 Harshini Perera
Could an author who made a statement regarding the mass killing of
Armenians and Kurds in the Ottoman Empire (Turkish Empire) and then had
a lawsuit filed against him, win the Nobel prize for literature the
following year ? Yes it is true with Orhan Pamuk.
He was accused as a result of his remarks at an interview in February
2005 with the Swiss publication Das Magazin, a weekly supplement to a
number of Swiss daily newspapers.
But a year after the accusation, he was announced as the Nobel prize
winner for literature in 2006. He is in a way a treasure to Turkey just
like A. R. Rahaman to India who won Oscar for best music composition
recently.
Born in Istanbul in a wealthy Westernized district, he has groomed
his writing with a mixed culture. He has once highlighted in a telephone
interview with Adam Smith, Editor-in-Chief of Nobelprize.org that his
writing style is definitely influenced by the inter culture that
prevailed in Turkey.
He developed his artistic talent through paintings.
This paved the way for him to the Istanbul Technical University. But
it seems as if he was not satisfied with architecture. He gave it up to
become a full time writer.
His writing resulted in many creations, such as The White
Castle(1991), The Black Book (1994), The New life (1997), My Name is Red
(2001) Snow (2004), Istanbul: Memories of a City (2005), Other Colors:
Essays and a Story (2007) which were translated into English from
Turkish.
The New York Times referred to the author as a new star in the East.
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