Murat Belge

Murat Belge (born March 16, 1943) is an outspoken Leftist Turkish intellectual, academic, translator, literary critic, columnist, civil rights activist, and occasional tour guide.

Career

Belge was a member of the organizing committee for a two-day academic conference that started on September 24, 2005, held at Bilgi University in Istanbul, titled "Ottoman Armenians During the Decline of the Empire: Issues of Scientific Responsibility and Democracy". The conference offered an open dispute of the official Turkish account of the Armenian Genocide, and was denounced by nationalists as treacherous.

Belge's remarks led to his facing a ten-year jail sentence for criticizing the judicial ban; he was acquitted.

A leaked Turkish military memo, dated November 2006 (reported by Nokta in March 2007, prior to being shut down), lists journalist deemed "trustworthy" and "untrustworthy" by the Turkish Armed Forces. Murat Belge was listed as "untrustworthy."

Since 1996 he has been a professor of comparative literature at Istanbul Bilgi University.