ISTANBUL -- U.S. linguist Noam Chomsky, a vocal critic of U.S. policy, arrived in Istanbul on Tuesday to attend the trial of a Turkish publisher accused of propaganda for publishing a collection of Chomsky's essays.

"American interventionism", published by Aram last year, accuses the United States of supporting human rights abuses by the Turkish government against the country's Kurdish minority.

In the essay "Prospects for Peace in the Middle East", Chomsky criticizes the United States for supplying weapons to the Turkish government, which he says used them to perpetrate "intensive ethnic cleansing" against the Kurds.

Last September Aram's owner, Fatih Tas, was charged with "propaganda against the indivisible unity of country, nation and state of the republic of Turkey" for publishing the book. The translator of the book faces similar charges.

Both live outside Turkey. If found guilty they could be fined but will not face a prison sentence.

Chomsky has not been charged but plans to attend the trial, which is due to get underway on Wednesday in an Istanbul court.

Later on Wednesday he will travel to Diyarbakir, the main town in Kurdish-dominated southeastern Turkey, to give a speech on the situation in the Middle East following the September 11 attacks.

He is also due to meet local non-governmental organizations and members of the People's Democratic Party (HADEP), which faces a possible ban by Ankara for its links to the militant Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK).

In 1999 the outlawed PKK ended a 15-year armed struggle for self-rule in the southeast that claimed some 36,500 lives. But it and other pro-Kurdish groups have pledged to continue their long-running campaign for increased Kurdish rights.

Accusations of human rights abuses by the Turkish government have prevented Ankara from being accepted as a candidate to join the European Union, AFP reported.