A Turkish publisher says he's seeking legal counsel and readying his written defence after being questioned on Thursday by an Istanbul prosecutor over an evolution specialist's bestselling book.
Publisher Erol Karaaslan could face a trial for translating and printing British author Richard Dawkins's book The God Delusion, if Turkish authorities decide that the title incites religious hatred and insults religious values.
Evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, shown in Germany in October, criticizes religion in his bestselling book The God Delusion.
(Sebastian Willnow/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images)
Through his Kuzey publishing house, Karaaslan printed 6,000 copies of the translated title in June. In the book, Dawkins — an evolutionary biology expert and Oxford professor — criticizes religion and argues that natural selection and other scientific theories are superior to that of creationism or intelligent design.
A bestseller in multiple countries, The God Delusion has already been published in several dozen foreign markets.
Karaaslan told reporters that the current inquiry into the book stems from a reader complaint, with the person alleging that the title is hurtful to religious people living in Turkey.
The individual also called for the book to be banned and the publisher of the title punished, Karaaslan told Reuters after meeting with the prosecutor Thursday.
This latest literary investigation follows another high-profile case. Nobel Prize-winning author Orhan Pamuk was tried in 2005 for insulting the Turkish identity over comments he made about Turkey's mass killings of Armenians in the early 20th century. The charges against Pamuk were dropped in early 2006.
Several member countries of the European Union, which Turkey is attempting to join, have urged Ankara to ease restrictions against freedom of expression. Some have specifically criticized the law that makes it a crime to "insult Turkishness."
With files from the Associated PressRelated
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