In an interview in the Nouvel Observateur this week, the Nobel Prize for Literature Erdogan commented on the positions on the Armenian genocide. Extracts.
In 2005, you were charged with insulting the nation to have recognized the Armenian genocide and the massacre of Kurds. These charges were dropped, but you have received death threats, and the right-wing press has maintained its smear campaign against you. Do you feel threatened yet?
Orhan Pamuk: I’ll give you a statistical answer: I do not have a bodyguard instead of three … My situation is improved! I am good friends with my bodyguard. But do not compare with what my fate endured Salman Rushdie.
On April 23, for the first time in the history of Turkey, Erdogan expressed his condolences to the descendants of Armenians killed in 1915. This was a political event. However, a few days later, he again denied the genocidal character of this massacre. Is it therefore really a first step towards the recognition of the genocide?
Orhan Pamuk: This issue will only be resolved when the freedom of expression in Turkey finally exist. Gold can still be imprisoned for saying the reality of the genocide – although as my personal reputation gives me some immunity. That said, this statement, even shy and followed by denial, as a first step, because prosecutors will now be less inclined to prosecute those who speak of genocide.
It is crucial that the Turks finally know the truth about the events of 1915, and that the objectives and courageous Turkish historians can finally make their voice when they are being marginalized and censored by the media heard. Access to freedom of expression is crucial for the country to undertake the review of historical consciousness, as he helped defuse the Kurdish problem. Erdogan’s statement is timid and late, but it is a decisive point of departure. Even if it is driven by a diplomatic calculation, at least that to his credit.
Orhan Pamuk, born in 1952 in Istanbul, is the author of an important work which “My name is Red”, “Snow” (Prix Médicis 2005 and foreign prices abroad Mediterranean 2006), the “Museum of Innocence” and the beautiful -book “The Innocence of objects.” The museum opened in Istanbul in 2012, was elected “European Museum of the Year 2014”. The Nobel Prize in Literature 2006 has been invited by the Villa Gillet on the occasion of the publication in France of his first novel “Cevdet Bey and his son” Gallimard.
Source: Nouvel Observateur