Prominent Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk is set to be tried in December over his controversial remarks about the Armenian massacres and could end up serving three years in jail, his publisher said Wednesday.
Pamuk, the widely translated author of such internationally renowned works as “The White Castle”, and “Snow”, triggered a public outcry when he said in an interview with a Swiss newspaper in February that “one million Armenians were killed in these lands and nobody but me dares to talk about it.”.
As a result, Pamuk, who earlier this year won the prestigious peace price of the Association of German Publishers and Booksellers, received several death threats and a local official ordered the seizure and destruction of his works. The reclusive author has since refused to speak to the press at all.
A prosecutor in Istanbul has indicted the 53-year-old Pamuk on the grounds that his remarks amounted to “public denigration of the Turkish identity and has demanded a prison term of between six months and three years, Iletisim publishing house said in a statement. The trial is expected to start on December 16, it added.
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