Author Pamuk “did not use the word genocide”
By our correspondent
NRC Handelsblad (Dutch newspaper)
October 17, 2005
Istanbul, Oct. 17. Turkish author Orhan Pamuk defended himself on
television against allegations that he had slandered his country. In
an interview with a Swiss newspaper, Pamuk earlier this year claimed
that “30.000 Kurks and one million Armenians were killed in these
areas and I am not the only who dares to speak about it”. This cost
Pamuk a trial that will begin in December.
However, according to Pamuk, many misread the challenged interview:
“I did not say: we Turks killed so many Armenians. I did not use the
word genocide.” The official Turkish line is that a genocide among
Armenians never took place at the end of the Ottoman empire.
The case around Pamuk is causing more and more fuss within and outside
of Turkey. The European Union, with which Turkey is now negotiating
membership, is very dissatisfied with the whole affair. Euro
commissioner on enlargement, Olli Rehn, recently visited Pamuk and
likewise British author Salman Rushdie, who had to go into hiding for a
long period of time because he was threatened to be killed by radical
Muslims, and took on Pamuk’s defence in a British newspaper. If this
already stirs up so much trouble, while the trial has not even started
yet, then cover yourself, well-known Turkish journalist Mehmet Ali
Birand wrote in a column last week.
Pamuk is being prosecuted based on an article in the new Turkish
Penal Code, forbidding slander against “the Turkish identity”. The
new code at the end of last year caused a great row between Ankara
and Brussels. Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan wanted to criminalize
Adultery, which led to a severe admonishment from Brussels. The row
overshadowed the extremely vague articles on the slandering of Turkish
identity that appeared around the same time.
Earlier, Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink was given a suspended
sentence of 6 months based on the same article. In an article, Dink
had called on Armenians to distance themselves from the “Turkish
part of their blood” because it “poisoned” them. According to Dink,
Armenians should focus on the future and especially on the new Armenian
state. According to the court, however, Dink had said that there was
“poison” in Turkish blood.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress