Friday, January 19, 2007

Armenian writer murdered

This is a nasty piece of news from Turkey. And it is absurd for the Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan to say that the murder was a “bullet fired against free speech and democracy” when Mr Dink and many others have been found guilty by the Turkish courts of “insulting Turkishness”. Their “offence” is their refusal to gloss over the Armenian genocide which took place during the First World War following the Sultan’s call for jihad on 14 November 1914.

Interestingly, a Turkish press is interested in publishing my book in Turkish. In it there is a passing reference to the genocide. I shall be watching closely to ensure that it is not edited out of the translation.

The Turks are a proud people but they have to come to terms with the past.

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