ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) – The trial of a top novelist has left Turkey’s government in a bind, caught between outraging Europe by prosecuting a renowned author for his views and angering the administration’s nationalist grass roots by dropping the case.

The lose-lose scenario became clear this week when a judge kicked the case against Orhan Pamuk back to the country’s Justice Ministry, demanding that the government first approve it.

Outside the courthouse, European Union legislators criticized the government, questioning its commitment to freedom of expression.

Meanwhile, nationalists pelted Pamuk’s car with eggs, shouting “Traitor!” and “Love it or leave it!” in reference to Turkey.

Pamuk, the country’s most prominent author, is being tried for insulting the Turkish Republic and “Turkishness” after telling a Swiss newspaper in February that “30,000 Kurds and 1 million Armenians were killed in these lands, and nobody but me dares to talk about it.”

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his Cabinet will discuss the case Monday – analysts say the government likely will recommend that the case be dropped – but it is clearly an issue the government was trying to avoid.

The Istanbul court that was trying Pamuk said it contacted the Justice Ministry on Dec. 2 but got no response on whether to prosecute Pamuk.

Turkish politicians long have blamed overzealous prosecutors and judges for freedom of expression charges. Now they will have no choice but to weigh in directly on the highest-profile case in decades.

“I think they are probably doing the worst thing possible by being undecided,” said Ilter Turan, a political scientist at Istanbul Bilgi University. “They are losing the hearts of the pro-EU people and not winning the hearts of the nationalists.”

The controversy comes at a particularly sensitive time in the overwhelmingly Muslim country’s push to join the EU.

Erdogan’s government has made EU accession a cornerstone of its rule and passed sweeping reforms of Turkey’s legal code. On Oct. 3, Turkey realized one of its dreams when the EU agreed to open talks with the overwhelmingly Muslim country about joining.

Since then, EU officials have accused Turkey of losing its momentum and allowing reforms to slow down.

Erdogan’s government appears to be appealing more to its conservative constituents – alcohol has been banned in some municipal areas and officials have spoken out in favor of relaxing regulations that bar women’s Islamic head scarves at universities.

“The government does not want to lose the coalition that brought it to power and that includes religious and nationalist conservatives,” Turan said.

Pamuk’s remarks brought up two of the most painful episodes in recent Turkish history: the massacre of Armenians during World War I – which Turkey insists was not a planned genocide – and recent guerrilla fighting in Turkey’s overwhelmingly Kurdish southeast.

To many nationalists, Pamuk’s remarks were especially upsetting because they were made to a foreign newspaper.

“To the great majority of the Turkish people Pamuk is a heretic,” said Duygu Bazoglu Sezer, a professor of political science at Ankara’s Bilkent University.

Erdogan’s party’s gut reaction is to oppose “what they would call a slur on Turkish identity,” she said.

“The more pressure that came domestically and internationally the more confused (the government) became,” she said.

On Saturday, Erdogan lashed out at the European Union.

“The EU at the moment is trying to put our judiciary under pressure,” Erdogan told reporters. “Rightly or wrongly, the issue is in the courts.”

Pamuk’s remarks predate Turkey’s June reform of its legal code, and the Cabinet will consider Monday whether to press ahead with the trial under the old code or drop the case.

But even if the charges are dropped, the fallout may linger.

“It is too late. The damage has been done,” Sezer said. “This has left a deep scar in European perceptions in the Turkish leadership’s ability to genuinely honor its commitments.”

AP-ES-12-17-05 1618EST

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