Ohran Pamuk, the Armenian genocide and Turkish nationalism
Ohran Pamuk, the Armenian genocide and Turkish nationalism
ICC Note: Pressure on Nobel Prize winner for admitting Turkish killing of Christians reveals continued lack of religious freedom in Turkey.
by Geries Othman
05/18/09 Ankara, Turkey (AsiaNews) – The infamous article 301 of Turkey’s Penal Code which severely punishes anyone who dares to “sully Turkey’s national identity” is once again in the news. Over the past few years it has silenced many intellectuals who dared to contest “Turkey’s democratic government”. Once again the writer Orhan Pamuk is being targeted, in a case that has been on the shelf for over three years.
Just as the writer, the first Turk to receive the Noble Prize for Literature (2006), was in Florence to receive a degree honoris causa, rumours began to circulate that he will probably have to appear before Turkey’s courts once more for having “offended the Turkish identity”.
In reality the charge is an old one, even if ever present in public memory.
Born in Istanbul in 1952, in 2005 Pamuk was charged with having declared to the Swiss weekly Das Magazin that “we Turks are responsible for the death of 30 thousand Kurds and a million Armenians and no-one in Turkey dares speak about it, except me”. However he was absolved by an Istanbul court, above all tank to the intervention of the International Community which also urged the partial modification of art. 301… [Go To Full Story]