Thirteen people were arrested in Turkey last week in connection with a plot that included killing Nobel laureate Orham Pamuk, according to reports in the Turkish media.

Turkish press reported that the ultra-nationalist gang is suspected of planning Pamuk's murder as part of a plot to sow chaos in preparation for a military coup in 2009.

Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk, shown at the Cannes Film Festival in France last May, was the target of an assassination plot, Turkish media reported.Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk, shown at the Cannes Film Festival in France last May, was the target of an assassination plot, Turkish media reported.
(Lionel Cironneau/Associated Press)

Those arrested include a retired Turkish general, as well as Kemal Kerencsiz, a lawyer known for prosecuting writers and journalists under Turkey's Article 301, which makes it a crime to insult "Turkishness."

Kerencsiz filed suits under Article 301 against Pamuk, the novelists Elif Shafak and Perihan Magden and the murdered journalist Hrant Dink.

Pamuk, author of My Name is Red and Snow, spent several months in the U.S. and Europe last year in the wake of rumours of death threats against him.

The group of extremists is suspected of being involved in incidents that had been blamed on Islamist groups or separatist factions.

Expose corrupt military and judiciary, activists urge

Turkish human rights advocates said they are hoping the investigation will probe illegal activity within the military and judiciary. High ranking officials have previously been protected because of their status, a spokesman for Istanbul's Free Expression Initiative told the British newspaper the Guardian.

The 13 arrested in the case are being held in custody, but officials have not released information about the charges against them, media reported.

The European Union, which Turkey hopes to join, has called Article 301 an impediment to free speech.

According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, Turkey is engaged in an attempt to revise its laws restricting free speech.

However, just this Monday writer Atilla Yayla was given a 15-month suspended sentence for suggesting that Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey, was not progressive.