AZG Armenian Daily #116, 24/06/2005
Award
GERMAN PEACE AWARD 2005 GOES TO ORHAN PAMUK
Turkish author Orhan Pamuk was awarded German Publishers’ and Booksellers’
Association peace prize, German Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung informed on
June 22 adding that the Association has raised this year’s prize from 15.000
to 25.000 euros. The author will get it in Frankfurt am Mein in October at
the international book fair. More than 50 writers, philosophers and
scientists have received the prize since its launch in 1950s. Among the
renowned nominees are Albert Schweitzer in 1951, Hermann Hesse in 1955, Carl
Friedrich von Weizsacker in 1963, Astrid Lindgren in 1978, Yehudi Menuhin in
1979 and Vaclav Havel in 1989. In 1997 Turkish writer Yasar Kemal received
the award. In 2003 Susan Sontag from America received the peace prize and
last year it went to Hungarian writer Peter Esterhazy.
The works of 53-year-old Orhan Pamuk were translated into 34 languages. His
“The Snow” novel was highly praised by the critics. The New York Times
hailed it as the best book put out by foreign publishers in 2004. DPA news
agency reports that Ralf Giordano, German writer, publicist and director of
a film about Armenian Genocide, congratulated the Turkish author emphasizing
that Pamuk is firm in criticizing Turkish lies. Frankfurter Allgemeine
Zeitung in its turn gave its appraisal of Pamuk’s literature noting that it
is in his works in contemporary literature that Muslim Turkey meets Europe.
The paper wrote also about the writer’s views on Armenian Genocide and his
disapproval of Turkish stance. The online version of Frankfurter Allgemeine
Zeitung posts daily extensive information on Armenian Genocide. This
influential German paper published the vast article of Mihran Dabagh on June
20.
By Anahit Hovsepian in Germany