkish translation in March 2006 and quickly became a bestseller. The novel follows four generations of women, moving between Turkey and the US to tell the story of an Armenian family and the descendants of a son left behind during the deportations, who converts to Islam and lives as a Turk. It is perhaps the first Turkish novel to deal directly with the massacres, atrocities and deportations that decimated the country's Armenian population in the last years of Ottoman rule.

Initial reactions to the book were mostly positive, and it went on to sell over 50,000 copies in less than four months. "I gave numerous readings, talks and book signings all over Turkey," explains Shafak. "Although the novel was difficult to digest for some people, in general the reception has been very positive."

But in June a nationalist lawyer called Kemal Kerincsiz filed a complaint in Istanbul's Beyoglu district court against Shafak, her publisher, Semi Sokmen, and her translator, Asli Bican. Shafak and her publisher argued during interrogation that the book was a work of literature and that comments made by fictional characters could not be used to press charges against an author.

"The interrogation went on for some time and eventually the prosecutor decided there was no element of insult and he dropped the case," says Shafak. But her relief was short-lived. Earlier this month the same lawyer took the case to a higher court, and ultimately managed to have the decision overturned. She is now confronted with a long and daunting legal process. A trial, with all the unwelcome attention from rightwing groups which that entails, is now inevitable.

It could not have come at a worse moment - she is six months pregnant. "From now on it is a long legal battle," she says. "The later stages of the pregnancy will probably coincide with the first stages of the trial."

Peter Ayrton, founder of Serpent's Tail, a publisher deeply committed to literature in translation, was unsurprised by the news of Shafak's prosecution. "Most writers that are any good would get into trouble with the Turkish authorities," he explains. "She's a very acerbic voice. Her novels are lively, episodic and innovative. She's obviously a feminist, and her work is obviously rooted in contemporary social conditions in Turkey."

Perhaps the time she spent abroad has given her a different perspective on Turkish life. She was born in Strasbourg, France in 1971 and spent her teenage years in Spain, before returning to Turkey to study social sciences. Four years ago she moved to the US, spending a year at the University of Michigan before her appointment as assistant professor at the University of Arizona. She now divides her time between the US and Turkey, where she has been touring the country to promote her new novel.

Shafak herself believes the charges were brought for two reasons: "The overt reason is my latest novel and the critical tone of the book. The latent reason is deeper and more complex. I have been active and outspoken on various 'taboo' issues, critical of ultranationalism and all sorts of rigid ideologies, including those coming from the Kemalist elite, and I have maintained a public presence on minority rights, especially on the Armenian question. It is a whole package."

Indeed, her fiction has always focused on social issues which Turks prefer to keep hidden, explains sociologist Muge Gocek, who translated the first of Shafak's novels to appear in the UK, The Flea Palace. "But she does so with humour, with grace, and without ever letting her characters lose their nobility of spirit," she adds.

The way Shafak deals with Turkey's past is also unique, continues Gocek, "both in terms of her knowledge of religious heterodoxy as well as her use of Ottoman words - these elements add layers of depth to her novels."

According to Shafak, language has been at the heart of the process of creating a new nation state, with words of Persian, Arabic or Sufi origin being purged from the language in an attempt to break away from the Ottoman past. "In the name of modernisation our language shrunk tremendously," she says.

"As a writer who happens to be a woman and attached to Islamic, as well as Jewish and Christian heterodox mysticism, I reject the rationalised, disenchanted, centralised, Turkified modern language put in front of me," she declares. "Today in Turkey, language is polarised and politicised. Depending on the ideological camp you are attached to, for example Kemalists versus Islamists, you can use either an 'old' or a 'new' set of words."

It is a choice she refuses to make, filling her writing with both "old" and "new" words. She says her fiction is like "walking on a pile of rubble left behind after a catastrophe. I walk slowly so that I can hear if there is still someone or something breathing underneath. I listen attentively to the sounds coming from below to see if anyone, any story or cultural legacy from the past, is still alive under the rubble. If and when I come across signs of life, I dig deep and pull it up, above the ground, shake its dust, and put it in my novels so that it can survive."

Catheryn Kilgarriff, co-director of her British publisher Marion Boyars, was also drawn to her use of old Turkish language, as well as her use of allegory and fable. "She's an extraordinary writer," she says, and an extremely exciting prospect for the future. "She's only 35 now and she's already mastered one or two different voices in her fiction. There's more to come."

It's a body of work which is building her a formidable reputation overseas. "She's doing astoundingly well," adds Kilgarriff, pointing out that Shafak's books have been taken up by the large chains and offered in three for two promotions - unusual treatment indeed for literature in translation.

Shafak has been published in Turkey, the US and Britain, though only two of her six novels are available in the UK at the moment. Since writing The Flea Palace, which was shortlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction prize in 2005, she has begun writing in English - an act which has been seen by Turkish nationalists as a "cultural betrayal".

It was a choice motivated more by her passion for language, by the search for new modes of expression. "There are certain things I'd rather write in English, certain others I'd rather write in Turkish," she explains. "English, to me, is a more mathematical language, it is the language of precision. It embodies an amazing vocabulary and if you are looking for the 'precise word', it is right out there. Turkish, to me, is more sentimental, more emotional." English seems more suited for philosophy, analytical writing or humour, "but if I am writing on sorrow I'd rather use Turkish."

This is something that nationalists fail to understand, she says. "It is always us versus them, this or that. Nationalists cannot understand that one can be multilingual, multicultural, cosmopolitan ... without feeling obliged to make a choice between them once and for all."

It is perhaps this instinct which lies at the heart of the wider conflicts taking place in contemporary Turkish society. An increasingly urban Turkey has seen a broad cultural renaissance over the last three decades, which has been consistently under-reported in the west. Voices in literature, academia and the arts have begun to examine subjects which have long been taboo, to raise questions about uncomfortable issues such as the role of women or the history of Turkey's Armenian minority.

But as this cultural resurgence has gained strength it has been met by a nationalist reaction.

"On the one hand there are the ones who want Turkey to join the EU, democratise further and become an open society," says Shafak, but on the other "are the ones who want to keep Turkey as an insular, xenophobic, nationalistic, enclosed society. And precisely because things are changing in the opposite direction, the panic and backlash produced by the latter group is becoming more visible and audible."

There are those who think that the prosecutions of leading writers under Article 301 are a sign that nothing is changing in Turkey, but Shafak thinks it is just the opposite: "Article 301 is being used more and more against critical minds precisely because things have been changing very rapidly in Turkey. The bigger and deeper the social transformation, the more visible the discomfort of those who want to preserve the status quo and the louder the backlash coming from them."

It's a reaction which has already cast doubt on to Turkey's accession into the EU. Earlier this month the European commissioner in charge of negotiations with Turkey urged the Turkish authorities to amend Article 301, reminding them that freedom of expression "constitutes the core of democracy" and is a "key principle" in determining a state's eligibility to join the EU.

It is too early to say what effect the trial will have on Shafak. She is determined that it will not influence her writing. "Next time I start a novel, I do not want to have qualms, fearing this or that topic might cause me yet another trouble," she says, adding that she is "much more daring" in her fiction than in her daily life: "While I am writing the urge to go on with the story outweighs any other concern that might cross my mind."

A date for her trial has not yet been fixed. For the moment all she can do is wait.

� The Bastard of Istanbul will be published in the US by Viking/Penguin in 2007

� Elif Shafak's The Gaze was published in the UK earlier this month by Marion Boyars at �9.99

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