Turkish Writer Acquitted Of Insulting Country's Founder
December 19, 2006
December 19, 2006 -- A Turkish court today acquitted a writer of charges that he insulted the country's founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
Ipek Calislar had written that Ataturk fled an assassination attempt disguised in a chador, the full-body veil worn by some Muslim women.
The account is contained in Calislar's biography of Ataturk's wife, Latife Ussaki.
Many Turkish writers have been charged with insulting Ataturk, the Turkish nation, or the Turkish national character, including Orhan Pamuk, who won this year's Nobel Prize for literature.
As with Pamuk, the cases are often dropped, however, or the defendants are acquitted.
(AP)