The Daily Star, Lebanon
Oct 13 2006
Armenians protest Turkish UNIFIL role
Demonstrators point to world war I-era massacres
By Iman Azzi
Daily Star staff
Friday, October 13, 2006
BEIRUT: The red, orange and blue stripes of the Armenian flag
fluttered beside the cedar of Lebanon Thursday as thousands of
Lebanese citizens of Armenian descent protested Turkey’s planned
participation in the UN peacekeeping forces patrolling South Lebanon.
“We, the Armenian community, are against the deployment of Turkish
troops in South Lebanon, because of their history as a violent
state,” explained Hagop Havatian, spokesman for the ARF Tashnak
Party, the youth party responsible for coordinating Thursday’s
demonstration. “Last week we sent letters to every member of the
Lebanese Parliament asking them to reconsider this issue. We also
sent a letter to [UN Secretary General] Kofi Annan but until now,
these has been no reply.”
Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their ancestors were slaughtered
in orchestrated killings by Ottoman Turks during World War I, in an
act they maintain can only be seen as genocide. The rally took place
at Beirut’s Martyrs Square, which honors six Lebanese nationalists
who were hanged by the Ottomans during the war.
It was the third such protest organized by the Lebanese-Armenian
community, which is said to number over 200,000. The rally drew a
larger crowd than previous rallies held in front of UN House in
Beirut and in Bourj Hammoud.
“We will continue our refusal in democratic ways,” Havatian added.
“This act ignores one of the biggest groups in Lebanon. We are hurt
and feel humiliated and hope the Lebanese government will reconsider
this issue and our feelings.”
Razmig Karayan was attending the protest with his girlfriend. “I am
here against the Turks,” he said. “I don’t trust them. They are
friends with Israel … They can’t be depended on to work for peace.”
A statement circulated at the protest read: “Any participant force in
the UNIFIL should be welcomed by the whole Lebanese society …
Turkey continues to lead a hostile foreign policy in the region,
especially with its immediate neighbors and still occupies northern
Cyprus, continues to blockade Armenia, and refuses to recognize and
apologize for the 1915 Armenian genocide it has perpetrated.”
Hundreds of students at Armenian private schools attended the rally
instead of class, some still sporting school uniforms. The protest
grew into a diverse crowd, from babies in strollers to older women
carrying walking sticks and teenagers sporting Armenian flags painted
on their cheeks.

Narine Bouljhourdjian left a class at the American University of
Beirut early to join the protest. She brought a friend on vacation
from Canada, who also was of Armenian descent.
“I believe that Turkey does not have the right to work for peace, not
with their history. Peace and Turkey just don’t correlate,” she said.
Behind the two girls, a protester held a sign: “Placing Turkish
troops in Southern Lebanon is an insult to the collective memory of
Lebanon.”
Another placard read: “Murderers cannot be peacekeepers.”
In total, Turkey is to deploy some 700 soldiers and civil engineers
in Lebanon. Those who landed on Tuesday were the first Muslim
peacekeepers to arrive in the country.
Turkey held a sending-off ceremony Thursday for nearly 260 soldiers
and civil engineers scheduled to depart for the Southern port city
of Tyre on October 19 and are expected to help rebuild damaged
bridges and roads.
Earlier Thursday, French MPs approved a bill making it a crime to
deny that the 1915-1917 massacres of Armenians was genocide,
provoking the fury of the Turkish government. The bill still requires
approval by the French Senate and president Jacques Chirac, neither
of which is expected, to become law.
“What France has done is very good. The Lebanese government should do
the same instead of welcoming Turkish troops,” said an elderly
demonstrator who gave his name as Taurus. The Lebanese Parliament
recognized the Armenian genocide in May 2000.
Overriding widespread opposition, the Turkish Parliament approved a
government motion on September 5 to join the United Nations Interim
Force in Lebanon. Turkish peacekeeping troops have also served in
Bosnia and Kosovo and have led international operations in Somalia
and Afghanistan. – With agencies

The Daily Star, Lebanon
Oct 13 2006
Outstanding – and outspoken – Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk wins Nobel
Prize for Literature
Writer recently occupied international spotlight not for his work but
as a target of his country’s prosecutors
By Kaelen Wilson-Goldie
Daily Star staff
Friday, October 13, 2006
BEIRUT: His name has been floated for years now, with bookies often
quoting the odds in his favor over a pack of strong contenders –
including Syrian poet Adonis, American novelist Philip Roth, Polish
journalist Ryszard Kapuscinski, Mexico’s Carlos Fuentes, Algeria’s
Assia Djebar and Peru’s Mario Vargas Llosa. But the coveted Nobel
Prize for literature has eluded Orhan Pamuk – until now.
On Thursday, Turkey’s leading novelist finally got the award, making
him the first Nobel literature laureate from the Middle East – if one
considers Turkey to be a part of the region, and this newspaper does
– since the late Naguib Mahfouz of Egypt, who won in 1988. (Israel’s
Shmuel Yosef Agnon split the Nobel with German poet and playwright
Nelly Sachs in 1966. No Turkish writer has ever been honored in the
prize’s 105-year history).
Making the announcement at mid-day on Thursday, the Swedish Academy
in Stockholm – charged with doling out the award and its attendant
check for $1.36 million – praised Pamuk for discovering “in the quest
for the melancholic soul of his native city … new symbols for the
clash and interlacing of cultures.”
Pamuk has published one memoir – “Istanbul: Memories and the City” –
and nine novels, five of which have been translated into English.
Overall, his work has earned widespread critical acclaim and
international recognition while finding its way into print in some 40
different languages.
That said, with the exception of a pirated translation from Syria of
his first novel “Cavdet Bey,” his work is not widely available in
Arabic, and Pamuk himself has reportedly made a few disparaging
remarks in the past about there being little need for such
translations as so few Arabic speakers read novels.
However, outside literary circles and those who do, whatever the
language, read novels, Pamuk is best known as the famous writer who
went on trial in Turkey. In February 2005, he gave an interview to
the Swiss publication Das Magazin, in which he declared: “Thirty
thousand Kurds and a million Armenians were killed in these lands and
nobody but me dares to talk about it.” For that statement, a
prosecutor named Turgay Evsen charged Pamuk with violating Article
301 of Turkey’s controversial penal code, which prohibits public
denigration of Turkish national identity, the republic or the
national assembly.
In December 2005, Pamuk’s trial stalled as soon as it started. The
presiding judge, Metin Aydin, postponed the proceedings for two
months on a technicality and eventually the entire case was dropped.
Though he is known for his reclusive and introverted work ethic,
Pamuk never ceases to speak out in defense of free speech and on
behalf of lesser-known colleagues who, without the benefit of kicking
up an international storm of ultra-nationalist protestors on one side
and lemon-faced European Union observers on the other, have been or
are being brought up on the same charges, particularly the
Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink. Another Turkish novelist,
Elif Shafak, went on trial for violating Article 301 last month. Her
case, dropped for lack of evidence, had the rare distinction of being
based entirely on the words Shafak put into the mouths of fictional
characters in her novel “The Bastard of Istanbul.”
Beyond his ability to puncture the often tough tissue of
sociopolitical taboo, Pamuk is arguably unrivaled in his ability to
capture the complexities of the Turkish psyche and, more broadly, the
disappointments and depravations of those living in the developing –
but not yet embraced as developed – world.

Pamuk is a brilliant literary stylist. He coils one story into
another and then another, all in the space of a single page, often
even a single paragraph. He crafts his novels into compelling,
blood-rushing narratives of pursuit – his books are essentially
detective stories shot-through with post-modern twists, turns,
doubling backs and returns.
“Snow,” his most recent novel to appear in English, follows the poet
Ka to the remote Turkish city of Kars, where he is to report an
investigative feature for a newspaper on a rash of suicides by
so-called “headscarf girls.” Really, though, he has traveled to this
foreboding corner of the country to find his first love, Ipek. Just
as he sits down with her in a cafe, a man one table over is shot to
death in the chest, a victim of political assassination.
Yet the core of “Snow” is filled with a certain melancholy
characteristic of all Pamuk’s work. The poet Ka – secular, Western –
wonders why people are growing so religious. He strains to understand
but at the same time seems to seek an alternative source of
spirituality – inseparable from the creativity of his craft – to
either fill the gap of godlessness or protect him from the impulse to
give up and go religious himself. (Pamuk, who was born to an elite
family in Istanbul, has said in the past that members of his social
class regard religion as the reserve of the poor and provincial).
Yet Pamuk’s take on class division betrays no arrogance. Rather, it
is part of a more mournful attempt to document and probe what is too
often reduced to a clash of civilizations. In 2001, Pamuk penned one
of the most cogent responses ever committed in print to the ways in
which the attacks of September 11, 2001, changed the dynamic of
global politics.
“The Western world is scarcely aware of [the] overwhelming feeling of
humiliation that is experienced by most of the world’s population,”
he wrote in The New York Review of Books. “This is the grim, troubled
private sphere that neither magical realistic novels that endow
poverty and foolishness with charm nor the exoticism of popular
travel literature manages to fathom. And it is while living within
this private sphere that most people in the world today are afflicted
by spiritual misery.
“The problem facing the West is not only to discover which terrorist
is preparing a bomb in which tent, which cave, or which street of
which city, but also to understand the poor and scorned and
‘wrongful’ majority that does not belong to the West.”
Pamuk’s strength as a writer lies in his skill for channeling such
concerns into fiction and then going one step further by inscribing
them onto the surface of the city he loves most. Mid-way through his
masterful novel “The Black Book,” Pamuk’s only work of fiction set
wholly in Istanbul, the protagonist Galip, who is searching for his
missing wife and her half-brother, whom he suspects may be together,
remarks: “While it was possible to perceive the city’s old age, its
misfortune, its lost splendor, its sorrow and pathos in the faces of
the citizens, it was not the symptom of a specifically contrived
secret but of a collective defeat, history, and complicity.” – With
agencies
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Paris Link, France
Oct 13 2006
Armenian genocide: The EU is picking the wrong battle
Thu, 12 Oct 2006 22:40:00
Gareth Cartman
A law, proposed by the Socialist party, has been voted through the
Assemblée Nationale today. Turkey is furious, as is the EU. However,
they forget one thing – the holocaust is banned in many countries
across Europe. Time to be less selective with our memories.
A little perspective. Holocaust denial is illegal in the following
countries:
Austria (6 month to 20 years prison sentence),
Belgium (maximum one year sentence or a fine),
Czech Republic (6 month to 2 years prison sentence),
France (maximum two year sentence or a fine),
Germany (maximum five year sentence or a fine),
Israel (maximum five year sentence),
Lithuania (maximum ten year sentence),
Poland (maximum three year sentence),
Romania (6 month to 2 year sentence),
Slovakia (maximum three year sentence)
Switzerland (maximum 15 month sentence or fine)
Today, French socialists have voted through a law that will make
denial of the Armenian holocaust illegal as well, with a one year
jail sentence and a fine. Not wishing to take part in a debate that
they morally could not win, the UMP refused to take part, making the
actual vote (106-19) something of a cakewalk for the Socialists.
The reaction has been hostile. Firstly, the Turks have taken to the
streets in protest outside the French embassy in Ankara. There has
been talk of a boycott of French products, which the government moved
to deny quickly – stressing that the people would make that choice.
The government then went on to mention that French companies would be
viewed unfavourably when seeking to enter markets in Istanbul.
France has reconfirmed its commitment to dialogue with Turkey and has
stressed that the passing of this law will in no way hinder talks
regarding accession to the EU, to which France has always been
relatively favourable.
EU spokesmen have spoken furiously against the law today. Quoted in
Libération, British Lib-Dem vice-president for the Turkish
delegation, Andrew Duff, said that it was a sad day for liberal ideas
in France, and that the Assemblée Nationale had rejected the
fundamental rights of freedom of speech. Voltaire must be turning in
his grave, he said.
While the EU is attempting to force Turkey to overturn its own laws
which “offend the Turkish identity” (and mentioning the Armenian
Genocide is a possible method of offending this identity), it feels
that the French law will hinder negotiations. Indeed, if Turkey is to
promote freedom of speech by overturning their own law, this law in
France hardly gives the Turks the best example of how to do so.
Jacques Chirac – the man who started the debate by declaring in
Yerevan that the Turks must acknowledge the genocide – has been
strangely quiet on the issue. Chirac has been strongly against
historic laws, throwing France’s colonial glorification out of the
law books, acknowledging the role the Harkis played for France in the
Algerian war and revising the pensions of colonial-origin soldiers
recently.
The majority of historians agree that the genocide of the Armenians
did indeed take place. Not just the majority, but almost every single
historian. To its credit, even Turkey has welcomed a debate on the
subject and university professors have acknowledged that the genocide
did take place. Between 1915 and 1917, over 1.5 million Armenians
were massacred as the Ottoman Empire drew to a bloody close.
The genocide took place. Of that there can be no doubt. Today’s law
may not be the most necessary law in the world, and it may not be the
most popular, but the EU are picking the wrong battle. While voices
against this law claim that it will hinder negotiations, it should
indeed help negotiations. Concerned only with its own negotiations
and business, the EU ignores the fact that holocaust denial is
illegal in most countries across Europe – why should denial of the
Armenian genocide cause such a problem?
This is not about freedom of speech – holocaust deniers or
revisionists frequently take their claims to the European Court using
the Freedom of Speech Law as the basis of their ultimate defence.
They are thrown out of court each time. Besides, what use is freedom
of speech when it is to deny the genocide of 1.5 million Armenians?
If Turkey has pretentions to EU accession, then the EU will be all
the better for its eventual inclusion. But the EU cannot and must not
accept Turkey unless it acknowledges the genocide. The law passed
today is not foolish, useless or even vain. It is necessary – and not
without precedent. Remember.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

October 13, 2006
PRESS RELEASE
Western Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church of America
H.E. Archbishop Moushegh Mardirossian, Prelate
6252 Honolulu Avenue
La Crescenta, CA 91214
Tel: (818) 248-7737
Fax: (818) 248-7745
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: <; PRELATE MEETS WITH ARMENIA FUND BOARD MEMBERS AND ADMINISTRATORS On the morning of Friday, October 13, the Prelate welcomed board members and administrators of Armenia Fund, to the temporary Prelacy offices in Encino. The Prelate met with Armenia Fund Chairperson Maria Mehranian, Vice-Chairman Ara Agishian, Executive Director Sarkis Kotanjian, and Director of Development Greg Boyrazian, to discuss the support and participation of the Prelacy and its affiliates at this year's Telethon. Mr. Peklar Pilavjian, Armenia Fund Executive Board member, also participated in the meeting as a representative of the Prelacy. The Prelate offered his commendation and encouragement to the members and wished them success at the Telethon, which will take place on Thanksgiving Day. MEETING OF THE ORIENTAL ORTHODOX SUNDAY SCHOOL COMMITTEE On the afternoon of Saturday, October 14, the organizing committee of the Oriental Orthodox Sunday School 2nd Spiritual Gathering will meet at Archangel Michael Coptic Orthodox Church in Santa Ana to finalize the details of the gathering that is to be held on Saturday, October 28, at the aforementioned church. Under the direction of H.E. Archbishop Mousegh Mardirossian, Prelate, the directors of the Prelacy Christian Education Department, along with representatives of Prelacy Sunday Schools, will attend the meeting. RECEPTION IN SUPPORT OF STATE SENATOR CHUCK POOCHIGIAN On the afternoon of Sunday, October 15, a reception will be held in support of State Senator Chuck Poochigian at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Ralph and Savey Tufenkian in Glendale. The Prelate conveyed his blessings to Mr. and Mrs. Tufenkian and his support to Senator Poochigian in his campaign bid for Attorney General of California. MEETINGS OF THE PRELACY ACYA CENTRAL AND ECUMENICAL COMMITTEES On the evening of Wednesday, October 18, under the auspices of the Prelate and with the participation of the Christian Education Department directors, the ACYA Central and Ecumenical committees of the Prelacy will hold their meetings at St. Mary's Church in Glendale. Among the items on the agenda is the upcoming gathering of the youth with H.H. Catholicos Aram I, scheduled for December 2nd and 3rd in Detroit.

Turkish army accuses Armenia, tensions rise
Fri Oct 13, 2006 4:10pm ET
ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey’s military said on Friday Armenian soldiers fired
into its territory two days ago amid an escalation in tensions after France’s
passage of a law making it a crime to deny Armenians suffered genocide by
Ottoman Turks.
The powerful General Staff called on the Foreign Ministry to investigate the
incident on the border on October 11, which it said caused no injuries or
material damage.
“Turkish soldiers came under harassing fire from Armenian territories on the
Turkey-Armenia border on October 11, 2006,” the Turkish General Staff said in
a statement.
Turkey closed its border with the ex-Soviet republic of Armenia in 1993 to
protest against Yerevan’s occupation of territory inside Azerbaijan, a
Turkic-speaking ally of Ankara.
Ties have also been strained by claims by Armenia that some 1.5 million of
its people suffered genocide from 1915 to 1923 on Ottoman territory.
Turkey denies any genocide, saying the Armenians were victims of a partisan
war that also claimed many Muslim Turkish lives. Turkey accuses Armenians of
carrying out massacres while siding with invading Russian troops.
The military’s statement comes a day after France’s lower house of parliament
approved a law making it a crime to deny the genocide. France is home to
Europe’s largest Armenian diaspora.
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan warned on Friday that European Union-applicant
Turkey was studying retaliatory measures against France following approval of
the law, which still needs the senate and President Jacques Chirac’s
approval.
Turkey’s problems with Armenia have always threatened to complicate Ankara’s
entry talks with the EU, which expects all member states to have good
relations with their neighbours.
© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.

A1+
DEPUTY ATTACKED THE JOURNALIST
[05:02 pm] 13 October, 2006
more images Today another incident took place in the Parliament; one
more deputy-businessman threatened a journalist.
Learning from his colleagues who was the journalist of newspaper
`Aravot’, NA Deputy Nahapet Gevorgyan from the Republic party (from
the electoral area N30) approached Anna Israyelyan and tried to «get
even with her» for an article about him the author of which was not
Anna Israyelyan. The article in question was the one published in
«Aravot» by journalist Naira Mamikonyan where his name had been
mentioned.
When Anna Israyelyan tried to find out if the deputy knew whom he was
talking to (i.e. she was not Naira Mamikonyan), Nahapet Gevorgyan
started to shout, «Shut up, or I’ll hit you», and tried to put his
words into execution. At that very moment secretary of «Justice»
faction Grigor Haroutyunyan took him away from the hall. But even
after that foul words could be heard from the corridor.
Presently, thanks to the efforts of leader of the United Labor party
faction Gourgen Arsenyan Nahapet Gevorgyan finally apologized to Anna
Israyelyan in the corridor.

A1+
PARTIAL MONITORING OF BORDER LINE
[06:49 pm] 13 October, 2006
According to preliminary agreement, the OSCE mission carried out
monitoring of the border line between Karabakh and Azerbaijan near
village Gyulistan, region of Martakert.
The OSCE observing mission was led by personal representative of the
OSCE CiO, Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk, as well as assistants Peter Key
from Great Britain and Gunter Folk from Germany.
Foreign Ministry of Nagorno Karabakh Republic informs that the
monitoring was carried out in compliance with the plan. But in
contrast to the Karabakhian side, the Azeris did not take the
monitoring group to the front of the border. No cases of violation of
cease-fire were recorded.

A1+
HAKOBYAN DEPRIVED OF IMMUNITY
[08:45 pm] 13 October, 2006
The Parliament agreed to the mediation of the RA Public Prosecutor
`to involve NA deputy Hakob Hakobyan in the case as accused’. 56
deputies voted for and 22 voted against. 84 deputies participated in
the secret vote. Six ballots were invalid.
Member of the calculating committee Aghasi Arshakyan announced that
there were violations during the voting as different deputies marked
the ballots differently. But head of the committee Gagik Meliqyan
announced that the information does not correspond to reality and the
voting took place according to the regulations.
By the way, Hakob Hakobyan himself voted for his being involved in the
case as accused.
Before voting the factions represented their positions about the
issue.
National Unity announced that they will not participate in the
voting. Leader of the United Labor party faction Gourgen Arsenyan and
secretary of «Justice» faction Grigor Haroutyunyan announced that
their deputies are free to vote as they want to. The Orinats Yerkir
and People’s Party were of the same opinion. The ARF Dashnaktsutyun
was for restricting the immunity of deputies, and the Republican party
was for realization of justice and «not patriotic speeches».
Leader of the Republican faction Galoust Sahakyan blamed the
opposition and reminded that Hakobyan is their friend and even if he
has committed a crime, he is still their friend; in the end he noted
that the Parliament does not have the right to hinder realization of
justice.
NA Speaker Tigran Torosyan added that the Parliament has no right to
deprive the deputy of his right to prove his innocence.
After the speeches the floor was given to Hakob Hakobyan. He informed
that he has really participated in the quarrel. «Yes, I did it and I
prevented bloodshed», he said and informed that thanks to him the
quarrel did not end with shooting and victims. Hakobyan informed that
he is not against investigation, but if they try to violate his
rights, he will defend himself. «I warn you, I’m not afraid of death».
The deputy also announced that he was elected in 1999 and in 1991-1999
he was a common citizen and asked why his affairs weren’t checked
then. He also showed the case against his friend where his name was
involved two, `Three courts have justified him’, he underlined.
Hakobyan claimed that 90% of the case is fabricated against him. He
claimed that the representatives of the Karate federation stopped the
supply of gas to his gas station and demanded money in order to
restart it. According to him, this was the reason why the quarrel
started. He informed the Public Prosecutor that 165 houses have been
searched illegally, 35 people have been arrested and there has been no
news about them for the last four days, but the criminal case has been
initiated only against four people. `Where are the others?’ the deputy
asked.
At the end of his speech Hakob Hakobyan informed that his rights have
been violated in the isolation cell: he had no telephone and no
advocate.

Le Devoir
L’histoire kidnappée
Serge Truffaut
Édition du vendredi 13 octobre 2006
Mots clés : Québec (province), Violence, Gouvernement, turquie,
union européenne, génocide arménien
Malgré l’opposition du gouvernement et surtout d’un nombre imposant
d’historiens renommés, les députés français, de gauche comme de
droite, ont adopté une loi punissant toute négation du génocide
arménien. Que des politiciens brident ainsi le travail
d’universitaires est affligeant à bien des égards.
Depuis que la Turquie a exprimé le souhait de rejoindre l’Union
européenne, ses dirigeants savent qu’ils ont une obligation : mener
à son terme le devoir de mémoire en ce qui concerne le génocide
perpétré contre les Arméniens. Pendant des mois et des mois, les
Turcs ont retardé toute analyse à la loupe des horreurs commises en
1915, allant jusqu’à voter une loi interdisant toute évocation
publique du drame. C’est d’ailleurs dans le cadre de cette loi que le
Prix Nobel de littérature 2006, Orhan Pamuk, a été constamment
ennuyé par les censeurs du régime.
Toujours est-il que la perspective de voir la porte de l’Europe rester
fermée en raison du refus de s’atteler à la reconnaissance du
génocide, refus considéré par beaucoup d’élus européens comme
un rejet des «valeurs communes» que partagent tous les membres de
l’UE, avait fini par convaincre le gouvernement turc d’agir autrement.
Ainsi, lorsque le premier ministre Stephen Harper a épinglé son
homologue turc sur cette question en mai dernier, ce dernier a
souligné qu’une initiative avait été prise consistant à
rassembler des historiens arméniens et turcs chargés de se pencher
sur le sujet. Bref, Ankara a convenu, péniblement il est vrai,
d’amorcer le travail de mémoire.
Antérieurement à cette friction canado-turque, des universitaires
français de renom, très agacés par la colonisation de l’espace
dévolu à l’histoire par les bien-pensants de l’Assemblée nationale
mais surtout par la foule des effets pervers qu’une avalanche de textes
législatifs avait entraînés, étaient montés aux barricades —
à juste titre — pour freiner ce que certains d’entre eux appellent la
tyrannie de la repentance.
Regroupés au sein d’une organisation au nom qui en dit long —
Liberté pour l’Histoire –, Pierre Vidal-Naquet, Michel Winock,
Jean-Pierre Azéma, Marc Ferro et plusieurs autres avaient composé un
texte exigeant des législateurs qu’ils mettent un terme à une
entreprise qui sape les bases mêmes du métier d’historien et qu’ils
abrogent pas moins de quatre lois.
Dans leur pétition, ces intellectuels rappelaient que «l’histoire
n’est pas une religion […], l’histoire n’est pas la morale […],
l’histoire n’est pas l’esclave de l’actualité […], l’histoire n’est
pas la mémoire […], l’histoire n’est pas un objet juridique. Dans un
État libre, même animé des meilleures intentions, il n’appartient
ni au Parlement ni à l’autorité judiciaire de définir la
vérité historique. La politique de l’État, même animée des
meilleures intentions, n’est pas la politique de l’histoire». Il va de
soi qu’on ne saurait mieux dire.
Ce combat lancé par des personnes aussi respectées qu’admirées,
qui avait d’ailleurs convaincu aussi bien le président Jacques Chirac
que le socialiste Jack Lang que cette loi ajouterait aux restrictions
à la liberté d’expression que les lois précédentes avaient
provoquées, a donc été rejeté tant par les formations de droite
que celles de gauche.
À ce propos, il faut retenir qu’un important contingent de députés
de l’UMP, le parti de Chirac, a emprunté une position inverse à
celle défendue par ce dernier pour mieux obéir aux mots d’ordre de
l’agité de la politique française, soit Nicolas Sarkozy. On peut
parier qu’en agissant de la sorte, le candidat à l’Élysée tenait
à afficher une fois de plus sa distance avec Chirac mais également
avec le premier ministre Villepin tout en espérant récolter les
votes des gens qui ne veulent pas que la Turquie se lie à l’UE.
L’utilisation de l’histoire comme d’un procureur du temps présent a
toujours été un exercice périlleux.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Le Devoir
Orhan Pamuk, Prix Nobel de littérature et embarras pour la Turquie
Jean-François Nadeau
Édition du vendredi 13 octobre 2006
Mots clés : Turquie (pays), Livre, orhan pamuk, prix nobel,
littérature
L’écrivain Orhan Pamuk, 54 ans, est le lauréat du prix Nobel de
littérature 2006. Cible politique du régime turc pour sa défense
des causes arménienne et kurde, il est plus que jamais source de
fierté littéraire mais aussi d’embarras pour son pays. Un procès
pour ses affirmations au sujet du génocide arménien lui a été
intenté cette année dans son propre pays, ce qui lui a valu l’appui
de la communauté intellectuelle internationale, comme l’expliquaient
Georges Leroux et Christian Nadeau dans les pages littéraires du
Devoir en janvier dernier.
L’écrivain Orhan Pamuk, Prix Nobel de littérature 2006
Pamuk a été qualifié de renégat par ses détracteurs en
Turquie pour ses déclarations sur des sujets longtemps restés
tabous. «Un million d’Arméniens et 30 000 Kurdes ont été
tués sur ces terres, mais personne d’autre que moi n’ose le dire»,
avait-il affirmé en février 2005 dans un hebdomadaire suisse.
La justice turque le tient à l’oeil depuis un moment sous prétexte
d’«insulte ouverte à la nation turque», un crime passible de six
mois à trois ans de prison. Mais les poursuites formelles ont été
abandonnées début 2006.
Pamuk a reçu plusieurs menaces de mort. Dans une province de l’ouest
de la Turquie, le préfet d’Isparta a même donné l’ordre de
brûler ses livres. L’injonction a ensuite été retirée sous la
pression du gouvernement, plus que jamais désireux de ne pas ternir
son image avant le lancement de négociations d’adhésion à l’Union
européenne.
«Je soutiens la candidature de la Turquie à l’adhésion à l’Union
européenne […] mais je ne peux pas dire à ces adversaires de la
Turquie : “Ce n’est pas vos affaires s’ils me jugent ou pas.” Du coup,
je me sens coincé au milieu. C’est un fardeau», a déclaré Pamuk,
qui se considère d’abord comme écrivain sans intentions politiques,
bien que ses livres ne manquent pas de secouer certaines conceptions
établies de sa société.
À l’extérieur de son pays, Orhan Pamuk accumule les prix
littéraires. En octobre 2005, il a reçu le prestigieux prix de la
Paix des libraires allemands et le prix Médicis français du roman
étranger. En 2004, le New York Times lui avait accordé son attention
pour «le meilleur livre étranger de l’année». Dans son oeuvre,
traduite en une vingtaine de langues à ce jour, il traite des conflits
d’une société écartelée entre Orient et Occident.
L’oeuvre elle-même ?
Le caractère tout à fait sulfureux de cette vie d’écrivain
suffit-il à en faire un Prix Nobel ? Plusieurs attendaient plutôt
cette année le couronnement par l’Académie Nobel de l’Américain
Philip Roth ou du Mexicain Carlos Fuentes, voire de l’Israélien Amos
Oz. D’autres noms ont aussi circulé, y compris celui de Pamuk, qui
n’était pourtant pas donné favori de prime abord.
Le lauréat de cette année, dont la valeur est indéniable, semble
néanmoins avoir beaucoup profité des conditions sociopolitiques qui
entourent les discussions sur l’avenir de son pays au sein de l’Union
européenne. En dépit des controverses qu’il suscite, Pamuk, cheveux
grisonnants et portant des lunettes, souvent habillé d’un simple
t-shirt et d’une veste, n’intervient que rarement sur la scène
publique, préférant le désordre enfumé de son bureau aux
projecteurs des plateaux de télévision. À Istanbul, l’appartement
où il écrit ses livres lui offre une vue sur un pont enjambant le
Bosphore, lien entre l’Europe et l’Asie.
Né le 7 juin 1952 dans une famille francophile aisée d’Istanbul,
Orhan Pamuk a abandonné des études en architecture à l’ge de 23
ans pour s’enfermer dans son appartement et se consacrer à la
littérature. Sept ans plus tard était publié son premier roman,
Cevdet Bey et ses fils.
L’irritation de ses détracteurs est montée d’un cran après son
refus, en 1998, d’accepter le titre d’«artiste d’État». Il était
alors déjà devenu l’écrivain le plus prisé en Turquie avec des
ventes records. Son sixième roman, Mon nom est Rouge, une réflexion
sur la confrontation entre l’Orient et l’Occident à travers l’Empire
ottoman de la fin du XVIe siècle, allait lui assurer une
célébrité internationale.
Publié en 1990, Le Livre noir, un des romans les plus lus en Turquie,
décrit la recherche effrénée d’une femme par un homme pendant une
semaine dans un Istanbul enneigé, boueux et ambigu.
Neige (2002), publié en français l’année dernière chez
Gallimard, constitue un plaidoyer pour la laïcité tout autant qu’une
réflexion sur l’identité de la société turque et la nature du
fanatisme religieux. Orhan Pamuk a aussi publié La Maison du silence
(1983), Le Chteau blanc (1985), La Vie nouvelle (1994) et Istanbul
(2003).
Grand, dégingandé, nerveux, parlant vite et fort, Orhan Pamuk fut le
premier écrivain dans le monde musulman à condamner ouvertement la
fatwa de 1989 contre Salman Rushdie et prit position pour son collègue
turc Yasar Kemal quand celui-ci fut appelé en justice en 1995.
L’Académie suédoise a indiqué dans ses attendus avoir décerné
le prix à un auteur «qui, à la recherche de l’me mélancolique
de sa ville natale, a trouvé de nouvelles images spirituelles pour le
combat et l’entrelacement des cultures». L’Académie suédoise
affirme en outre que l’écrivain «est connu dans son pays comme un
auteur contestataire, bien qu’il se considère comme écrivain
littéraire sans intentions politiques».
Le lauréat a déclaré à un quotidien suédois être «très
heureux et honoré», ajoutant qu’il allait pour le moment tenter de
se «remettre de ce choc» qui lui vaut dix millions de couronnes
suédoises, soit l’équivalent d’environ 1,5 million $CAN.
Le Devoir et l’Agence France-Presse