September 10, 2005
The Turkish Identity

Next week, the Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, will
address the United Nations here on one of the issues threatening to
slow down negotiations to admit Turkey into the European Union –
recognizing Cyprus. But he should also address the question of Orhan
Pamuk, the pre-eminent Turkish novelist who has been charged with
“public denigration” of Turkish identity.

In February, a Swiss newspaper quoted Mr. Pamuk on Turkey’s
longstanding refusal to discuss the Armenian genocide and the deaths
of some 30,000 separatist Kurds more recently. Mr. Pamuk’s remarks
inflamed Turkish nationalists, and he left the country. He faces the
possibility of three years in jail.

The charges against Mr. Pamuk violate the standards of free speech,
one of the prerequisites to Turkey’s admission to the European
Union. The charges also cut to the heart of Mr. Pamuk’s writing. The
question of Turkish identity informs his work. In “My Name Is Red,”
Mr. Pamuk never lets the reader forget the ethnic and cultural
diversity of Turkey’s past. Nor does he flinch, in “Istanbul,” from
reminding readers of the “deliberately provoked” 1955 riots that
destroyed several non-Muslim neighborhoods in that city. Beneath the
notion of a Turkish identity lies a tension, still noticeable today,
that has nourished Mr. Pamuk’s writing.

It has been about six months since Mr. Pamuk’s comments were
published, so it is unclear why the charges are being brought just
now. Whatever the motive, they are a reminder that one of Turkey’s
biggest obstacles in dealing with the West is the way it chooses to
patrol its own history.