TRIUMPHANT TWIST FOR TURKISH AUTHOR
Canberra Times, Australia
October 14, 2006 Saturday
J UST NINE months ago Orhan Pamuk stood in the dock of an Istanbul
court accused of insulting "Turkishness" by speaking openly about
the suffering of Armenians at the hands of the Turks during World
War I. But on Thursday, Turkey’s leading writer and searing social
commentator, whose refusal to shy away from controversial aspects of
his country’s past has enraged conservatives at home, confounded his
critics when he was awarded the 2006 Nobel Prize for Literature.
Pamuk, the author of a string of critically acclaimed novels,
faced jail earlier this year for referring to the suffering of
Turkey’s Armenian population. His choice as winner of the world’s
most prestigious literary prize – he is the first Turk to claim it –
is widely seen as motivated by achievements in the political sphere
as well as by his literary output.
The charges against him were eventually dropped on a technicality after
pressure mounted from Brussels and the wider international community
to resist acting on the law which makes it a crime to denigrate the
national character. But the furore surrounding the case cemented
Pamuk’s image as a vigorous critic of the state.
In another ironic twist, the Nobel prize announcement in Stockholm
came within hours of a vote in the French National Assembly to approve
a Bill making it a crime to deny that the mass killings of Armenians
in Turkey amounted to genocide.
The move infuriated Turkey, with the Government warning of imminent
"retaliation", possibly in the form of a trade boycott.
Soon after he was told of his success from the Nobel academy’s
headquarters in Stockholm, Pamuk, 54, said, "I am very happy and
honoured. I am very satisfied. I will try to recover from this
shock." Pamuk, whose novels have gained plaudits worldwide for their
skilful intertwining of Eastern and Western cultures, has long been
praised for his courageous tackling of modern Turkey’s demons through
his writing, both fiction and journalistic. He has gained a reputation
as a leading defender of freedom of speech in Turkey, a country with
European Union aspirations but a dubious track record of silencing
those who dare to confront certain long-held national taboos.
Pamuk went on trial for telling a Swiss newspaper in February 2005 that
Turkey was unwilling to deal with two of the most painful episodes in
recent Turkish history: the massacre of Armenians during World War I,
which Turkey insists was not a planned genocide, and recent guerrilla
fighting in Turkey’s overwhelmingly Kurdish south-east. "Thirty
thousand Kurds and one million Armenians were killed in these lands,
and nobody but me dares to talk about it," he said in the interview.
The Pamuk trial was a big embarrassment for Turkey’s pro-Western
Government.
After his win, luminaries worldwide were lining up to congratulate
Pamuk, whose discovery of "new symbols for the clash and interlacing
of cultures" was lauded by the academy. Horace Engdahl, the head of the
Swedish academy, said Pamuk had "enlarged the roots of the contemporary
novel" through his links to Western and Eastern culture. "His roots
in two cultures … [allow] him to take our own image and reflect it
in a partially unknown and partially recognisable image, and it is
incredibly fascinating." Pamuk published his first novel, The White
Castle, in 1991 and since then he has found increasing critical
and commercial success with works such as The Black Book and, most
recently, his memoir Istanbul.
The majority of reaction, however, centered on his politics.
Harold Pinter, the equally incendiary recipient of last year’s Nobel
Prize, said he "couldn’t be more delighted". Activists and campaigners
for social change all over Europe expressed their delight.
But the news that one of the most tenacious critics of modern Turkey
has been catapulted into international literary stardom was unwelcome
for many.
Pamuk, through his outspoken comments on matters ranging from women
wearing the veil to the Armenian question, is seen as a traitor by
Turkey’s conservatives.
Kemal Kerincsiz, head of a group of ultra-nationalist lawyers which
helped bring the charges against Pamuk in January, said he was ashamed
the author had been honoured with a Nobel Prize. "I don’t believe
this prize was given for his books or for his literary identity,"
Kerincsiz said. "It was given because he belittled our national values,
for his recognition of the genocide." The issue of the mass killings
of its Armenian population during and after World War I remains the
ultimate taboo in modern Turkey and few dare to discuss it.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
