Turkish professor found guilty of insulting Ataturk

Ankara - A Turkish professor was on Monday handed a suspended prison sentence after being found guilty of insulting the memory of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of the Turkish republic, the Dogan news agency reported. A court in Izmir found that Professor Atilla Yayla had insulted Ataturk's memory in comments he made at a panel last year that Turkey was not as politically progressive during the early years of the Turkish republic as is generally thought. Yayla had also remarked that as Ankara continued its bid to join the European Union, Europeans would ask why there are so many statues and photographs of Ataturk in Turkey. Yayla denied the charges that he had insulted Ataturk and argued that academics must have freedom of speech. The academic from Gazi University in Ankara was was given a 15- month suspended prison sentence. Prosecutors had sought a five-year prison sentence. © 2008 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur

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Turkish professor found guilty of insulting Ataturk

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