CITIES AND NOBELS
Mehmet Kamis

Zaman, Turkey
Oct 16 2006

After reading the novel, "Veronika Decides to Die" by Paulo Coelho,
I went to Ljubljana [in Slovenia] just to see those places and take
pictures of the squares, streets, buildings and people in the city
mentioned in this novel. While reading Orhan Pamuk’s "Snow," I really
wanted to go to Kars with my camera on a winter day.

For a long time now, I have been dreaming of taking pictures of Kars
after making the long train journey to this eastern Anatolian city. I
am still dreaming of it. I believe novels can go beyond city walls,
take them out of their cages and present them to other lands and
people of other lands. Therefore, novelists are big boons for cities.

There can be no bigger boon than a city chosen as a theme by a
world-renowned novelist. St. Petersburg became a world city with
"Crime and Punishment" and Paris opened its soul in "Les Miserables"
to Victor Hugo, who narrated it to the whole world.

Pamuk is definitely no regime opponent. On the contrary, he is a
member of a family from the very center of the regime. He has never
been in a position to oppose the regime all his life. He has neither
suffered economic difficulties nor has he had any problems with the
regime. In other words, he is one of those white Turks. Besides,
his family includes members from Ittihat Terakki (the Committee of
Union and Progress) that put Turkey in trouble over the Armenian issue.

Though Pamuk had serious problems within his family, he spent his
life at the best schools and places in Nisantasi; he never had the
opportunity to come face to face with the Armenian or Kurdish issue.

I do not know whether he encountered any problems in the eastern
city of Kars where he lived briefly while writing his novel "Snow"
but Pamuk, generally, has spent most in life in good places and under
very favorable conditions. Although I have not been able to read any
his novels from beginning to end, Pamuk is certainly a good novelist.

At least he has aroused my interest in wanting to go to Kars.

Let me just reiterate that Pamuk is a good novelist though he holds
no serious political attitudes for or against the regime, and I
also think his remarks on the Armenians and Kurds could labeled as
opportunistic. What needs to be discussed here is the hypocrisy of
the West. The West has almost made it a condition for a novelist or
intellectual from the East to belittle his/her own society’s values
in order for him/her to be rewarded. Doors are opened for those who
ridicule and belittle Eastern values or those who speak out on issues
which are the Achilles’ heel of the East. Pamuk’s remarks must be
regarded as words uttered with such purpose to appease the West. If
he truly believed in what he said about the Kurds and Armenians,
it would have befitted the intellectual honor. Awarding Pamuk the
the Nobel Prize in Literature right after the French freak accident,
can be considered a typical Western conspiracy.

Beyond all these discussions, it is very important that a Turkish
Turk has won a Nobel prize. This is a development that can draw the
whole world’s attention to Turkey, Istanbul and even Kars. I hope
Turkey makes good use of this golden opportunity. Who knows, maybe
Pamuk will narrate the experiences, wisdom and general spirit of
tolerance in these lands to the outside world. People who have given
their souls for these lands, for the sake of the regime and power,
do not always look at the world from the same viewpoint.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress