The Turkish identity
Next week, the Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, will address the United Nations on one of the issues threatening to slow down negotiations to admit Turkey into the European Union - recognizing Cyprus. But he should also address the question of Orhan Pamuk, the pre-eminent Turkish novelist who has been charged with "public denigration" of Turkish identity.
The New York Times, 11/9/2005
In February, a Swiss newspaper quoted Pamuk on Turkey's
long-standing refusal to discuss the Armenian genocide and the deaths
of 30,000 separatist Kurds more recently. Pamuk's remarks inflamed
Turkish nationalists, and he left the country. He faces the possibility
of three years in jail.
The charges against Pamuk violate the standards of free speech, one
of the prerequisites to Turkey's admission to the European Union. The
charges also cut to the heart of Pamuk's writing. The question of
Turkish identity informs his work. In "My Name Is Red," Pamuk never
lets the reader forget the ethnic and cultural diversity of Turkey's
past. Nor does he flinch, in "Istanbul," from reminding readers of the
"deliberately provoked" 1955 riots that destroyed several non-Muslim
neighborhoods in that city. Beneath the notion of a Turkish identity
lies a tension, still noticeable today, that has nourished Pamuk's
writing.
It has been about six months since Pamuk's comments were published,
so it is unclear why the charges are being brought just now. Whatever
the motive, they are a reminder that one of Turkey's biggest obstacles
in dealing with the West is the way it chooses to patrol its own
history.
Links:
www.nytimes.com/2005/09/10/opinion/10sat3.html
