06 10 16 - Pamuk's Nobel: Deciphering the code of silence in Ankara

http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/english/5265649.asp?gid=74
(From A.M. USA)
With 5 days having passed now since the announcement that Turkish author Orhan Pamuk had won the 2006 Nobel Prize for Literature, sources in Ankara have begun to speculate on the reasons behind President Ahmet Necdet Sezer's silence.

President Sezer, who has not publicly congratulated Pamuk, is said by sources close to Cankaya to be reflecting "suspicion" in the top levels of government in Ankara over the timing of Pamuk's award, which followed only a year after controversial remarks made by the novelist concernign the so-called Armenian genocide.

A government sources in Ankara noted this weekend that Sezer represents both the state and the nation, and that as such "The President has chosen silence in regards to historical knowledge and the principles of governance. This means there is some anger."

The same sources, touching on Pamuk's comments on the "massacres" of Armenians and Kurds within Turkey, said "The President does not have the luxury of forgetting these comments. The fact that the bill proposing jail time for people denying the so-called Armenian genocide in France was accepted on the same day that the Nobel was awarded to Pamuk has made the government and the people of Turkey uncomfortable. I think that the silence from the President on this issue is an expression of this."

V.V