“They are provocateurs and their attitude can create even further problems. I canceled two of my panels in Balıkesir and Aksihar, but we held the one in Bolu,” he told Today’s Zaman. He added that he had been receiving threats for three years but the amount of threats had recently increased.
Can and a number of other panelists – including writer Adalet Ağaoğlu -- were physically and verbally assaulted during two panel discussions in İstanbul and İzmir recently. Intellectuals, writers and artists who declared that they would say “yes” to the referendum on September 12 for the constitutional amendments are receiving threats or are being attacked.
In order to protest these attacks, a group of intellectuals in İstanbul on Monday made a written statement and underlined that the attacks were perpetrated by a group that calls itself leftist, but is essentially opposed to the freedom of expression.
