The Age, Australia
Oct 14 2006

A wake-up call better late than never
October 13, 2006

NOBEL literature laureate Orhan Pamuk said he was honoured to win,
even though his initial reaction was confusion about the late-night
call.

"It’s such a great honour, such a great pleasure," Pamuk told
journalists at Columbia University, New York, where he studied in the
1980s.

"I’m very happy about the prize."

The boyish Turkish author, now a fellow at Columbia, said the award
was a cause for celebration not just for him, but his country and
culture.

"I think that this is first of all an honour bestowed upon the
Turkish language, Turkish culture, Turkey and also recognition of my
labours," he said.

The decision to award the prize to a writer and campaigner who is an
advocate of Turkey’s European ambitions, and a harsh critic of
authoritarian trends in his country, comes as a boon to freedom of
expression and to Turkey’s beleaguered literary class.

But Pamuk, a hero to Istanbul liberals, is reviled by his country’s
nationalists, who see him as a traitor.

A 54-year-old native and chronicler of Istanbul who has devoted
himself to his writing for more than 30 years, Pamuk was in New York
when the 1.1 million ($A1.8 million) prize was announced in
Stockholm on Thursday.

Sporting a wide grin, the novelist was ebullient as he described how
he learned of the award. His first reaction? "Who is calling me in
the middle of the night? I have a new mobile, there’s something wrong
with my mobile."

Pamuk, who has courted controversy in Turkey by tackling such
subjects as the treatment of the Kurdish minority and the Ottoman
massacre of Armenians during World War I, declined to be drawn by
reporters’ questions.

"This is a time for celebration, for enjoying this, rather than
making political comments," he told journalists.

When pushed, he said: "This is a day for celebration, for being
positive.

"I have lots of critical energy deep in me but I’m not going to
express it today.

"I want to tell my readers, both in Turkey and all over the world,
that this prize will not change my working habits, my devotion to
this art."