Reuters, UK
Oct 13 2006
Nobel winner Pamuk attacks France on genocide law
Fri Oct 13, 2006 11:26 PM IST
By Paul de Bendern
ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkish Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk, tried at home
for commenting on the killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks, said on
Friday a French law banning the denial of the Armenian genocide went
against free speech.
"Freedom of expression is a French discovery and this law is contrary
to the culture of freedom of expression. We must not pass a law
forbidding freedom," Pamuk told Turkish broadcaster Kanal D in an
interview from New York.
Turkey’s powerful speaker of parliament earlier challenged Pamuk to
declare his stand on the controversial bill approved by France’s
lower house of parliament on Thursday, which came the day he was
awarded the literary world’s most coveted prize.
Turkey denies that Armenians suffered genocide in Turkey during World
War One, arguing that large numbers of both Muslim Turks and
Christian Armenians died in a partisan conflict that accompanied the
collapse of the Ottoman Empire.
The French bill shocked many Turks who are sensitive about their
history and reluctant to discuss it, while the Nobel committee’s
decision puts the centre-right government in an awkward spot as it
has been a regular critic of Pamuk.
Nationalist prosecutors took Pamuk to trial in January on charges he
insulted Turkey’s identity by telling a Swiss newspaper 1 million
Armenians had died in Turkey during World War One and 30,000 Kurds
had perished in recent decades.
The trial, under article 301 of the penal code, was later dismissed
on a technicality but not before it brought a sharp rebuke from the
European Union.
ABOLISH LAW
"Article 301 must be abolished… We (journalists, authors and
publishers) are all facing difficult days but democracy will be
secured in Turkey, we’ll all spend our effort on this," Pamuk said.
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and President Ahmet Necdet Sezer have
not yet publicly commented on the award, a signal of how deep the
Armenian issue runs and how divisive a figure Pamuk is in Muslim but
secular Turkey.
But a spokesman for Erdogan said he had spoke to Pamuk,
congratulating him and saying it was good a Turk had won.
Many Turks are critical of Pamuk — whose prose mixes East and West,
past and present — for bringing the Armenian issue into the public
forum and especially to foreigners’ attention.
At the height of the nationalist hysteria over his comments, one
provincial official called for Pamuk’s books to be burnt.
Most of Turkey’s newspapers on Friday praised Pamuk for winning the
country’s first Nobel but many dailies questioned whether the move by
the Swedish academy was political.
"Is the Nobel prize given to a Turk or to his claims about his
country? This would be pity for Turkey and for Orhan Pamuk as well
… because he really deserved this prize," said Ertugrul Ozkok,
editor-in-chief of leading newspaper Hurriyet.
Pamuk responded: "It’s not the day to make deep criticism but a day
to celebrate. I won’t say anything to those who think I won this
prize for political reasons."