The Turkish author Orhan Pamuk has reportedly left his home country to live in America amid fears for his life. The Nobel laureate is believed to be at risk of assassination in Turkey following the murder of Turkish-Armenian editor Hrant Dink last month. Threats appeared to have been made against Pamuk by the man who confessed to orchestrating the murder.
The International Herald Tribune reported on Thursday February 1 that Pamuk had boarded a plane for New York to begin a lecture tour of American universities and, according to Fatih Altayli, a prominent columnist writing for the Turkish daily newspaper Sabah, he has no plans to return to Turkey. The writer had already cancelled a tour of Germany, which has a sizeable Turkish community, at the end of last month.
"What I was told was more than mere rumour: Pamuk recently withdrew $400,000 from his bank account and said he would leave Turkey and would not be returning to his country anytime soon," wrote Altayli. According to the Daily Telegraph, those close to Pamuk have declined to comment publicly on the report because of the "sensitivity of Mr Pamuk's position".
Pamuk's work, of which the best known are his recent novels My Name is Red and Snow, explores Turkey as a country poised between east and west, tradition and modernity. He is the fastest selling author in Turkish history, as well as commanding international acclaim.
He became a lightning rod for controversy in Turkey after talking openly about the mass killing of Armenians in the early 20th century, and is reviled by the country's nationalists who regard him as a traitor.
In 2005 he was tried in an Istanbul court for the crime of "insulting Turkishness" under the controversial Article 301 of the Turkish penal code, but was acquitted on a technicality a month later. This week, Turkey's foreign minister backed calls to amend the article, but not to repeal it.
