Nobel winner Pamuk slams French parliament's genocide law

dpa German Press Agency
Published: Saturday October 14, 2006

Ankara- Turkish Nobel Literature Prize winner Orhan Pamuk has hit out at a French parliament decision to make it a crime to deny the massacres of Armenians during the First World War, describing the move as a blow to freedom of speech. Speaking to the private NTV television station, Pamuk said late Friday the move was not in the French tradition - but that Turkey should not overreact.

"We all know of the French traditions which defend freedom of speech... We have all been affected by this. This move however does not fit with the traditional French ideals," Pamuk said.

Pamuk was awarded the Nobel prize on Thursday, the day the lower house of the French parliament passed a bill making it a criminal offence to deny that a genocide took place in Turkey by Ottoman Turks on Christian Armenians.

While Turkey admits that massacres took place, it vehemently denies that the deaths of Armenians during the war were part of a planned genocide.

Earlier this year Pamuk was has himself on trial for "insulting Turkishness" for his comments on the matter.

He was tried, but found not guilty on a technicality, for having told a Swiss newspaper "30,000 Kurds and a million Armenians were killed in these lands and nobody but me dares talk about it."

While no official sanctions have been announced by the Turkish government, public campaigns have already begun to boycott French goods.

Pamuk though warned that Turkey should not go too far in reaction to the French move, saying "one should not burn the whole quilt for the sake of a single flea".

Pamuk's winning the Nobel prize has been widely welcomed by Turks although nationalists have claimed the prize was awarded not for his writing but for his politics, in particular his comments on the killings of Armenians.

© 2006 dpa German Press Agency