Turkish Novelist Orhan Pamuk Wins Nobel Prize in Literature

STAFF WRITER

Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk, who faced a criminal charge for discussing some of his country's most painful episodes, won the Nobel literature prize on October 12 for his works dealing with issues of identity and clashing cultures.

A Turkish court dropped charges against Pamuk for insulting "Turkishness," ending a high-profile trial that outraged Western observers and cast doubt on Turkey's commitment to free speech.

Pamuk who gained international acclaim for books including "Snow," "Istanbul," and "My Name is Red," went on trial last year for telling a Swiss newspaper in February 2005 that Turkey was unwilling to deal with the massacre of Armenians during World War I, which Turkey insists was not a planned genocide, and recent guerrilla fighting in Turkey's overwhelmingly Kurdish southeast.

"Thirty-thousand Kurds and 1 million Armenians were killed in these lands, and nobody but me dares to talk about it," he said in the interview.

The controversy came at a particularly sensitive time for the overwhelmingly Muslim country. Turkey had recently begun membership talks with the European Union, which has harshly criticized the trial, questioning Turkey's commitment to freedom of expression.

Pamuk will receive $1.4 million, a gold medal and diploma, and an invitation to a lavish banquet in Stockholm on Dec. 10, the anniversary of the death of prize founder Alfred Nobel.