Why is Orhan Pamuk hated so much in Turkey?

[Alexandros]

ORHAN KEMAL CENGİZ [email protected] Columnists

Why is Orhan Pamuk hated so much in Turkey?

04 November 2009, Wednesday

Just go to Google and write in Orhan Pamuk and “hain” (the Turkish equivalent of traitor) and you will get almost 40,000 hits. There are many Turks who hate Pamuk, but why? He is the only Turkish writer/artist ever to have received the Nobel Prize. Of course, there are also many people in Turkey who greatly admire Pamuk, including myself, but then again there are many others who really hate him, and this is worth thinking on.

An ordinary nationalist person in Turkey either dislikes or hates Pamuk. One of the main reasons for that is Pamuk’s remarks about past atrocities in Turkey. In 2005, during an interview with the Swiss publication Das Magazin, Pamuk said: “Thirty thousand Kurds have been killed here, and 1 million Armenians. And almost nobody dares to mention that. So I do.” That’s it. Just these few sentences created so much turmoil in Turkey. I believe Pamuk still suffers from it. First there was a charge against him under the infamous Article 301, for denigrating Turkishness. It is, of course, an historical irony that the person who glorifies Turkey, İstanbul, Anatolia and therefore “Turkishness” with his magnificent novels was put on trial for insulting it. This is Turkish tragicomedy. This is the price Turkey has long been paying for not confronting its past.

Pamuk was tried under this article before the article was finally amended and the case dropped. However, some legal avenues remained that could be used against Pamuk. A person who is now being tried in the Ergenekon (deep state) case and five of his friends brought a compensation case against Pamuk, claiming that their feelings were hurt because Pamuk’s remarks “denigrated Turkishness.” The court of first instance refused to hear the case, stating that no one could claim compensation for “an attack on personal rights” just for being a member of the Turkish nation. We all took a deep breath and hoped that this embarrassing process was closed. But then the nightmare started again when “plaintiffs” took the case before the Supreme Court of Appeals. That court overturned the decision of the court of first instance and decided that according to Article 66 of the Constitution, “Everyone connected to the Turkish State with the bond of citizenship is Turkish,” and that just as individuals had honor, feelings of belonging to a nation were also part of personal values. Do you see the implications of this decision? Theoretically every Turkish citizen, 70 million individuals, can bring cases seeking compensation against Pamuk. This is a legal lynching. In practice, it will not work like that -- because of the statute of limitations, it is not possible to bring a new case for these past remarks against Pamuk.

And I think the appeals court will change this “precedent” in some other case in the future. They are just trying to give a strong “message” to Pamuk -- the message of the Turkish “deep” state.

There were also some other campaigns against Pamuk in the Turkish media: Some “writers” and “columnists” accused him of imitation and plagiarism. During trials, he received many death threats, and later left Turkey for New York. When he returns to İstanbul, as he does occasionally, he does it secretly. What a shame for Turkish society!

Where does all this hatred come from? I’ve already mentioned one source, namely, the denial of the past. As with a neurotic person, when you touch old wounds, you confront an uncontrollable storm of anger in Turkey. You become a “traitor,” which is the easiest thing to be in my country.

I believe even if Pamuk had not said the things he said about past atrocities in Turkey, he would not have been welcomed enthusiastically by nationalist Turks. Because Pamuk talks on behalf of the real Turkey, which has a long history and rich traditions, which embraces different cultures, different ethnicities and different religions. For the nationalist Turk, Turkish history either starts 80 years ago or with a distorted Ottoman past. Pamuk represent peace with the real identity of this country, openness, harmony and a readiness to grow and to become richer culturally. For nationalist Turks, there is no friend except Turks, and Turkey is surrounded by enemies. In every country there are, of course, nationalist people, but in Turkey this “typology” is supposed to be the norm. The ideal citizen is a secular, nationalist, white Turk who adores Ataturk and his “revolutions.” The ideal citizen of Turkey is too artificial, too shallow to embrace any real depth like the one Orhan Pamuk represents. So Pamuk represents an unbearable figure for them. They can only handle him in this “lynching” context.

I recently realized that some nationalist Web sites were attacking me by drawing parallels between me and Pamuk. They think they are insulting me, but I really enjoyed the way one of them mentions my name: It says Orhan Pamuk Cengiz. I hope one day I actually deserve their compliment!

Link

[Parskahay]

Re: Why is Orhan Pamuk hated so much in Turkey?

interesting
so a good turk?
the first time!

[AlphaPapa]

Re: Why is Orhan Pamuk hated so much in Turkey?

interesting
so a good turk?
the first time!

There have been many good Turks, during and after the genocide. Their government creates the racial hatred. By hating all Turks as a reaction, we only feed that cycle, which benefits Turks. They are not our enemies. Their race-based government has been.

[Catharsis]

Re: Why is Orhan Pamuk hated so much in Turkey?

There have been many good Turks, during and after the genocide. Their government creates the racial hatred. By hating all Turks as a reaction, we only feed that cycle, which benefits Turks. They are not our enemies. Their race-based government has been.

Very well said.

[AlphaPapa]

Re: Why is Orhan Pamuk hated so much in Turkey?

Thanks. I should also note that when they killed Hrant Dink, the only thing that kept me from venting my frustrations (I live near many Turks) was the knowledge that Monte Melkonian and so many other national heroes worked with Turkish people who also opposed their governments.

Our focus should be their governments, not their people. Not even the Azeris. In Artsakh, there are fields where an Armenian farmer can see an Azeri farmer on the other side. They lived together for a long time in peace and friendship. Before the genocide, so did Armenians and Turks, and most Armenians even spoke Turkish as their primary language. If our communities were so separate, as some (on both sides) want everyone to believe, not only would there not have been so many Armenians rescued by Turkish families, but Armenians would have actually been able to defend themselves (rather than stay loyal to the Ottomans like sheep).

This is what angers Turks AND Armenians...we accuse them of betrayal. They accuse us of betrayal. The truth is obvious though, and the average person should not suffer because of propaganda.

I feel strongly about this. On both sides, the average people are alienated because of teh nationalists of both sides.

[Catharsis]

Re: Why is Orhan Pamuk hated so much in Turkey?

Thanks. I should also note that when they killed Hrant Dink, the only thing that kept me from venting my frustrations (I live near many Turks) was the knowledge that Monte Melkonian and so many other national heroes worked with Turkish people who also opposed their governments.

Our focus should be their governments, not their people. Not even the Azeris. In Artsakh, there are fields where an Armenian farmer can see an Azeri farmer on the other side. They lived together for a long time in peace and friendship. Before the genocide, so did Armenians and Turks, and most Armenians even spoke Turkish as their primary language. If our communities were so separate, as some (on both sides) want everyone to believe, not only would there not have been so many Armenians rescued by Turkish families, but Armenians would have actually been able to defend themselves (rather than stay loyal to the Ottomans like sheep).

This is what angers Turks AND Armenians...we accuse them of betrayal. They accuse us of betrayal. The truth is obvious though, and the average person should not suffer because of propaganda.

I feel strongly about this. On both sides, the average people are alienated because of teh nationalists of both sides.

Yes Alpha these are important reflections and assessments. In fact, I have heard my grandparents mention that many of the ordinary Turks did that, yet of course there were many who did take part. Many who took part were not even Turks, but many of Islamic subjects of the Ottoman Empire who did not miss an opportunity to plunder, steal, rape Armenians and take over their land, property and homes. Having said that, it was not about religion (at least for the leadership of the Young Turks who were racist pan-Turkists and were never Islamic at their core, yet sadly they did play on Islamic fundamentalism of the Turkish street) since Arabs even from the outset of the genocide helped Armenians in all kinds of ways. I have also heard this repeated from hundreds of survivors of the genocide from the last century.

I don't know however how much we can go with this truth with ordinary Turks. I think very few Turks today would admit that historically they are occupying a land that is not theirs (leftover of the empire), where they have committed a horrible unprecedented genocide. This is the greatest stumbling block and we are willing to tell it whoever wants to listen. You are right things have changed drastically I can think of today quite a few Turkish scholars who are openly talking about the Armenian Genocide, even a decade ago this was unheard of. The Turkish government knows that this "thaw" is underway through democratization of its own society. Hence, their ill-fated attempt at the "protocols" (which is tied to a wider regional shifts of course) Now they are willing to "open" their [botched] archives and they are willing to set up "commissions" to "examine" the genocide - when in fact there have been at least 50 international commissions and bodies that have issued resolutions and declarations condemning the Turkish government's ongoing denial of the Armenian Genocide and stressing the dire need for Turkey to acknowledge its dark past and afterward truly reach genuine reconciliation with the Armenian people.

Nothing short will do, and the "protocols" will go into the dustbin of history. There can be no reconciliation without truth. South Africa is a glaring example in this regard.

[Folk]

Re: Why is Orhan Pamuk hated so much in Turkey?

As an Anatolian, I have a great admire to Orhan Pamuk both as a succesful author (In fact nobel is not my measure, for we have seen who won the Nobel this year: Obama. Did he deserve? He just sent more troops to Afghanistan. It means nobel will be given to warriors from now on, what a pity!) and a virtuous person. He is one of the very few people having removed nationalism in their mind. And because of this fact, he is hated.

Imagine an Armenian author saying "Armenians killed Turks, not Turks killed Armenians" and the reaction of Armenian nationalists to him. This is the case in Turkey..

[AlphaPapa]

Re: Why is Orhan Pamuk hated so much in Turkey?

The problems with Turkey is that they think they are the successors of the Ottoman mpire, rather than just another part of the Sykes Picot agreement. What's worse, they're the only ones since the war ended to pursue a policy of ethnic cleansing and forced turkification.