Book on Southeast Conflict Banned

Korku Tapinagi (Temple of Fear), collection of stories from the Southeast war zone by journalist Celal Baslangic is banned under charges of insulting the military. Baslangic is faced with 1-6 years in prison if found guilty by the court.

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Journalist Celal Baslangic is charged for his recent book Temple of Fear, a collection of articles about human tragedies resulting from war. The book was published in July by Iletisim Publishers in Istanbul and quickly went into three editions. A court order of 21 August has banned the book accusing Baslangic of "insulting and belittling the military" under Article 159/1 of the Turkish Penal Code. Unsold copies have been removed from the shelves and seized by the police.

Temple of Fear is a collection of the author's articles previously published in the Turkish daily Radikal. They document the "ordinary" human tragedies in Turkey's Southeast, an Emergency Zone for the last 17 years. None of the articles received charges when they originally appeared in the daily.

The indictment lists the following sections of the book as the bases for the charges:

* "Güçlükonak: Journey to Massacre" for "claiming that the 11 people in a minibus in Güçlükonak were killed by the Turkish army".

* "The Disappearences in Silopi and the Şırnak Republic" for "discussing the rising fear among the population upon the disapperance of the HADEP party leader after he was seen entering the Gendarme Headquarters".

* The same section for "suggesting that there is widespread belief in the region that the assassination of the police chief Gaffar Okkan was conducted by an organization called JITEM."

* "The Cry of Lice" for "claiming that soldiers opened fire with heavy artillery, helicopters and automatic weapons on Lice on 22 October 1993 and burned the town down several times."

* "Tunceli: Semi-Open Prison" for blaiming soldiers of undertaking "assassinations, disappearances under custody, and an unparalleled food ambargo."

The indictment suggests that holding the Turkish Armed Forces responsible for these acts is "unjust and unfounded" and accuses Baslangic of insulting the military under Article 159/1 of the Turkish Penal Code.

A note on the author:

Celal Baslangic was born in Istanbul in 1956. He received his BA in Journalism and Public Relations from Ege University in 1971. The same year, he started working as a journalist in the newspaper Ege Ekspres. He later worked for Demokrat Izmir (1977), Politika (1979), and Cumhuriyet (1981-1994). He was one of the founders and the first editor-in-chief of the journal Evrensel (1995). Since 1996, he has been writing for the daily Radikal. He has published five books, including the Temple of Fear, and has won numerous awards for his excellence in journalism from the Modern Journalists Association (Çağdaş Gazeteciler Derneği), Milliyet, and Turkish Journalists Assembly (Türkiye Gazeteciler Cemiyeti). He was chosen as the "Journalist of the Year" in 1985, 1987, 1996, and 1997 by the Modern Journalists Association and received the Human Rights Award of the same association in 1999.