ORHAN PAMUK WON’T RETURN TO HIS COUNTRY SOON

PanARMENIAN.Net
14.02.2007 18:15 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The Turkish novelist and Nobel laureate Orhan
Pamuk is living in exile in the United States and is believed to be
in fear for his life, reports the Daily Telegraph. Amid a climate
of intimidation that has seen the prosecution and even murder of
dissident intellectuals throwing into doubt Turkey’s aspiration to
the join the European Union, Mr Pamuk, 54, who is living in New York,
is said to have told friends he has set no deadline for his return.

Instead, according to the prominent Istanbul columnist Fatih Altayli,
the writer has quietly gone into exile.

"What I was told was more than mere rumor," said Mr Altayli. "Pamuk
recently withdrew $400,000 from his bank account and said he would
leave Turkey and would not be returning to his country any time soon."

Following the murder of an ethnic Armenian journalist, Hrant Dink,
last month, Mr Pamuk expressed fears for his own safety. The writer
enraged Turkish nationalists by acknowledging that under the Ottoman
empire Turks had triggered the genocide of one million Armenians
nearly a century ago.

Yasin Hayal, a nationalist charged with incitement to murder Mr
Dink, made what appeared to be a threat against Mr Pamuk. He said:
"Orhan Pamuk be careful."