Aram Publishing House executive Fatih Tas, the book's translator Ender Abadoglu, editor Lutfi Taylan Tosun and Omer Faruk Kurhan, one of the redactors of the book, turned up for the first hearing of the case at the Istanbul 2nd Criminal Court of First Instance flanked by their lawyers on Wednesday.
All suspects are accused under articles 216 and 301 of the Turkish Penal Code for "publicly denigrating Turkishness, the Republic and the Parliament" and "inciting hatred and enmity among the people".
The first trial saw presiding judge Sevim Efendiler agreeing with public prosecutor Kadir Nazmi Yelkenci's opinion and rejecting attorney Ozcan Kilic's request for the case file to be postponed as "criminal liability" outlined in article 11/4 of the Press Law was contrary to the Constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights.
Addressing the court at the start of the hearing, translator Abadoglu explained, "The opinions in the book are opinions of the author. I believe the translator cannot be held responsible for these opinions".
Abadoglu referred to the recent ordeal of the Armenian genocide bill in the French Parliament and said that although opinions in favor of an Armenian genocide having taken place were translated into Turkish press reports non of the translators had been prosecuted.
"It is wrong to put publishers and translators on trial"
In his statement to the court, Tosun said his function was that of ensuring the book was properly translated from its original and expressed in good Turkish.
"As far as I checked it," he said, "there was no problem in the translation". Tosun added "I did not see any factors of offence in the work".
Publisher Tas said he saw it inappropriate that he and the translators were being put on trial for a book whose author was will arrive and defended that the book itself was an analysis of the media wit
h international importance.
The last defendant to address the court was Kurhan who said he had noticed no statement in the book that could be charged under article 216 on "inciting hated and enmity" and argued that the very sole of controversial article 301 served to protect the immunity of the state and was open to interpretations and mistakes.
After the defendants made their statements, attorney Inan Yilmaz referred to author Noam Chomsky saying "If we are putting an author, linguist and a professor of philosophy with international importance on trial, we should give these individuals the right to defend themselves in the courts of the land".
"My client before you has translated the work of this writer who we cannot pt on trial. Unfortunately with such cases we are living in the shadows" he said.
Defendants to give written defense
Stressing that none of the four suspects on trial were being charged for their own opinions, attorney Ugur Demirci denied the allegations and informed the court it would be receiving a written defense.
Of the defense lawyers, Ozcan Kilic said the book targeted the United States and added "US operations, massacres and coups throughout the world are being explained. The way these reflect in the media are being revealed. In this context it is a strange situation that four people are on trial under articles 216 and 301".
Having heard the initial defense arguments, judge Efendiler agreed to give time for written statements to be prepared and adjourned the court to December 20.
John Tirman's case continues
This week's case against Aram Publishing House comes in the footsteps of another trial involving a Turkish translation of an American author's work.
In September, the same court heard charges against translators Lutfi Taylan Tosun and Aysel Yildirim alongside Aram Publishing House owner Fatih Tas for the Turkish language copy of John Tirman's book "Spoils of War: The Human Cost of America's Arms Trade".
If found guilty on the charges of "publicly denigrating the armed forces" and "insulting [modern Turkey's founder] Ataturk" through content originally written by Tirman himself, each of those defendants face up to 6.5 years imprisonment.
Both translators in Tirman's book case also rejected the accusations while Tas's attorney Ozcan Kilic rejected the trial of the publisher on grounds that the author of the work was known and there was no reason to put a publisher on trial just because the author lived abroad.
The investigation into the Turkish language copy of "Spoils of War: The Human Cost of America's Arms Trade" started in November 2005. It covers various excerpts in Tirman's work that focuses on criticism of US policy in the Middle East - arguing that dollars earned through the arms trade led to support of militarization in the region while holding back essential democratic reforms.
Subject to the Istanbul charges are sections of the book relating to severe human rights violations allegedly committed by security forces in the 1990s inclusive of claims of "white genocide", assimilation, censorship and denial of cultural rights.
The Tirman case will continue in Istanbul on November 29. (EO/II/YE/EU)
