ORHAN PAMUK FEARS FOR HIS SAFETY
ArmRadio.am
19.02.2007 17:42
The Turkish Nobel laureate, Orhan Pamuk, has cancelled a book tour
of Germany and is reported by a colleague to have gone into exile
in New York because of fears for his safety following the murder of
Turkish-Armenian editor Hrant Dink last month. Pamuk’s decision now to
move will bring renewed, unwelcome attention to Turkey as it struggles
to bring its human rights situation into conformity with EU standards.
Three weeks ago Yasin Hayal, the man police say has confessed to
organizing Dink’s murder, shouted "Orhan Pamuk, be smart, be smart"
to journalists as he was being led into an Istanbul court. Pamuk’s
friends fear he is high on the target list of ultranationalists who
resent the two men’s support for acknowledgment by Turkey of the
genocidal massacre of Armenians in 1915.