TURKEY HAS A PLACE IN A EUROPE OF EQUALITY AND FREEDOM

news.az
Dec 1 2009
Azerbaijan

Orhan Pamuk Nobel Prize winning author Orhan Pamuk has given an
interview to Euronews about his latest novel, the Museum of Innocence,
and about the search for identity in Turkey and Europe.

"If Europe is a Christian club based on nationalism and Christianity,
then Turkey has no place in Europe," Pamuk said. "But if Europe is
based on liberté, égalité, fraternité, then Turkey has a place
in Europe. But then again Turkey is now in a way Europe’s mirror image.

Europe is also deciding about its identity through the question of
whether to take Turkey in or not, as well as Turkey is deciding about
its identity, whether Islam and nationalism or some other ideal should
be the defining notion of identity in Turkey."

Asked whether there is now a "No Entry" sign on Europe’s door, the
author replied: "Right now unfortunately there is a little bit of a
small ‘No Entry’ sign in the Turkish-European relationship. In 2005
the Turkish-European relationship looked very promising for Turkey.

Then, because of various conservatives – say Sarkozy, Angela Merkel,
Austria – various European countries resisted Turkey while Spain,
Italy, England and some other forces in Europe wanted Turkey inside
the European Union."

"What’s happening, now," Pamuk continued, "what I see is that
since Europe and both parts are very busy about their identities,
then there is a little bit of an intermission, stop, enthusiasm
has faded away now. We don’t see a ‘No Entry’ sign, but we see
that… ‘well… maybe…’ but it’s not time, the door is not open
yet, and I’m sad about that but I’m not going to cry, either."

Euronews commented in its introduction to the interview, broadcast on
28 November, that during the same week Turkey’s High Court had ruled
that anybody who "suffered mentally" because of what Pamuk had said
about the Armenian genocide could sue him for pain and suffering.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress