Erdogan said he was also once a victim of restrictions on freedom of speech, recalling his jailing in 1997 for reciting a poem with Islamic messages.
But Erdogan denounced EU criticism that Pamuk's trial amounted to a putting Turkey's possible membership in the EU on trial as wel.
Erdogan said today that the EU was trying to pressure Turkey's judiciary. He cautioned the EU that it should await a decision by the Turkish court before passing judgment on the Turkish legal system.
Pamuk is on trial for telling a Swiss newspaper in February that no one in Turkey dared to discuss the killing of some 1 million Armenians 90 years ago and tens of thousands of Kurds over the last two decades.
(AFP)