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Agence France Presse
March 30 2005
Turkey probes official who ordered novelist's books destroyed
30/03/2005 AFP
ANKARA, March 30 (AFP) - 16h55 - The Turkish interior ministry is
investigating an official who ordered the seizure and destruction of
works by novelist Orhan Pamuk for making a reference to the massacre
of Armenians, the Anatolia news agency said Wednesday.
Pamuk, author of several novels including "My Name Is Red," "The
White Castle" and "The New Life," caused an outcry when he said in an
interview with a Swiss newspaper that "one million Armenians were
killed in Turkey."
The statement appeared to contradict official denials of an Armenian
genocide.
Furious at the remark, deputy governor Mustafa Altinpinar of Sutculer
in the Mediterranean province of Isparta, issued a circular ordering
all copies of Pamuk's books to be confiscated from local libraries
and bookstores and destroyed.
"The author has made baseless, slanderous and injurious accusations
against the Turkish nation," the circular said.
A search of local bookshops and libraries, however, failed to produce
a single copy of Pamuk's books, newspapers said.
"I issued the order in reaction to Pamuk's remarks over the
Armenians, but now I wish I had first checked to see whether there
were any of his books in our town," Altinpinar was quoted as saying
by the daily Radikal.
The governor of Isparta province, Isa Parlak, immediately announced
that Altinpinar had "abused his authority." He cancelled the order,
while Interior Minister Abdulkadir Aksu ordered an investigation,
Anatolia said.
The massacre of Armenians during World War I is one of the most
controversial episodes in Turkish history.
Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kinsmen died in orchestrated
killings during the last years of the Ottoman Empire, the predecessor
of modern Turkey.
Turkey instead says that 300,000 Armenians and thousands of Turks
were killed in civil strife when the Armenians rose against their
Ottoman rulers.
Pamuk, one of Europe's most prominent novelists, has been translated
into more than 20 languages. He lives in Istanbul.
March 30 2005
Turkey probes official who ordered novelist's books destroyed
30/03/2005 AFP
ANKARA, March 30 (AFP) - 16h55 - The Turkish interior ministry is
investigating an official who ordered the seizure and destruction of
works by novelist Orhan Pamuk for making a reference to the massacre
of Armenians, the Anatolia news agency said Wednesday.
Pamuk, author of several novels including "My Name Is Red," "The
White Castle" and "The New Life," caused an outcry when he said in an
interview with a Swiss newspaper that "one million Armenians were
killed in Turkey."
The statement appeared to contradict official denials of an Armenian
genocide.
Furious at the remark, deputy governor Mustafa Altinpinar of Sutculer
in the Mediterranean province of Isparta, issued a circular ordering
all copies of Pamuk's books to be confiscated from local libraries
and bookstores and destroyed.
"The author has made baseless, slanderous and injurious accusations
against the Turkish nation," the circular said.
A search of local bookshops and libraries, however, failed to produce
a single copy of Pamuk's books, newspapers said.
"I issued the order in reaction to Pamuk's remarks over the
Armenians, but now I wish I had first checked to see whether there
were any of his books in our town," Altinpinar was quoted as saying
by the daily Radikal.
The governor of Isparta province, Isa Parlak, immediately announced
that Altinpinar had "abused his authority." He cancelled the order,
while Interior Minister Abdulkadir Aksu ordered an investigation,
Anatolia said.
The massacre of Armenians during World War I is one of the most
controversial episodes in Turkish history.
Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kinsmen died in orchestrated
killings during the last years of the Ottoman Empire, the predecessor
of modern Turkey.
Turkey instead says that 300,000 Armenians and thousands of Turks
were killed in civil strife when the Armenians rose against their
Ottoman rulers.
Pamuk, one of Europe's most prominent novelists, has been translated
into more than 20 languages. He lives in Istanbul.