Aesthetics: Arts: Nobel Prize for Lit 2006 goes to Turkey's novelist Orhan Pamuk, himself under dispute

The Nobels have been good to Muslims this year. Muhammad Yunus greatly deserved recognition in Economics (altho he got the Peace Prize, wihle an American PhD got the Economics award, again: and the peace-force that deserved the Peace prize but didn't get it, as all the world realizes to the gathering distrust of the Nobels, was the formerly hardline separatist area Aceh (a strict Muslim soceity and regime) which finally settled up post-tsunami with Indonesia (also a Muslime regime). But, there was yet another Muslim, Orhan Pamuk, of Turkey who did get the Prize for Literature, in a somewhat beclouded circumstance outlined by Sarah Rainsford in "Pride and suspicion over Pamuk prize" (Oct14,2k6)BBC. She writes from Instanbul:

Pamuk is one of the youngest writers to have won the prize. [His] novels ... are now piled high in the windows of Istanbul bookshops. His smiling face beams from the front page of every newspaper.

"Our Pride," is the headline in Radikal. "Thank you Orhan!" blazes BirGun.

"It's very important, I congratulate him," says bookseller Mehmet, who moved all his Pamuk stock to the front of the store as soon as he heard that the first ever Turk had won the Nobel Prize for Literature.

"It's not only Orhan Pamuk who's won here. This prize will be a chance for all the world to get to know Turkish literature."

Even before the Nobel announcement, Orhan Pamuk was Turkey's best-selling novelist by far.

Each of his books had sold more than 115,000 copies here at home. He has been translated into dozens of foreign languages - and demand is now soaring.

In the first four hours after the news from Sweden, Pamuk's publishers in Istanbul received another 6,000 orders. They have had to allocate extra printing presses to keep up.

But Orhan Pamuk is a difficult hero for some in Turkey.

'Western plot'

Earlier this year nationalist groups labelled the author a traitor when he spoke out on two of Turkey's most sensitive issues - claims that Ottoman Turks committed genocide against the Armenians nine decades ago, and the plight of ethnic Kurds in modern-day Turkey.

His comments earned him death threats - and criminal charges.

Pamuk was put on trial for insulting Turkishness, sparking a wave of pressure from the EU which accused Turkey of limiting free speech.

"For his words, or his pen?" demands the headline in Vatan newspaper. Inside a columnist argues that the Nobel Prize decision is part of a dark Western plot against Turkey.

"I'm not proud Pamuk won. This is all political," Gokhan protests outside another Istanbul bookshop sporting a brand-new window display devoted to the writer.

"He didn't get this award for his literature, they gave it to make a point to us here in Turkey."

"The nationalists will see Pamuk's win as their loss. It's as if they let in a goal in a football match," Ragip Zarokolu explains.

The dissident publisher is on trial himself here for publishing books on the fate of the Ottoman Armenians.

He believes Pamuk fully deserves his Nobel Prize, for his literature.

"But I feel those of us who dare to speak about our history and face our taboos have won a moral victory with this award too," Ragip Zarokolu adds.

"It's an award for the right not to be silent, for freedom of expression."

The conern about honouring Pamuk this year is that the effort of Turkey to enter the European Union and the effort of many in the Union to keep Turkey out has reached a new h+-water mark, or should one say, a new boiling point, both within Turkey and without.

refWrite will have more to say in future about the issue of the Armenian Genocide (which we had previously, already explored). Regarding the Nobels, our frontpage has a new blog-entry on the prizes in Peace and Economics.

-- Anaximaximum

Tags: Nobel Lit Prize

• aesthetics
• arts
• literature
• novels
• NobelPrize
• PamukOrhan
• Turkey