Nobel-winning Turkish author reluctant to talk about Armenian Genocide

PanARMENIAN.Net - 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, according to Today’s Zaman.

“Authoritarian soldiers were pushed out but an authoritarian and Islamist government took their place,” he said in an interview with 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 Erdoğan 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.

However, Pamuk was reluctant to comment on the Armenian Genocide issue, after his remarks in 2005 brought him death threats as well as legal proceedings that were eventually abandoned.

"I had a lot of trouble eight to 10 years ago because I talked freely about this subject," Pamuk said shortly.