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Sabah, Turkey
Jan 31 2007
Orhan Pamuk cancels trip to Germany for concerns for personal
security
Nobel-prize winning Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk has cancelled a trip
to Germany at short notice, his German publisher said on Wednesday,
as concerns for his personal security grow. Pamuk's safety became an
issue after the murder this month of prominent Turkish-Armenian
journalist Hrant Dink in Istanbul.
A key suspect in that murder, escorted by police into a court house,
warned Pamuk to be careful. Pamuk, who won the Nobel Prize for
literature in October, had been due to visit several German cities,
including Cologne, Hamburg, Stuttgart and Munich on a book reading
tour starting at the end of this week.
"We heard from him yesterday afternoon that he had decided to
cancel," said a spokeswoman for Hanser publishers in Munich.
German media reported the writer had been worried about a possible
attack although Berlin police said they were unaware of any threat.
The government declined to comment other than to say they did not
know the reason for Pamuk's decision. The murdered Dink had been a
hate figure for ultra-nationalists because he had urged Turks to
acknowledge the mass killing of Armenians on Turkish soil in 1915.
Both Dink and Pamuk have been prosecuted under laws restricting
freedom of expression in Turkey, which wants to join the European
Union. In what was seen as a test case for freedom of speech in
Turkey, Pamuk was tried for insulting "Turkishness" after telling a
Swiss paper in 2005 that 1 million Armenians had died
in Turkey during World War One and 30,000 Kurds had perished in
recent decades.
Jan 31 2007
Orhan Pamuk cancels trip to Germany for concerns for personal
security
Nobel-prize winning Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk has cancelled a trip
to Germany at short notice, his German publisher said on Wednesday,
as concerns for his personal security grow. Pamuk's safety became an
issue after the murder this month of prominent Turkish-Armenian
journalist Hrant Dink in Istanbul.
A key suspect in that murder, escorted by police into a court house,
warned Pamuk to be careful. Pamuk, who won the Nobel Prize for
literature in October, had been due to visit several German cities,
including Cologne, Hamburg, Stuttgart and Munich on a book reading
tour starting at the end of this week.
"We heard from him yesterday afternoon that he had decided to
cancel," said a spokeswoman for Hanser publishers in Munich.
German media reported the writer had been worried about a possible
attack although Berlin police said they were unaware of any threat.
The government declined to comment other than to say they did not
know the reason for Pamuk's decision. The murdered Dink had been a
hate figure for ultra-nationalists because he had urged Turks to
acknowledge the mass killing of Armenians on Turkish soil in 1915.
Both Dink and Pamuk have been prosecuted under laws restricting
freedom of expression in Turkey, which wants to join the European
Union. In what was seen as a test case for freedom of speech in
Turkey, Pamuk was tried for insulting "Turkishness" after telling a
Swiss paper in 2005 that 1 million Armenians had died
in Turkey during World War One and 30,000 Kurds had perished in
recent decades.