NOBEL WINNER PAMUK RETURNS HOME AMID TIGHT SECURITY

Agence France Presse — English
December 14, 2006 Thursday 8:52 AM GMT

Orhan Pamuk, the winner of the 2006 Nobel Literature prize, flew back
home late Wednesday amid tight security against possible demonstrations
over his dissident views on the massacres of Armenians under Ottoman
rule, the Turkish media reported Thursday.

Dozens of riot police were deployed at Istanbul’s Ataturk airport for
Pamuk’s arrival after a nationalist television station urged Turks
to denounce the writer at the airport with Turkish flags.

There were no security incidents. On the contrary, Pamuk was greeted
with flowers while passengers in the terminal applauded and took
pictures of him.

"I am a little tired but very happy," a smiling Pamuk told reporters.

"This award was given to Turkey, the Turkish culture and the Turkish
language in which I have been swimming like a fish for years,"
he added.

The 54-year-old Pamuk won the reputation of a "traitor" among
nationalist circles and stood trial on charges of "insulting
Turkishness" when he told a Swiss magazine last year that "one million
Armenians and 30,000 Kurds were killed in these lands."

His remarks were widely seen as an acknowledgement that the Ottoman
Turks committed genocide against Armenians during World War I,
a label that Ankara fiercely rejects.

The court case against Pamuk, in which he risked up to three years
in jail, was dropped on a technicality in January.

The celebration of Pamuk’s award at home was overshadowed by skeptics
who argued that the author won the favors of the West not for his
literary skills but for his vocal criticism of his country.

Pamuk was in the United States when it was announced in October that
he won the 2006 literature prize.

He came back briefly to his home town Istanbul before Sunday’s
awards ceremony in Stockholm, and was greeted with indifference,
going through the airport like an ordinary passenger.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress