Agence France Presse — English
October 13, 2006 Friday

Turkish press in half-hearted celebration of Pamuk’s Nobel award

Turkish newspapers were torn Friday between joy at the country’s
first Nobel prize and doubts whether the literature laureate,
novelist Orhan Pamuk, was rewarded for his writing or his political
dissidence that has often embarassed Turkey.

"He is our pride," trumpeted the liberal daily Radikal on its
front-page, while the mass-selling Milliyet said: "The world honors
Orhan Pamuk."

Next to the festive headlines were furious banners denouncing a
French bill that would make it a crime to deny Turks committed
genocide against Armenians during World War I.

The draft was voted by the French national assembly Thursday shortly
before Pamuk was named winner of the Nobel prize for literature in
Stockholm.

The massacres, which Ankara denies were genocide, earned Pamuk, 54,
the reputation of a "traitor" among Turkish nationalists and landed
him in court after he questioned in a magazine interview the official
line on this most controversial episode in Turkish history.

"Orhan Pamuk wins the Nobel prize — for what he said or what he
wrote?" the popular Vatan asked, saying his achievement brought
"bittersweet joy" to Turks.

"Undoubtedly, the award is a source of pride for the whole nation…
but the stunts Pamuk performed to win it are not forgotten," an
editorial in the best-selling Hurriyet newspaper said.

"Unfortunately, Pamuk abided by the rule of the Western world that in
order to win a literary prize, you should go against your country
whether you are right or wrong," it added.

But many commentators played down the doubts.

"Some people draw the following picture: those who say it was not
genocide go to jail and those who say it was win the Nobel… It is
not that easy," one columnist wrote in Vatan.

"These heated debates, these stale jokes will soon pass," he said.
"And what will be taught in schools in 10 years’ time will be that
Orhan Pamuk was the first, and perhaps only, Turkish writer to win
the Nobel Literature Prize."

The case aghainst Pamuk, in which he risked up to three years in
jail, was dropped on a technicality in January after only one hearing
marred by far-right demonstrators attacking and booing the author.

He first drew the ire of the state in the mid-1990s when he denounced
the treatment of the Kurdish minority as the army waged a
heavy-handed campaign to supress a bloody separatist insurgency in
the southeast.

The state extended an olive branch in 1998, offering him the accolade
of "State Artist," but Pamuk declined.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress