ORHAN PAMUK ATTACKS OPPRESSION OF INTELLECTUALS IN TURKEY

ArmRadio.am
08.01.2007 16:10

Writer and Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk used a day as guest editor
of a newspaper to highlight oppression of intellectuals in his
native Turkey.

Mr. Pamuk, who has a degree in journalism, was asked to edit the
Radikal daily as part of its 10th anniversary celebrations.

His cover story accused the Turkish state of suppressing free
expression and oppressing dissident thinkers.

Mr. Pamuk, an acclaimed novelist, is a controversial figure in Turkey.

He is the author of works such as Snow and My Name Is Red, and in
2006 won the Nobel Prize for literature.

A year earlier, he had faced charges of "insulting Turkishness"
over comments on the mass killing of Kurds and Ottoman Armenians,
charges which were later dropped.

His cover article quoted a 1951 story about Turkish poet Nazim Hikmet,
declared a traitor and imprisoned for his left-wing views, in which
the public were urged "to spit in his face".

"This expression… summarises the unchanging place of writers and
artists in the eyes of the state and the press," the cover story said.

Other articles on his front page included a piece on the low percentage
of women in politics and reactions to video footage of former Iraqi
President Saddam Hussein’s execution, reports the BBC.