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[YeReVaN]

They say 'incident'. To me it's genocide


The Observer

There is a Turkish saying: 'A sword won't cut without inspiration from the pen.'
Orhan Pamuk, wielder of Turkey's finest pen, has spoken and cut a swath through his country's conscience. His most recent novel Snow was set in Kars and peppered with references to the Armenian culture of that formerly Armenian city. Brilliant novelist, translated in 20 languages, winner of international prizes, he has become a hate figure.

His crime was one sentence in an interview with the Swiss newspaper Tagesanzeiger this month. 'Thirty thousand Kurds and a million Armenians were killed in Turkey. Almost no one dares speak but me, and the nationalists hate me for that.' All hell broke loose. The press attacked him for dishonouring the Turkish state and incitement to racial violence. He has been called a liar, 'a miserable creature' and a 'black writer' in the daily Hurriyet. Professor Hikmet Ozdemir, head of the Armenian studies department at the Turkish Union of Historians, rejected his statement as a 'great lie'.

A lone voice, Halil Berktay, professor at Sabanci University, supported Pamuk: 'In 1915-16 about 800,000 or one million Armenians were killed for sure.'

Mehmet Üçok, an attorney, filed charges at the Kayseri public prosecutor's office. Another charge was filed by Kayseri Bar Association attorney Orhan Pekmezci: 'Pamuk has made groundless claims against the Turkish identity, the Turkish military and Turkey as a whole. He should be punished for violating Articles 159 and 312 of the Turkish penal code. He made a statement provoking the people to hatred and animosity through the media, which is defined as a crime in Article 312.'

I find this ironic. My mother's family was deported from the historic Armenian city of Kayseri, leaving their murdered menfolk behind.

I was recently in Istanbul lecturing on my biography of Armenian-American artist Arshile Gorky, the basis for the controversial genocide movie Ararat. Official permission for my talk required me not to utter the word 'genocide' to refer to the Ottoman empire's systematic deportations, tortures and killings of two million Armenians which Gorky witnessed. I might refer to those 'incidents'. The crime has never been acknowledged by successive Turkish governments, Britain or the United States.

Recent discussions of Turkey's possible entry into the EU were dominated by France and other countries demanding that Turkey first admit the Armenian genocide. What if Britain had a law forbidding criticism of its history, identity, or the armed forces? Turkey has far to go to reach the legal standards of EU members, with their humane and non-discriminatory laws aiming at standards of truth and reason. So much hatred. So much anger. What does Turkey have to hide?

'Pamuk has always defended freedom of speech and thought, the rights of minorities,' writes Hrant Dink, owner of the Armenian Turkish-language weekly Agos . 'For 90 years we Armenians have been abused, insulted and discriminated against. We cannot enter certain professions, we Turkified our names. We have learnt to survive and endure without protest. Maybe it is time that the Turkish people also learnt tolerance and endurance from us.'

In London, a thinly veiled propaganda exercise at the Royal Academy trumpets Turkish empires, making far-reaching claims about the origins of the 'Turkic peoples'. Echoes of master-race ideology. Pamuk himself writes in the Academy journal: 'Turks gripped by romantic myths of nationalism are keen to establish that we come from Mongolia or central Asia... scholars have come no closer to offering definitive or convincing evidence to link us with a particular time and place.'

In the show the contributions of other nationals in the Ottoman empire - Armenians, Greeks and Jews - are not credited. Yet their handiwork is everywhere, in architecture, pottery, carpets, manuscripts.

Britain colludes in this travesty for the sake of oil interests in Azerbaijan, Turkey's closest ally.

Akin Birdal, vice-president of the International Federation of Human Rights Leagues, emphasises: 'No matter we have come to the 90th year of "incidents" Orhan Pamuk talked about, these will of course be discussed on domestic and international platforms. The aggressions carried out against Pamuk are those which have been carried out against thought. Pamuk is not alone.' Pamuk has cut the Gordian knot. He has become the hero of every right-thinking person in Turkey and every Armenian worldwide.

[Murtaza]

Orhan Pamuk, wielder of Turkey's finest pen,

I realy bored from this guy.
He is not historian. What he said is not much different than what a architect said too.

[YeReVaN]

Orhan Pamuk, wielder of Turkey's finest pen,

I realy bored from this guy.
He is not historian. What he said is not much different than what a architect said too.

But I bet before he made the statement about Armenians and Kurds your nation loved him and very much accepted what he had to say right? All of a sudden he became the back stabber and trator of Turkey.

[Murtaza]

Not much
he is not so much loved by people, you are wrong. You dont know Turkey, so you think like this.
It is a known writer. But he is loved by elits, not by standart people.

and this two group of people are realy realy different.

[YeReVaN]

Not much
he is not so much loved by people, you are wrong. You dont know Turkey, so you think like this.
It is a known writer. But he is loved by elits, not by standart people.

and this two group of people are realy realy different.

Ohh I'm sory before he made that statement he was hiding in Germany because the Turkish Government was threatening his life.

[Murtaza]

If this is true, so why are you thinking we love him so much? hmm?
You dont know Turkey, and you think She is so easy to learn it.

In reality my friend we are most chaotic people of world(I think), You can never know what would happen in Turkey.

So pls stop to think You know everything about Turkey.

Just think, in one month Turkey politic changed against USA and Israel,
than another month It changed again.

[YeReVaN]

In reality my friend we are most chaotic people of world(I think), You can never know what would happen in Turkey.

What do you mean by chaotic?

[YeReVaN]

If this is true, so why are you thinking we love him so much? hmm?
You dont know Turkey, and you think She is so easy to learn it.

I just remember reading that he was very liked by Turks before he made that statement.

[Murtaza]

I mean our preference change to quick, and you cant easily predict what will happen in Turkey. People of Turkey is much emotional unfortunatly.
Why do you think, most people changed their idea against USA so quick? or EU?


He is a respected writer.
But not most loved one, Even some people before that statement accuse him for something. Nationalist never liked him.

He is a leftist writer, and left have not much power in Turkey.
Just think about AKP.

Now can you tell me why there is 10 000 000 Armenian people who live?
It is almost same with Greece, and they had 3.5 million people at that times.

is It possible that 1 500 000 number is a little exaggeration?

[YeReVaN]

Dont't think so. By the way it's more like 9 million.