Deutsche Presse-Agentur, Germany
October 12, 2006 Thursday

Pamuk "honoured over genocide stance" – Armenia

DPA POLITICS Sweden Nobel Literature EXTRA: Pamuk "honoured over
genocide stance" – Armenia Yerevan
The awarding of the Nobel Prize for Literature to
Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk has been welcomed in Armenia, where

commentators said the novelist had been honoured for his outspoken
stance on Turkey’s alleged "genocide" of thousands of Armenians.

Chairman of the Armenian Writers’ Federation David Muradyan
welcomed the Swedish Academy’s decision to honour Pamuk. Author and
filmmaker Muradyan said the award "linked the literature prize with
morality."

Pamuk had stated in an interview that "1 million Armenians and
30,000 Kurds" were killed in the dying days of the Ottoman Empire.
The comments provoked outrage among Turkish nationalists who accused
the writer of "insulting Turkishness."

A controversial trial against Pamuk was however dropped by the
Turkish Justice Ministry following international criticism.

Armenian historians claim that as many as 1.5 million Christian
Armenians were killed during and after the First World War and that
the massacres were a clear genocide.

Turkey counters that Armenians sided with invading Russian forces
and that the numbers of Armenians killed was around 300,000. Ankara
has also refused to term the events as genocide.
Oct 1206 1256 GMT