Author: Emil Lazarian

TRIUMPHANT TWIST FOR TURKISH AUTHOR
Canberra Times, Australia
October 14, 2006 Saturday
J UST NINE months ago Orhan Pamuk stood in the dock of an Istanbul
court accused of insulting “Turkishness” by speaking openly about
the suffering of Armenians at the hands of the Turks during World
War I. But on Thursday, Turkey’s leading writer and searing social
commentator, whose refusal to shy away from controversial aspects of
his country’s past has enraged conservatives at home, confounded his
critics when he was awarded the 2006 Nobel Prize for Literature.
Pamuk, the author of a string of critically acclaimed novels,
faced jail earlier this year for referring to the suffering of
Turkey’s Armenian population. His choice as winner of the world’s
most prestigious literary prize – he is the first Turk to claim it –
is widely seen as motivated by achievements in the political sphere
as well as by his literary output.
The charges against him were eventually dropped on a technicality after
pressure mounted from Brussels and the wider international community
to resist acting on the law which makes it a crime to denigrate the
national character. But the furore surrounding the case cemented
Pamuk’s image as a vigorous critic of the state.
In another ironic twist, the Nobel prize announcement in Stockholm
came within hours of a vote in the French National Assembly to approve
a Bill making it a crime to deny that the mass killings of Armenians
in Turkey amounted to genocide.
The move infuriated Turkey, with the Government warning of imminent
“retaliation”, possibly in the form of a trade boycott.
Soon after he was told of his success from the Nobel academy’s
headquarters in Stockholm, Pamuk, 54, said, “I am very happy and
honoured. I am very satisfied. I will try to recover from this
shock.” Pamuk, whose novels have gained plaudits worldwide for their
skilful intertwining of Eastern and Western cultures, has long been
praised for his courageous tackling of modern Turkey’s demons through
his writing, both fiction and journalistic. He has gained a reputation
as a leading defender of freedom of speech in Turkey, a country with
European Union aspirations but a dubious track record of silencing
those who dare to confront certain long-held national taboos.
Pamuk went on trial for telling a Swiss newspaper in February 2005 that
Turkey was unwilling to deal with two of the most painful episodes in
recent Turkish history: the massacre of Armenians during World War I,
which Turkey insists was not a planned genocide, and recent guerrilla
fighting in Turkey’s overwhelmingly Kurdish south-east. “Thirty
thousand Kurds and one million Armenians were killed in these lands,
and nobody but me dares to talk about it,” he said in the interview.
The Pamuk trial was a big embarrassment for Turkey’s pro-Western
Government.
After his win, luminaries worldwide were lining up to congratulate
Pamuk, whose discovery of “new symbols for the clash and interlacing
of cultures” was lauded by the academy. Horace Engdahl, the head of the
Swedish academy, said Pamuk had “enlarged the roots of the contemporary
novel” through his links to Western and Eastern culture. “His roots
in two cultures … [allow] him to take our own image and reflect it
in a partially unknown and partially recognisable image, and it is
incredibly fascinating.” Pamuk published his first novel, The White
Castle, in 1991 and since then he has found increasing critical
and commercial success with works such as The Black Book and, most
recently, his memoir Istanbul.
The majority of reaction, however, centered on his politics.
Harold Pinter, the equally incendiary recipient of last year’s Nobel
Prize, said he “couldn’t be more delighted”. Activists and campaigners
for social change all over Europe expressed their delight.
But the news that one of the most tenacious critics of modern Turkey
has been catapulted into international literary stardom was unwelcome
for many.
Pamuk, through his outspoken comments on matters ranging from women
wearing the veil to the Armenian question, is seen as a traitor by
Turkey’s conservatives.
Kemal Kerincsiz, head of a group of ultra-nationalist lawyers which
helped bring the charges against Pamuk in January, said he was ashamed
the author had been honoured with a Nobel Prize. “I don’t believe
this prize was given for his books or for his literary identity,”
Kerincsiz said. “It was given because he belittled our national values,
for his recognition of the genocide.” The issue of the mass killings
of its Armenian population during and after World War I remains the
ultimate taboo in modern Turkey and few dare to discuss it.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

FRENCH POLICE MYSTIFIED AFTER THEFT OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE MONUMENT
Agence France Presse — English
October 15, 2006 Sunday
Police said on Sunday that they had no leads following the theft
of an Armenian genocide monument in a southwestern Paris suburb the
previous night.
The 300 kilogram (660 pound) bronze statue was stolen two days after
the French national assembly voted to make denial of the Armenian
genocide illegal, but a connection between the two events has not
been established.
“We have no idea if this is a political statement or simply crooks
wanting to resell the metal. Either way, it is a despicable act,”
Jean Levain, Mayor of Chaville, told AFP on Sunday.
Police in Chaville, Hauts-de-Seine, were expected to view on Monday
tapes from security cameras at the location where the crime occurred.
There was no vandalism or message at the scene, the municipality said.
The Armenian community in Chaville was “shocked and outraged”, said
Hirant Norcen, vice-president of the Cultural Association of the
Armenian Church in Chaville.
“Whatever the reason for the theft, it is still unacceptable,”
Norcen said.
A silent march lasting several minutes after a mass and the laying
of a wreath were organised for Sunday midday.
Jean-Jacques Guillet, a regional assembly member, expressed his
“indignation” and declared that “the irresponsible barbarism which
violated this symbol of remembrance should be punished ruthlessly.”
The Armenian community gave the monument, valued by the municipality
at 50,000 euros (60,000 dollars), to the city in 2002 in memory of
the 1915-1917 massacres of Armenians by the Ottoman Turks.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

A PAMUK PRIMER
by Stephanie Yap
The Straits Times (Singapore)
October 15, 2006 Sunday
Despite Turkey’s hostile attitude towards Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk,
the land of his birth is where his heart belongs
THE name Orhan Pamuk might not ring a bell for most people, but the
54-year-old Turkish writer, who was announced as the 2006 recipient
of the Nobel Prize in literature last Thursday, actually caused quite
an international hullabaloo last year.
In an interview with a Swiss newspaper in February that year, he made
the statement that ‘thirty thousand Kurds and one million Armenians
were killed in these lands, and nobody but me dares to talk about it’.
He was referring to the conflict between the Turkish Army and Kurdish
separatists in the 1980s and 1990s, and the mass killings of Armenians
in 1915. Turkey still does not acknowledge the Armenian slaughter
as genocide.
In December last year, Pamuk found himself standing trial for violating
Article 301 of Turkey’s penal code, which prohibits public denigration
of Turkish national identity, the republic or the national assembly.
However, the trial stalled as soon as it started, with the judge
postponing the proceedings for two months on a technicality. The case
was eventually dropped.
The media at the time speculated that Turkey backed down after
criticism by leaders of the European Union, which Turkey applied to
join in 1987, but has yet to be admitted to.
The writer is now a visiting professor at Columbia University in New
York. However, despite Turkey’s hostile attitude towards him, it is
clear that the land of his birth is where his heart still belongs.
He told the Associated Press in a telephone interview that he accepted
the award not just as ‘a personal honour, but as an honour bestowed
upon the Turkish literature and culture I represent’.
Here’s a look at the newest Nobel laureate, and a rundown of the
works that earned him the $2.2 million prize.
The writer
ORHAN Pamuk was born on June 7, 1952, in Istanbul, Turkey, to a
wealthy industrialist family. He is the younger of two sons. His
father, a businessman, died in 2003.
His older brother, Sevket, is a university professor and a noted
expert on economic history. He sometimes appears as a fictional
character in Pamuk’s books.
The writer attended the exclusive American-style Robert College in
Istanbul, graduating in 1970. He then entered Istanbul Technical
University at the age of 20 to study architecture, but left after
three years as he realised he wanted to be a writer.
He graduated from the Institute of Journalism at Istanbul University
in 1976 but never worked as a journalist.
Instead, he started writing at the age of 23 and published his first
novel, Cevdet Bey And His Sons, seven years later at the age of 30.
Winning both the Orhan Kemal and Milliyet literary prizes – two of
the most prestigious in Turkey – he went on to write six more novels,
the most recent being Snow in 2002.
He writes in Turkish, and all but his first two novels have been
translated into English.
He was a visiting scholar at Columbia from 1985 to 1988, a period
which also included a visiting fellowship at the University of Iowa.
He returned to Istanbul, where he lived until early this year, when
he went back to the United States to take up the position at Columbia.
He married historian Aylin Turegen in 1982, but they divorced in
2001. They have a teenage daughter.
The works
NOVEL #1: Cevdet Bey And His Sons (1982). It is about three generations
of a wealthy Istanbul family, and depicts Turkey changing from an
Eastern identity to a Western one.
NOVEL #2: The Silent House (1984). A novel in five voices, reminiscent
of Virginia Woolf’s The Waves, it is about three siblings who spend
a summer in the 1970s at their dying grandmother’s home outside
Istanbul. Meanwhile, communists and nationalists clash in the city’s
streets.
NOVEL #3: The White Castle (1985), translated into English in 1990.
Set in the 17th century, on the eve of Ottoman decline, it is the story
of a Turkish scholar and a captured Venetian who argue with each other
about whose civilisation is superior. In the end, they swop identities.
NOVEL #4: The Black Book (1990), translated into English in 1994. In
a narrative heavily influenced by Jorge Luis Borges and James Joyce,
an Istanbul lawyer searches for his runaway wife who has fled with a
prominent newspaper columnist. After the couple die in an accident,
the lawyer assumes the identity of the journalist, wearing his clothes
and even writing his columns.
NOVEL #5: The New Life (1995), translated into English in 1997. A
young man falls in love with a girl and the book she is reading. They
then embark on a random tour of Turkey, observing a country that has
forgotten, or wants to forget, its history.
NOVEL #6: My Name Is Red (1998), translated into English in 2001. A
murder mystery set in the late 16th century, it is often seen as
Pamuk’s magnum opus. At the Sultan’s Court, the introduction of
Western Renaissance painting, characterised by realism, threatens
traditional Persian miniature painting, which is rooted in the idea
of Allah as the only creator.
NOVEL #7: Snow (2002), translated into English in 2004. A Turkish
poet who has been living abroad returns to his homeland. There, he
investigates a rumour about a remote village where some girls have
killed themselves rather than remove their headscarves, as Turkish
law requires.
MEMOIR: Istanbul: Memories And The City (2003), translated into
English in 2005. Pamuk’s memoir pays tribute to his hometown, showing
how the melancholy of the once-mighty city permeates the lives of
its inhabitants.
Most of the English translations are available or can be ordered
through major bookstores.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMENIA CONTINUES VIOLATING “ON CONVENTIONAL ARMAMENTS IN EUROPE” AGREEMENT
Ïðaâî Âûaîða, Azerbaijan
Democratic Azerbaijan
Oct 16 2006
Armenian continues violating “On Conventional Armaments in Europe”
agreement. Armenia makes efforts to confuse world community mentioning
Azerbaijan in this respect with evil intent.
It was stated by deputy of Milli Mejlis, chairman of Standing
Commission of Parliament on Security and Defense, Ziyafet Askerov,
in interview for journalists.
Accordingly to Ziyafet Askerov, Azerbaijan fulfils requirements of
international instruments. To accuse Azerbaijan of violation of any
terms of agreements is Armenians’ act. Armenia gets weapons from
Russia in large quantities, and continues arming via roundabout way.
Armenia violates requirements of agreements. No doubt, world community
witnesses it, and probably it will make its presence felt.
–Boundary_(ID_RsVIVz91lq/NBJlBWtpwhg)–
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

FRENCH APPROVAL OF ARMENIAN BILL STILL SPARKING REACTIONS AT HOME AND ABROAD
The New Anatolian, Turkey
Oct 16 2006
Parliament is to convene for an extraordinary meeting on Tuesday to
discuss possible steps towards France after its Parliament approved a
bill criminalizing denial of an Armenian “genocide,” Foreign Minister
Abdullah Gul announced late Thursday.
“We warned France that if such a bill were passed by its Parliament,
the loser would be France. Paris will always be embarrassed by this,”
Gul said, evaluating the passage of the bill which introduces prison
terms up to one year and fines up to 45,000 euros to those who question
the Armenian genocide claims.
Lashing out at the decision, Gul said, “France showed the world
that it is a country which runs behind small policies. For the sake
of interests in the upcoming elections, France has destroyed its
historic prestige.”
Gul also stressed that France will no longer be able to define or
praise itself as the “country of freedoms where thoughts are expressed
without limits.”
Underlining that Ankara won’t take the matter lightly, Gul said,
“We won’t take a stance like that of 2001. We consider this to be more
serious than the French recognition of the genocide claims then. The
process will be monitored closely.”
Gul also expressed the hope that Turkish public will unite on the
issue and France will come out of the deadlock it has created.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry’s response to the French move was to
say immediately on Thursday that ties with France “have been dealt
a heavy blow.”
PM: Great shame, black stain on freedom of expression
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan lashed out at the passing of
Armenian bill, labelling the French legislation a “great shame and
black stain on freedom of expression.”
“A historic mistake has been committed,” Erdogan said in a written
statement that also cautioned against overreaction.
“It is unacceptable for us to accept or show tolerance to the French
move. Unfortunately, no one can control the consequences of the
irresponsible behavior of French politicians,” the Prime Ministry
statement said.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

CITIES AND NOBELS
Mehmet Kamis
Zaman, Turkey
Oct 16 2006
After reading the novel, “Veronika Decides to Die” by Paulo Coelho,
I went to Ljubljana [in Slovenia] just to see those places and take
pictures of the squares, streets, buildings and people in the city
mentioned in this novel. While reading Orhan Pamuk’s “Snow,” I really
wanted to go to Kars with my camera on a winter day.
For a long time now, I have been dreaming of taking pictures of Kars
after making the long train journey to this eastern Anatolian city. I
am still dreaming of it. I believe novels can go beyond city walls,
take them out of their cages and present them to other lands and
people of other lands. Therefore, novelists are big boons for cities.
There can be no bigger boon than a city chosen as a theme by a
world-renowned novelist. St. Petersburg became a world city with
“Crime and Punishment” and Paris opened its soul in “Les Miserables”
to Victor Hugo, who narrated it to the whole world.
Pamuk is definitely no regime opponent. On the contrary, he is a
member of a family from the very center of the regime. He has never
been in a position to oppose the regime all his life. He has neither
suffered economic difficulties nor has he had any problems with the
regime. In other words, he is one of those white Turks. Besides,
his family includes members from Ittihat Terakki (the Committee of
Union and Progress) that put Turkey in trouble over the Armenian issue.
Though Pamuk had serious problems within his family, he spent his
life at the best schools and places in Nisantasi; he never had the
opportunity to come face to face with the Armenian or Kurdish issue.
I do not know whether he encountered any problems in the eastern
city of Kars where he lived briefly while writing his novel “Snow”
but Pamuk, generally, has spent most in life in good places and under
very favorable conditions. Although I have not been able to read any
his novels from beginning to end, Pamuk is certainly a good novelist.
At least he has aroused my interest in wanting to go to Kars.
Let me just reiterate that Pamuk is a good novelist though he holds
no serious political attitudes for or against the regime, and I
also think his remarks on the Armenians and Kurds could labeled as
opportunistic. What needs to be discussed here is the hypocrisy of
the West. The West has almost made it a condition for a novelist or
intellectual from the East to belittle his/her own society’s values
in order for him/her to be rewarded. Doors are opened for those who
ridicule and belittle Eastern values or those who speak out on issues
which are the Achilles’ heel of the East. Pamuk’s remarks must be
regarded as words uttered with such purpose to appease the West. If
he truly believed in what he said about the Kurds and Armenians,
it would have befitted the intellectual honor. Awarding Pamuk the
the Nobel Prize in Literature right after the French freak accident,
can be considered a typical Western conspiracy.
Beyond all these discussions, it is very important that a Turkish
Turk has won a Nobel prize. This is a development that can draw the
whole world’s attention to Turkey, Istanbul and even Kars. I hope
Turkey makes good use of this golden opportunity. Who knows, maybe
Pamuk will narrate the experiences, wisdom and general spirit of
tolerance in these lands to the outside world. People who have given
their souls for these lands, for the sake of the regime and power,
do not always look at the world from the same viewpoint.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

CONSTITUTIONS ARE NOT TO BE TOYED WITH
By E. Triantafylidou
Kathimerini, Greece
Oct 16 2006
The decision of the French parliament last week to pass a bill making
it a crime to deny that the 1915-1917 massacres of Armenians by the
Ottoman Turks constituted genocide caused tumult in Turkey.
Turkey’s secular army and the Islamic-leaning government were both
angry at France’s bill and responded with a threat that Paris risks
losing euros, dollars and Turkey’s vast market.
“The decision lies with the people,” Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah
Gul said after the Ankara Chamber of Commerce threatened to boycott
one French product every week, if the bill were adopted. Gul also
threatened French carmakers in Turkey with retaliatory measures and
warned that French companies would be excluded from plans to build
a nuclear plant.
The president of the Council of Chambers of Commerce and Industry,
Nafi Gural, urged consumers to keep their cool. He warned that barring
French companies from economic projects will cost Turkey thousands
of jobs.
In view of the French presidential and parliamentary elections due
in the spring, critics say that deputies passed the bill with an eye
fixed on the strong Armenian minority living in their country. But
the issue is more complex than that. Germany’s presidency of the
European Union is expected to resurrect talks on the bloc’s moribund
constitutional treaty.
Constitutions are not something to toy with. For that reason, along
with its respect for the genocide of the Armenians, Europe should
take into account other obvious issues, such as the Cyprus problem.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

TURKISH PARLIAMENT TO RESPOND TO ARMENIAN GENOCIDE BILL
By Habib Guler
Zaman, Turkey
Oct 16 2006
As Turkey’s protest campaign against France’s Armenian genocide denial
bill continues, the Turkish Grand National Assembly will convene on
Tuesday to condemn France.
Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul will inform members of parliament
on the new French bill and its resulting developments, after which
MP’s will be free to express their views. A statement condemning
France for the bill is expected to be unanimously approved.
Turkish Prime Minister Reccep Tayyip Erdogan has warned that reactions
against France must be well thought out, adding the parliamentary
assembly is due to handle the issue.
Parliament speaker Bulent Arinc commented on the bill, saying it
betrayed France’s basic values. Arinc assured Turkey’s response would
be resolute yet moderate.
Economic Boycott to Continue
Turkey’s Central bank has an estimated 17 billion New Turkish Liras
as part of France’s currency reserve. If Turkey withdraws this money
from the French Central Bank and private accounts, economists predict
that the French economy would suffer a great loss.
The Turkish government, which is preparing to take measures against
France, could use the Central Bank as its main trump card.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

FRANCE EASILY FORGOT VICHY HORROR
By Foreign News Desk
Zaman, Turkey
Oct 16 2006
Backlash against the French National Assembly’s approval of a bill
on Thursday, which makes it crime to deny that an Armenian genocide
occurred during World War I, continues.
In an opinion piece defending free speech in the British newspaper
The Observer, the author characterized the French National Assembly’s
passing of the Armenian bill as “wrong and bad,” and commented that
the French had so easily forgotten the horror of the Vichy regime.
The commentary spoke of author Carmen Callil, who wrote a book about
the agony the Jews suffered during the Vichy regime, and France’s
subsequent convenient amnesia.
Before attempting to pass genocide denial laws in an atmosphere
of censorship, the French should have to remember their previous
cooperation with the Nazi party in deporting Jews, the newspaper said.
The commentary added that the Armenian bill was also aimed to
“complicate” Turkey’s EU accession; a dreadful attitude for France
to assume while believing that their acts were “irreproachable”
during World War II.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

TURKEY WARNED ON FREEDOM OF SPEECH BY EU
By Daniel Dombey and Fidelius Schmid in Luxembourg
Financial Times, UK
Oct 16 2006
Turkey was told on Monday by the European Union that it had to
safeguard freedom of expression in the country as a “matter of urgency”
amid diminishing expectations that Ankara’s stalled membership bid
can be revived.
Olli Rehn, EU enlargement commissioner, told Turkey’s delegation at
the last formal meeting between the two this year that it was not
good enough to merely wait for Turkish judges to rule on the issue
and that legislative action was needed.
On Monday’s meeting took place amid widespread expectations that
Ankara’s membership talks would reach a crisis point later this year
and could prove impossible to retrieve.
The European Commission’s hopes of convincing Turkey to carry out
reforms have been greatly complicated by France. Last week the French
National Assembly supported a bill that would make it a crime to deny
that there was a genocide of Armenians during the last years of the
Ottoman Empire. Turkey says no genocide occurred.
Abdullah Gul, Turkey’s foreign minister, on Mondayday said the
National Assembly vote had hit France’s prestige as a country that
allowed full freedom of expression, while adding that Turkey would
not repeat France’s mistakes.
But he failed to give a clear signal that Turkey would revise or
remove article 301 of its penal code, which forbids denigration of
the Turkish state. Instead, he merely said that “we are following
the implementation [of the article] closely and we will do what
is necessary”.
Brussels believes that Turkey’s reform process has slowed dramatically
and will issue a critical report next month. Its conclusions will
form the starting point for a debate between EU member states on
whether to declare a formal suspension of talks.
This is likely to be decided by heads of state and government later
in the year.
In effect the negotiations have already stopped, with Cyprus, which is
an EU member state but has no diplomatic relations with Ankara, vetoing
the opening and closing of any of the individual dossiers in the talks.
Cyprus makes clear it will not approve any such steps while Turkey
fails to meet an EU deadline to open its own ports and airports to
Cypriot vessels.
An attempt to break the deadlock by Finland, the current holder of
the EU presidency, has shown little sign of being accepted.
The proposal would see the EU taking charge of a port in the Turkish
Cypriot northern half of the island, to allow Turkish Cypriots to
trade with the rest of the EU, and return a nearby town to the Greek
Cypriot south.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress