Turkish publisher on trial for 'obscenity' given international award

A Turkish publisher on trial for publishing a classic erotic novel by French writer Guilliame Apollinaire has been recognised with a special award by the Geneva-based International Publishers Association.

Irfan Sanci, owner of publishing house Sel, is being prosecuted under article 226 of the Turkish penal code, an anti-obscenity law, for publishing a translation of Apollinaire's Les exploits d'un jeune Don Juan (The Exploits of a Young Don Juan). The novel, first published in 1911, features the escapades of a 15-year-old hero who impregnates three women, one of them his own aunt.

Sanci is due to receive his award from the IPA's Freedom to Publish committee on 2 November at the Istanbul TÜYAP book fair, with his next court hearing currently scheduled for the morning of the same date.

The development comes just eight months after Turkey was censured by the European Court of Human Rights for convicting another publisher, Rahmi Akdas, "for publishing obscene or immoral material liable to arouse and exploit sexual desire among the population", with a translation of a different Apollinaire novel, Les onze milles verges (The Eleven Thousand Rods). The court ruled in February that Turkey violated freedom of expression laws and prevented access to Europe's literary heritage when it banned the novel, which details the erotic adventures of the debauched Romanian aristocrat Mony Vibescu and his fellow sybarites, and was banned in France itself until 1970.

Sanci said of his situation: "I am being punished in my own country but am also getting an international award. This is tragic. Everything aside, Apollinare's book, which is a part of the world's cultural heritage, is being tried for hurting the public's sense of shame."

Bjørn Smith-Simonsen, chair of the IPA's Freedom to Publish committee, said the publisher faced up to nine years in jail. "This is potential political censorship. We therefore call for Sel's acquittal," he said.

There are around 70 cases of writers and publishers on trial currently in Turkey, the majority on charges of defamation or insult to various Turkish institutions, or on charges related to commentary on the Kurdish situation.

The most prominent case of recent years involved acclaimed novelist Orhan Pamuk, against whom a criminal case was opened in 2005, after he made a statement about the mass killings of Armenians and Kurds in 1915. Charges were later dropped.