NOVELIST DENIES ‘GENOCIDE’ CLAIM

The Guardian, UK
Oct 17 2005

Orhan Pamuk, a best-selling Turkish novelist facing trial for speaking
out about the 1915 mass killings of Armenians, moved at the weekend to
soften his controversial remarks, insisting that he did not describe
the episode as genocide.

Pamuk could face up to three years in prison for reportedly telling
a Swiss newspaper that “30,000 Kurds and 1 million Armenians were
killed in these lands and nobody but me dares to talk about it”. But
on Saturday night, he went on CNN-Turk television to say: “I did
not say, we Turks killed this many Armenians. I did not use the word
‘genocide’.”

Armenians say that 1.5 million Armenians were killed by Ottoman
Turks, which Armenia and several other countries recognise as a
genocide. Turkey denies the genocide claim, saying that the death
toll is inflated and that Armenians were killed in civil unrest as
the Ottoman empire collapsed. Asked about the numbers of deaths he
referred to in his newspaper interview, Pamuk said that they were
“spontaneous remarks”.

His comments on the Kurds were no less controversial, referring to
Turkey’s 20-year conflict with Kurdish guerrillas seeking autonomy,
branded a terrorist group by the US and EU. “There are martyred
Turkish soldiers among those 30,000 to 35,000 killed people. Let’s
express our respect to them,” Pamuk said, complaining that he had
become a victim of a “defamation campaign”.

The case could embarrass Turkey as it seeks to demonstrate to
Europe that its laws and practices are capable of meeting European
standards. The EU has said it will be watching when the case starts
on December 16.

Pamuk’s books, which include the internationally acclaimed Snow and
My Name is Red, have been translated into more than 20 languages and
the novelist has received many international awards.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress