Well-known Turk writer Orhan Pamuk’s court hearing began yesterday in Istanbul. Let’s recall that Pamuk is accused for humiliating the Turk people and Turkey. During an interview given to one of the Swedish newspapers in February, Pamuk had announced that during the beginning of the last century, 30,000 Kurds and 1 million Armenians had been killed in Turkey. A couple of days ago, Oli Ren, who is involved in carrying out the missions given by the European Union, expressed his opinion that Pamuk’s court hearing is just a piece of paper which pretends to show how much Turkey believes in freedom of speech. “Turkey must review the arrests and sentences for the people that have only expressed their opinions,” he said and added that this is not only an issue concerning writers and journalists, but also, this is an issue for Turkey as a whole and Turkey will solve that issue in a short period of time. Oli Ren also said that Pamuk will not be the one being judged in the court in Istanbul, but rather Turkey.
