TURKEY SUES CHOMSKY PUBLISHER FOR TELLING UNAPPROVED TRUTH In another astonishing demonstration of the profound commitment to democracy on the part of the USA's coalition partners in the war on terrorism, the Turkish government brought charges against Istanbul's Aram Publishing for printing a translated Noam Chomsky essay collection, entitled "American Interventionism." The book includes a lecture Chomsky gave at Ohio's University of Toledo last March, in which he said the Turkish government had "launched a major war in the Southeast against the Kurdish population," and described the conflict as "one of the most severe human rights atrocities of the 1990s." Aram director Fatih Tas faces a year in prison if convicted on charges of "conducting propaganda against the state." The trial is due to begin in Feb. The indictment issued by Istanbul's State Security Court said passages in the book constitute "propaganda against the indivisible unity of the nation." Chomsky said the lecture was based on material from "the leading human rights organizations...the most respected standard scholarship, and official US government documents." Turkey's government has been fighting a war against Kurdish rebels demanding autonomy in the southeast for over 15 years. The conflict has eased since the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) announced a unilateral cease-fire in 1999. But the government rejected the cease-fire, and sporadic fighting continues. About 37,000, mostly Kurdish rebels and civilians, have been killed in the fighting since 1984. Dozens of Turkish writers and intellectuals have been jailed under strict laws forbidding criticism of the war. (A-Infos News Service, Jan.)