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NOBEL PRIZE-WINNING TURKISH WRITER AVOIDS SPEAKING ABOUT ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
18:58, 16 Feb 2015
Siranush Ghazanchyan
Turkey's military, which has forced out civilian governments in the
past, has been pushed to the sidelines but largely replaced with an
Islamist and authoritarian government, Turkish Nobel laureate Orhan
Pamuk said in remarks published on Saturday, Today's Zaman reports.
"Authoritarian soldiers were [pushed] out [but an] authoritarian
and Islamist government took their place," he said in an interview
with the French news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP) in Istanbul,
referring to Turkey's recent history in which military influence over
politics has slowly disappeared and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
and the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) have become
the new center of power.
He also said that the AK Party was "destroying the balance of powers,
which is in fact the key to any democracy."
"In that sense, Turkey is only [an] electoral democracy, but a
democracy where the respect [for] human rights, free speech are
violated every day," said Pamuk, adding that he sensed a deterioration
when he last returned to Turkey from New York, where he teaches at
Columbia University.
"When I came back, I felt a climate of fear, people whispering,"
he told AFP.
In the interview, Pamuk was more reluctant to discuss the issue of the
Armenian Genocide at the hands of the disintegrating Ottoman Empire.
"I had a lot of trouble eight to 10 years ago because I talked freely
about this subject," Pamuk said of his past remarks that caused a
great deal of controversy in Turkey.
http://www.armradio.am/en/2015/02/16/nobel-prize-winning-turkish-writer-avoids-speaking-about-armenian-genocide/
18:58, 16 Feb 2015
Siranush Ghazanchyan
Turkey's military, which has forced out civilian governments in the
past, has been pushed to the sidelines but largely replaced with an
Islamist and authoritarian government, Turkish Nobel laureate Orhan
Pamuk said in remarks published on Saturday, Today's Zaman reports.
"Authoritarian soldiers were [pushed] out [but an] authoritarian
and Islamist government took their place," he said in an interview
with the French news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP) in Istanbul,
referring to Turkey's recent history in which military influence over
politics has slowly disappeared and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
and the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) have become
the new center of power.
He also said that the AK Party was "destroying the balance of powers,
which is in fact the key to any democracy."
"In that sense, Turkey is only [an] electoral democracy, but a
democracy where the respect [for] human rights, free speech are
violated every day," said Pamuk, adding that he sensed a deterioration
when he last returned to Turkey from New York, where he teaches at
Columbia University.
"When I came back, I felt a climate of fear, people whispering,"
he told AFP.
In the interview, Pamuk was more reluctant to discuss the issue of the
Armenian Genocide at the hands of the disintegrating Ottoman Empire.
"I had a lot of trouble eight to 10 years ago because I talked freely
about this subject," Pamuk said of his past remarks that caused a
great deal of controversy in Turkey.
http://www.armradio.am/en/2015/02/16/nobel-prize-winning-turkish-writer-avoids-speaking-about-armenian-genocide/