Turkish court sentences pop star to write out lines

A Turkish pop star has been sentenced to write out Turkey's lengthy national anthem along with a five page critique of it after a court found her guilty of casting ethnic slurs at a concert.

Seven businessmen from the primarily Kurdish city of Diyarbakir, in the impoverished southeast which has been troubled for years by separatist violence, took pop star Demet Akalin to court over comments she said were an attempt to liven up her audience.

"What? Are you all from Diyarbakir? Did you come from the mountains? I don't understand where you people can be from all of you sitting there staring like morons," she allegedly said at a concert in the Aegean resort city of Bodrum in 2008.



A court found her guilty of breaking a law banning public insults based on regional differences, social class or sexuality.

But media said on Sunday that Akalin liked the idea and that she had memorised the national anthem since her school years.

"There's a lot I want to write about, because I love every corner of my country," she said.