NOBEL WINNER PAMUK PESSIMISTIC ABOUT EU-TURKEY RELATIONS
By Louise Nordstrom, Associated Press Writer
The Associated Press
December 6, 2006 Wednesday 1:37 PM GMT
Nobel literature laureate Orhan Pamuk said Wednesday he felt "sad"
about the current state of relations between the European Union and
his native Turkey.
Pamuk, who receives his $1.4 million award in Stockholm on Sunday,
was pessimistic about EU-Turkey relations, strained last week by the
EU executive’s proposal to partially suspend membership talks because
of Ankara’s refusal to open trade with Cyprus.
"It’s a subject that makes me sad these days," said Pamuk, whose life
and works illustrate the struggle to find a balance between East and
West. "And that’s the most critical comment I can make these days."
The 54-year-old writer said Turkish membership in the EU would make
the 25-nation bloc more multicultural "and it’s good for Turkish
democracy."
"It would set an example that there is no clash between civilizations,
but harmony," Pamuk said. "But in the last two years, this enthusiasm
is fading away."
Pamuk, author of novels such as "Snow" and "My Name is Red," was tried
in his homeland after a group of ultra-nationalist lawyers accused
him of "insulting Turkishness" for telling a Swiss newspaper that
"30,000 Kurds and 1 million Armenians were killed in these lands,
and nobody but me dares to talk about it."
The charges against Pamuk were dropped in January.
On Wednesday, he avoided the Armenian issue, which is one of the most
divisive and emotional in Turkey. Those who classify the killings as
genocide are often accused of treason.
"It’s an intense question. I don’t want to go into it in the last
three minutes," Pamuk said near the end of a news conference at a
Stockholm publishing house.
In pronouncing the Istanbul-born writer the winner of its prestigious
prize in October, the Swedish Academy said Pamuk "in the quest for
the melancholic soul of his native city has discovered new symbols
for the clash and interlacing of cultures."
The announcement drew a mixed reaction in his homeland. Turkish
nationalists professed shame at the selection of a man who speaks of
the oppression of Armenians and Kurds, while many writers called it
a historic moment for their rich literary tradition.
Pamuk said the Nobel Prize might have changed his financial situation
winners usually see a sharp spike in book sales but he would not let
it affect his work.
"I have made it my business so that it doesn’t change my life. I will
remain devoted to writing fiction 10 hours each day," he said.
Pamuk said the point of literature was "the pleasure of seeing the
inner depth of being in this world."
He will receive his honor from Sweden’s King Carl XVI Gustaf at
Sunday’s Nobel Prize ceremony, which is followed by a banquet at
Stockholm’s City Hall.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
