The acquittal of the Turkish novelist, Elif Shafak, on charges of “insulting Turkishness” is good news for free speech. But the very fact that Ms Shafak could face such a charge is damaging to Turkey’s international image and reveals the tensions within the country.
Ms Shafak is a novelist - and one of the characters in her book, The Bastard of Istanbul, made a reference to the Armenian genocide. That was enough to land her in court. The case is an echo of another unsuccessful prosecution last year of Orhan Pamuk, Turkey’s most famous novelist. continue
