06 10 16 - This is an irony of fate. Orhan Pamuk,....

CULTURE & SOCIETY 10.16.2006 Monday - ISTANBUL 21:46
An Irony of Fate - Friday, October 13, 2006- zaman.com
(From A. M. USA)
This is an irony of fate. Orhan Pamuk, who was tried for saying “30,000 Kurds and one million Armenians were killed in these lands,” was awarded the Nobel literature prize on the same day the Armenian genocide bill was passed by the French parliament.

These two points are being linked in every comment about the issue. Pamuk, who gained a considerable number of enemies with his statement, is bound to hear comments that if somebody curses Turkey like he did, that person will also get a prize.

A big “Armenian shadow” will be cast over this prize. In all likelihood, Pamuk himself is not happy with such a coincidence, either.

If all these things had not happened, such as Pamuk saying such big words, the subsequent controversy and the Nobel prize being announced right after the bill penalizing those who deny the purported Armenian genocide, we would now be talking about Pamuk’s words, his literary competence and about the doors this prize would open for Turkish literature.

However, whether desired or not, his words will follow him like a shadow and some will regard the Nobel prize as an award for Pamuk’s words and behaviors that ‘offended’ Turkey and the Turkish people.

Aside from all these discussions, Orhan Pamuk is Turkey’s most well-known novelist.

His “opposing” attitude and “discourse” certainly play a part in his worldwide fame.

As a matter of fact, it is no longer an author’s works that make him famous in today’s world, just as it is not only “literary competence” that influences the Swedish Academy’s decision who receives the Nobel prize.

All these will cause endless conflicts in both literary and political circles.

However, the truth despite all is that Pamuk has been awarded the Nobel Literature Prize in 2006. It is impossible to deny or ignore this.

Political conflicts, even crucial social events, may be forgotten with time but literature has an ability to resist time. Even though the Nobel Prize always causes controversy and it is claimed to be given for political reasons, it is the most respectable literature prize in the world.

None of today’s conflicts will be remembered within a 100 years’ time but Orhan Pamuk, a Turkish novelist’s name will remain in the list of the Nobel literature prize.

If we leave all conflicts, praises and criticisms alone, Pamuk’s Nobel Prize will increase his worldwide fame as well as the interest in the Turkish literature. It can also be said that Pamuk will serve as an impulsive force in Turkish literature’s project of opening up to the outer world.

Ali Colak

V.V