Jose Manuel Fernandes, Chief editor of the daily, judges paradoxical the fact that "this open person, attentive, courageous, as much Turkish as European, has won on the day that France took a step down the path of the extremism that it condemns. ... I am referring here to the law that penalizes the negation of the Armenian genocide, an enormous historical tragedy. Suberbly snubbing the Europe it sees itself heralding, France has criminalized a dissonant opinion at the very moment our continent is committing itself to the right for writers like Pamuk to a dissonant voice in Turkey. For this reason I can only support Pamuk. As a universalist writer. Against the Turks who relegated him to the box of the accused and the fundamentalism that has contaminated French members of parliament." (13/10/2006)

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"Two forms of Turkey met yesterday on the international scene of current affairs", under-lines the daily. "The first is well-known, it is the one built by Mustafa Kemal. Yesterday that Turkey was stabbed in the back by the French State that chose to sanction those who refuse to recognise the Armenian genocide. The French voice is still ringing this morning on the other side of the Aegean sea and the consequences will not be long in reaching France. The second Turkey is that of the future. A country that openly flirts with modernity and sees itself soon becoming an integral part of the EU, even if its traditions remain very strong and if mentalities do not evolve. A Turkey of the future that has received the Nobel Prize for literature from the Swedish Academy, personified by Orhan Pamuk." (13/10/2006)

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Dominique Quinio regrets the adoption of a bill penalizing the negation of the Armenian genocide. "Once the Armenian genocide had been officially acknowledged by France in 2001, which is really what counts most, was it necessary to go even further? ... Should an attentive ear not have been leant to those Turkish intellectuals who are working on national memory and in their own country and who judge the French initiative unseasonable and likely to radicalize opposition? Do they not deserve support and confidence? And among them the one who won the Nobel Prize for Literature, Orhan Pamuk. He has been distinguished for the greatest honour of his country and to the greatest exasperation of Turkish nationalists who have taken him to court precisely for raising the Armenian question. One hundred and six members of Parliament of all persuasions together decided otherwise." (13/10/2006)

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"Over these past few years, the Nobel jury has often made a last-minute choice to crown writers who bare witness to their country, to problems of modernity that arise there and to ambiguities that tear it apart. This has already been the case for, to give only two examples, Naguib Mafhouz on Egypt and for J.M Coetzee on South africa", considers Guy Duplat. "It is no coincidence that this prize happens to be given at the same time as the question of Turkish EU accession is being posed along with that of the acknowledgment of the Armenian genocide at the political drawing board... By crowning Pamuk, the Nobel is also celebrating a form of freedom of thought and writing, that of the writer. It is an important question at a time of negotiations between the European Union and the Turkey and also while debates on fundamentalism are still agitating the region." (13/10/2006)

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The chief editor of the daily's culture section writes that the jury's decision to award the Nobel Prize in Literature to Orhan Pamuk is also a political statement: "Turkey is in the midst of a very difficult process of coming closer to the West while at the same time trying to preserve its cultural heritage. In a way, Pamuk stands for all those things that are changing too quickly for Turkey's liking. In Europe, people see Pamuk as the Turk who takes a critical view of his own country. He was the first writer in the Muslim world to condemn the fatwa against Salman Rushdie and to commit himself to the cause of freedom of speech. In Turkey, on the other hand, he is perceived as a European who takes a critical view of the nation's internal affairs. Some accuse him of fouling his own nest. It's not always easy for a country to find the right words to express its feelings when one of its most unpopular representatives wins the world's most prestigious literary prize. So the big question now is how Turkey will react." (13/10/2006)

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All available articles from » Peter Nielsen

Cornelia Niedermeier comments on Orhan Pamuk winning the Nobel Prize in Literature: "Orhan Pamuk is not being honoured for having a brilliant style. His metaphors are at times clumsy and his aphorisms less than convincing. They are honouring an author who incarnates an open-minded Turkey, a Turkey that is capable of self-contemplation and tolerance. And indirectly, all those Armenians who for decades have been living in exile and whose fate remained unknown to the great majority are being honoured." (13/10/2006)

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In an interview with Roman Pawlowski, Adam Balzer of the Warsaw Centre for Eastern Studies says the decision to award the Noble Prize for Literature to Orhan Pamuk should not just be seen in a political light: "Nationalist groups in Turkey will claim Pamuk is a Trojan Horse for the West who is dragging the honour of the Turkish nation in the dirt. But I don't agree. You can't judge Pamuk's work solely on the basis of the Armenian issue. Pamuk deals with many other themes, he writes about Turkish identity, the role of religion, the world establishment, and relations between religious and lay groups. He reveals a heterogeneous Turkey whose identity is as fragmented as a mosaic. It is this that makes his work great." (13/10/2006)

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"Pamuk is not only Turkey's most important contemporary literary voice, he is also one of the few internationally acclaimed representatives of Turkish cultural life," writes Hubert Spiegel. "However, he can't escape the danger of being perceived as a representative of Turkey in the West while being regarded as an agent for the West in his own country. Not only do his books illustrate this dilemma, they revel in it, tirelessly portraying the fascinating interplay between cultures and traditions across the centuries. If Pamuk is a mediator between the cultures, then he is a very unique one. He is less interested in the often cited - if exaggerated - similarities between the West and the Islamic world and more interested in the convergence points of the differences between these cultures. They form the starting point for his novels. Pamuk uses them to create incredibly complex stories that are full of innuendo and sometimes not easy follow." (13/10/2006)

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The French caricaturist Plantu will organise on Monday, October 16th, a seminar in the UN head-quarters, on the theme of the responsibility of press illustrators. In an interview conducted by Dominique Simmonet, he talks about his vision of freedom of expression. "Illustrators should have the intelligence to by-pass interdictions, to offer images that are above all not bland and always provocative, whilst remaining conscious of the fact that they can be manipulated by fanatics. ... I stand up for self-censorship! For me, caricaturists are not just artists, they are also journalist who write in images. ... In this respect I owe it to myself to question my responsibility, on the way my images are going to be received in Beyrouth and in Jerusalem. With Internet, all drawings are interpreted, used. There is no point humiliating people, or in triggering violence in the name of noble principles." (12/10/2006)

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The French sociologist Michel Wieviorka analyses the way in which France and Spain face up to their colonial past. "It is clear that the forming of identities according to memory, a debate that is tending towards the insistence on a change of national discourse more in France than in Spain. How to explain this difference? " One of the answers given by Wieviorka is that, "the Spanish State, even if it has centralist characteristics, is more open. The French state, which combines a Jacobinic vocation with a republican ideal that is hostile to any recognition of particularism. The French nation state built itself by standing against particular identities within its country and by promoting a universal conception of its 'civilising' mission, otherwise said, a colonialist mission that also amounts to denying particularism." (13/10/2006)

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"Slovakia's ruling party Smer has lost its status as a member of the Party of European Socialists for at least ten months," Brussels correspondent Katerina Safarikova reports. The Slovak party is being punished for forming a government coalition with the far-right National Party. "This is the heaviest sanction foreseen in the European Socialists' statute. It's the first time the sanction has been imposed in the fourteen years since the founding of the European party alliance. Nor have the European Christian Democrats or Liberals suspended a party's membership up to now. At the end of the ten months, Smer will only be reinstated as a member if it has terminated its cooperation with the right-wing extremists." (13/10/2006)

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All available articles from » Katerina Safarikova

Dominique Moisi, a senior adviser at France's institute for International Relations (IFRI), contemplates the climate in France running up to the presidential elections. "Would the triumph of Mr Sarkozy over Ms Royal or vice versa make a real difference? In both cases it would be fair to say that the emergence of a new generation at the top will probably have a re-energizing effect on a country that is far more dynamic than people assume and whose economy is doing much better than critics contend. In fact, French society is far ahead of its political elites. There are very vocal reactionary forces - you need look no further than the powerful but waning trade unions. ... But most French citizens are convinced that structural reforms are necessary and right. France cannot remain alone in refusing to address its problems. Whoever wins the presidency next spring will have to follow the same arduous path to reform that Germany is undertaking." (13/10/2006)

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All available articles from » Dominique Moïsi

"Oriental cafés are very trendy at the moment," Editha Kresta notes. Whether it's Berlin, London or Los Angeles you're talking about, "the male-dominated oriental cafés of the past are passé. Now these places are full of young guests drinking cocktails instead of tea with their hookahs, called shisha in Turkish. Oriental lounges are the trendy successors of the kebab parlour. They were once an ethnic niche but left that niche long ago... Even in Turkey and the Arab world, the hookah is experiencing a revival as a chic lifestyle accessory. Many of the cafés in Cairo, Beirut and Istanbul, once the sole province of men smoking among men, are now being taken over by women. What was once regarded as the height of oriental laziness and futility in times of social modernisation and republican reform – in Tunisia the hookah (called 'narghil' in Arabic) is still banned in public places – has gained the status of a communicative instrument that helps people relax in the hectic schedule of today's metropolis." (12/10/2006)

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"Frieze represents the moment in London's calendar when commerce and art become most nakedly and shamelessly entwined", considers arts correspondent Charlotte Higgins regarding Britain's biggest art fair showcasing thousands of art works from all over the world. "The price of running a stand is high - a minimum of about £7,000, ... But the sales, let alone the prestige and networking opportunities, make it worthwhile. Last year the fair's turnover was £33m, reckoned by the organisers to be the tip of the iceberg compared with sales nailed after the event. ... Sir Nicholas Serota, director of Tate, said: 'This is only a fragment of the art world. Artists need to live, and Frieze represents an aspect of what happens within the commerce of the art world. It is not to be confused with what happens in museums. It is not totally representative of what happens in the art world, or even of the art market'”. (13/10/2006)

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Rome's new International Film Festival opens today. "What does Rome have that Venice doesn't? Elsbeth Gut Bozzetti asks. She sees many advantages in Rome's favour, in particular its mayor: "Walter Veltroni himself stipulated that no free tickets would be handed out in advance. This means the general public has better chances of getting a ticket: 'There will be no preferential treatment. Everyone has to buy a ticket, including the mayor.' With tickets costing between four and ten euros, depending on the type, venue and time of the showing, this festival – in which an estimated 5,000 press and film industry representatives are said to be taking part – will indeed be accessible for everyone." (13/10/2006)

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Czech President Vaclav Klaus has once again described climate researchers' warnings of global warming as "irrational". He claims non-governmental organisations are creating these scenarios to gain political influence. Antje Buchholz, german correspondent in the Czech Republic, comments ironically: "Professor Klaus remains unmoved by the arguments of hundreds of experts... But who knows, maybe climate change would be a good thing for the Czech Republic. It could mean the fulfilment of a long cherished dream: Bohemia would at last have a coastline! Ships could dock at Bohemian harbours, like in Shakespeare's 'The Winter's Tale'... And 'Ahoi', the word with which Czechs frequently greet one another and once an old sailors' greeting would finally acquire a deeper meaning." (13/10/2006)

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