mid-December and the justice ministry is still to rule on whether it continues.
Still, it does signal the way this is likely to go. The Turkish government have nothing to gain now for continuing with their prosecution of Pamuk except more bad publicity, but they can, and most likely will, use the case as a bargaining chip, dropping the charges at some point when it suits them, as an indication of their good will and reasonableness. Everyone will say how much this shows the progress that Turkey is making towards genuine freedom of expression. Meanwhile the point has been made: no one with less international prestige than Pamuk can expect to get away with talk of Armenian deaths, and any mention of genocide, or admittance of guilt, are still strictly off limits.
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