PLOT TO KILL ORHAN PAMUK FOILED

Times of India
Jan 25 2008
India

ANKARA: A group of ultra-nationalists who were detained this week
had been plotting to kill the Nobel Literature laureate Orhan Pamuk,
Turkish newspapers said on Thursday.

The group, known as Ergenekon and led by a retired brigadier, was
also planning a series of bomb attacks and assassinations aimed at
fomenting chaos before mounting a coup against the Turkish government
in 2009, the papers said.

Police have arrested 35 people, including former army officers and
lawyers known for their far-right views, following the seizure of
explosives and weapons at a house in Istanbul last year.

Newspapers carried extensive and detailed claims suggesting the
nationalists may have been behind a number of past bomb attacks
and assassinations. The gang was reportedly seeking 2 million lira
($1.67 million) and a Glock gun to assassinate Orhan Pamuk.

Pamuk, known for novels such as ‘My Name is Red’ and ‘Snow’, is
loathed by Turkish nationalists for saying Turkey was responsible for
the deaths of more than a million Armenians during World War One and
of 30,000 Kurds in recent decades.

Police had been observing Ergenekon, which is named after a valley
in Turkish nationalist mythology, for several years and have compiled
a 7,000-page dossier on the group and its activities, the newspapers
said.

Far-right groups have long operated in Turkey with relative impunity.

Many Turks say the lack of arrests after past attacks in which
such groups have been implicated points to some degree of official
protection or collusion.

But PM Tayyip Erdogan’s government has vowed to combat the
ultra-nationalist gangs, saying their activities harm Turkey’s image
and its drive to join the European Union.

"You see our security forces have begun a very serious and decisive
process in the struggle with this kind of organised crime," told
Erdogan.