[New-Poetry] Accused Turkish Writer

[TheOldMole]

Forwarding this note from my friend Boria Sax, poet, scholar and former head of his area's Amnesty International chapter. I think it's important.

Tad




Elif Shafak, a Turkish Writer of my acquaintance, as been arrested for "insulting Turkishness" and is awaiting trial this Thursday. The ground is a passage in her recent novel The Bastard of Istanbul, in which a character alludes to the genocide of up to 1.5 million Armenians by Turkey, which some believe anticipated the Holocaust. An article about it from the New York Times may be found at: http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/814/prmID/172. 
As a child of the American left, I, personally, am reminded here of the denial of the crimes of Stalin in the milieu in which I was raised. Well, if anybody wants to send a short email to the Turkish embassy asking that charges against Elif Shafak be dropped, the name and email address are:  


Cc: H.E. Nabi Şensoy
The Embassy of the Republic of Turkey
2525 Massachusetts Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20008
Fax: (202) 612-6744 

Email: contact at turkishembassy.org



Many thanks.

Boria



Boria Sax, Ph.D.
25 Franklin Avenue, Apt. 2F
White Plains, NY 10601-3819
Phone: (914) 946-6735
Email: Vogelgreif at aol.com
Web Site: http://www.boriasax.com
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