Case Against Author Calislar Opens
All observers attending the Bagcilar hearing were required to go through police barricades and searches as measures were taken both outside and inside the justice hall.
Both defendants, absent in their first hearing, are being charged in relation to a story Calislar relayed during a Hurriyet interview in relation to her best-seller "Latife Hanim" book which was published by Dogan Publishing House.
The book is a documentary research into the life of Latife Hanim, the partner of modern Turkey's founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and is still one of the most sought after works in the country.
If found guilty under the 55-year-old "Law to Protect Ataturk", passed in 1951, both Calislar and Tatlican face up to 4.5 years imprisonment each.
In the June 4, 2006 dated interview subject to the charges, Calislar had relayed a factual story based on memoirs of Latife's younger sister Vecihe Hanim which placed Ataturk, a symbol of victory for many Turks and the establishment, as a man concerned for his life and dressing like a woman to evade a known assassin.
Tatlican was represented at the trial by his lawyers Yucel Dosemeci and Gunay Erkan while Calislar was represented by attorney Fikret Ilkiz.
The bench first received requests from the original complainant Huseyin Tugrul Pekin, and Pro-Ataturk Thought Association (ADD) Sisli Branch chairman Erdinc Turkcan as well as Isa Ruhi Gobut to be accepted as intervening parties.
Attorney Dosemeci argued, however, that non of the three, nor chairman of the association or any of its members could have been harmed by the alleged offence and requested their plea be rejected.
Both prosecutor and judge were of the same opinion and a decision was taken to request their participation as an intervening party with the option of appealing against this decision being open.
It was established that due to missing address, journalist Calislar's summons had not been delivered and her excuse to court for not being present due to professional work was accepted by the bench. However a decision was taken to bring defendant Tatlican by force to the next hearing.
The court was then adjourned to December 19, and the second hearing is to begin at 11.00 am that day.
In a separate development, an investigation was launched against reported Ecevit Kilic of the weekly Yeni Aktuel magazine for an interview he conducted with Calislar on her "Latife Hanim" book.
Kilic this week gave a statement to the Istanbul Public Prosecutor's Office Press Prosecutor. The investigation is based on a complaint made by Patriotic Forces Unity Movement Association (VKGB) chairman Taner Unal and involves the similar claims to that of the Hurriyet interview.
The story
Calislar's book on Ataturk's partner Latife got published this summer and became very popular. At one point in the book, Calislar quotes a historically known story from Vecihe Hanim:
When Topal Osman surrounds Mustafa Kemal's house in Cankaya to murder him, Latife Hamim takes his place to trick Osman while Ataturk flees the house. Latife wears his hat and stands in front of the window, mimicking his silhouette and Mustafa Kemal himself dresses in a black scarf and leaves the house pretending to be a woman.
"I'm saddened by this trial" Calislar said when the it became clear charges would be at court. "This story is quoted in several sources as it is. Historians can argue about it but I don't see anything that bothers the justice system". "This trial is an unlucky incident regarding the democratization process in Turkey", she had added. (EO/KO/II