ISTANBUL (AFP) - Six Turkish intellectuals prosecuted in the past for comments on the Armenian massacre have condemned a French bill that would criminalize any denial that the killings under the Ottoman Empire constitute genocide, according to a press report yesterday. “Writing history is not the job of states or politicians,” said novelist Elif Shafak, one of the authors quoted in Monday’s edition of the liberal daily Radikal. “I consider what is happening in France as a negative development that leaves progressives and democrats in both France and Turkey in a difficult situation,” wrote Shafak, who was recently acquitted of “denigrating the national identity” in a novel dealing with the 1915-1917 massacres.

ANKARA (AFP) - Turkey’s chief negotiator with the EU will hold talks in Spain, Belgium and Germany this week ahead of a key report on Ankara’s struggling bid to join the bloc, a spokesman said yesterday. The negotiator, Economy Minister Ali Bacan, is scheduled to meet Spain’s Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos and Economy and Finance Minister Pedro Solbes tomorrow in Madrid. He will then fly to Brussels for talks Thursday with EU Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini and Janez Potocnik, commissioner for science and research. In Berlin on Friday, Babacan will meet Germany’s Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Economy Minister Michael Glos.

A Bosnian court said yesterday it had indicted a former Bosnian-Serb policeman over his alleged role in crimes committed against Muslims in the eastern town of Visegrad during the 1992-95 war. The war crimes chamber of the Court of Bosnia-Herzegovina indicted Nenad Tanaskovic, 44, on charges of crimes against humanity for his alleged participation in “ethnic cleansing.” (AFP)

A Belgrade court on yesterday sentenced three men to 30-year jail terms each for murdering Serbian warlord Zeljko Raznatovic Arkan more than six years ago. Dobrosav Gavric, Milan Djurisic and Dragan Nikolic were found guilty of killing Raznatovic and two of his friends in January 2000 in the Inter-Continental Hotel. (AFP)