Article here.
Orhan Pamuk, a best-selling Turkish novelist facing trial for speaking out about the 1915 mass killings of Armenians, moved at the weekend to soften his controversial remarks, insisting that he did not describe the episode as genocide.
Pamuk could face up to three years in prison for reportedly 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”. But on Saturday night, he went on CNN-Turk television to say: “I did not say, we Turks killed this many Armenians. I did not use the word ‘genocide’.”
Hmmm. I suppose future Nobel winners facing time in the infamous “Turkish Prison” system get to cover their asses too. I know I would.
There’s no point in getting in trouble for what he didn’t say…he’s trimming the sails. What is shameful is the Turkish government showing such eagerness to silence a Turk who dared to speak. You’ve got to think that if they’ll take action like this under the spotlight of international attention, things must be far far worse for the average Erol, Hasad and Akasma. It demonstrates the truth of that aspect of his remarks. I believe the rest is a matter of historical record.
Turkey is changing at breakneck speed; some 80,000 pages of law is in the process of being implemented in order for the country to join the EU.
Orhan Pamuk understands this and more. He goes on record as saying that the ruckus his comments caused was not unexpected, and that he feels no bitterness towards those who have hated him for his openness.
What is unfolding before us is something that happens only once in a long while: a creative artist, using his leverage from the Western intelligentsia, is challenging an all-powerful governmental system. Because of his courageousness, he just might cause closed doors to open much sooner, and in so doing, singlehandedly alter the trajectory of a nation’s development.