Bits of News
Feb 16 2007

Nobel Prize Winner Orhan Pamuk in Exile

Thursday, 15 February 2007 Written by Alexander G. Rubio

Orhan PamukUnder threat of assassination, Turkish author Orhan Pamuk
has left his homeland, perhaps never to return. And it’s hard to
blame him. First he was put on trial for "denigrating Turkish
identity", following an interview he gave to a Swiss newspaper about
the genocide of the Armenians in the early twentieth century (which
may form the backdrop for a movie, unlikely as it may seem, by none
other than Sylvester "Rambo/Rocky Balboa" Stallone).

And for a while it seemed like reason would prevail. Not only was the
case dropped, but one would have thought that Pamuk being awarded the
Nobel Prize in Literature would have salved any bruised national
pride.

But then Armenian journalist and editor of the Armenian-Turkish
language weekly Agos magazine, Hrant Dink was gunned down in broad
daylight outside his office in downtown Istanbul.

It seems threats have been made against Pamuk’s life by the same man
who confessed to being responsible for the assassination of Hrant
Dink.

British daily The Guardian reports that his lecture tour to the
United States might be extended, indefinitely.
The International Herald Tribune reported on Thursday February 1 that
Pamuk had boarded a plane for New York to begin a lecture tour of
American universities and, according to Fatih Altayli, a prominent
columnist writing for the Turkish daily newspaper Sabah, he has no
plans to return to Turkey. The writer had already cancelled a tour of
Germany, which has a sizeable Turkish community, at the end of last
month.

"What I was told was more than mere rumour: Pamuk recently withdrew
$400,000 from his bank account and said he would leave Turkey and
would not be returning to his country anytime soon," wrote Altayli.
According to the Daily Telegraph, those close to Pamuk have declined
to comment publicly on the report because of the "sensitivity of Mr
Pamuk’s position".

Now, some might say, even with no small measure of smugness, that
this is the act of a coward, that he should have laid his life on the
line, daring the assassins’ bullet.

But Pamuk never asked to be a martyr to free speech, only to have the
right to it. His death would not vindicate any principles, which
should, in Thomas Jefferson’s words, be self-evident, but only serve
to silence others who would claim the right to state their opinion.

Only the Turkish people, through the Turkish government they elect,
can make a forceful case for those principles, by repealing the legal
statutes used to make Pamuk, Hrant Dink, and others, targets in the
first place.