A VOICE FOR TURKEY

The Irish Times
October 14, 2006 Saturday

In awarding this year’s Nobel Prize for Literature to Turkey’s most
famous and controversial novelist, Orhan Pamuk, the award committee
was as much making a point about freedom of conscience and expression,
as honouring the literary achievements of this great writer. Indeed
Pamuk has probably gained wider fame and acclaim for his brave and
outspoken comments on his country’s amnesia regarding its treatment
of Ottoman Armenians, than for his accomplishments as a powerful and
innovative contemporary novelist.

Some years ago when receiving a German peace prize, Pamuk said he
considered it a shortcoming "if a Turkish writer today does not deal
with the Kurds, with minorities in Turkey and with the unspoken dark
moments in our history". Pamuk has been a moral voice dealing directly
and bluntly with those dark moments, reminding fellow Turks of deeds
and events written out of their country’s history.

In touching on these taboo subjects, Pamuk the truth-teller landed
himself in trouble for the crime of having "publicly denigrated Turkish
identity". He became the subject of a hate campaign and his books were
burned. Around that time he wrote that he lived in a country that
"honours its pashas, saints, and policemen at every opportunity but
refuses to honour its writers until they have spent years in courts
and in prisons".

His own trial and likely prison sentence were probably only averted
due to his international profile and Turkey’s aspirations for entry
into the European Union. Pamuk himself has been an ardent advocate
for accession, arguing that the survival of modern Turkey and its
more democratic elements depends on inclusion in the European fold.

In his novels Pamuk has reflected the contradictions of modern Turkey,
showing himself to be a writer of immense insight into the complexity
of those contradictions.

The significance and prestige of the Nobel Prize stands greatly
enhanced by the decision to make Pamuk this year’s recipient,
particularly as he follows Harold Pinter in receiving the honour,
another writer equally vociferous and vigorous in his criticism of
human rights abuses and equally committed to speaking out on matters
of principle when it comes to political and moral issues.

In a week in which a Russian journalist was murdered for her pursuit
of the truth in Chechnya, it is indeed fitting that the Nobel Prize
goes to a writer who sees it as his duty to light the way in the cause
of freedom of speech and in the names of those with no one else to
speak on their behalf.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress