Nobel Prize angers Turkeys nationalists

With arms linked hundreds of right wing nationalist protesters march up Istanbul's main shopping in the city centre. Chanting the ominous warning: 'our patience is ending', the protesters frightened some shoppers who darted into shops to make way for the angry mob.

The march ends outside the French consulate, where nationalist supporters placed a black wreath. But their anger wasn't only aimed at France for passing a bill criminalizing denial of the Armenian genocide in 1915. According to one of the protest organizers Turkey has a traitor in its mist.

" Around the same time when the French bill was introduced Nobel prize of literature was given to Orhan Pamuk who had insulted Turkish nation by saying Turks has massacred 1.5 million Armenians. This is no coincidence. A world propaganda war is being waged Turkey, a nd people like Orhan Pamuk are supporting them. We the Turkish people will crush this threat."

Controversy has followed Orhan Pamuk throughout his career. The 55 year old was the first author in the Muslim world to publicly condemn the fatwa against Salman Rushdie. In the past the wider Turkish public would have dismissed such angry denouncements by Turkey's extreme right.

But this time many of the onlookers here in Istanbul cheered and applauded the protest and anger directed against Pamuk. After the protest had dispersed, I spoke to people to find out what they felt about Turkey's first Nobel laureate. For a country which normally prides itself on international success there was little support for Pamuk. The overwhelming majority of people canvassed expressed views such as Hasan - a teacher.

" I am not happy because it is not about the Turkish people. It is just about Orhan Pamuk, I don't agree with him. I read his books I don't like him very much because he is against the Turkish citizen. Maybe he takes vote from the European Union."

The European Union is increasingly a term of disgust for many turks. Growing public opposition in Europe towards Turkey's EU bid, along with relentless criticisms by Brussels over Ankara's lack of reforms, support among Turks for EU membership is at a record low.

Soli Ozel is an international relations expert at Istanbul's Bilgi University. He's not surprised by the display of anger aimed at both Pamuk and France. Ozel argues the French parliament's vote could not of come at worse time.

"This will further inflame the fires, of anti Europeanism, anti westernize, nationalism, we already have a climate of elections in this country as we end the last year until next regularly scheduled elections and I think the government will be hard pressed to respond to that pressure rather than calm it down"

Ozel fears seem well founded. The Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer refused to congratulate Pamuk or even comment on the Nobel Prize - and while Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan did welcome the award, the speaker of the Turkish parliament Bulent Arinc was more circumspect and acknowledged public anger.

"Since such a discussion has been going on in the Turkish public then Pamuk should exhibit an ideal behavior with his statements and attitude from now on. We are curiously awaiting the reaction of our precious author who won the Nobel prize one same day of the French genocide bill. Because whatever he will say will guide the society."

One man who is not waiting for Pamuk's statement is Kemal Kerincsiz. He is a leading figure of the far right. Kerincsiz has made his name by exploiting the country's laws to open scores of cases against Turkey's liberal writers and journalists, including Pamuk, for articles and statements they've made.

Europe in turn reacted by condemning Turkey for the lack of freedom of expression. But Kerincsiz has no regrets and says Turkey is threatened by Europe and its supporters like Pamuk.

"The Noble award is very dubious, this is what most of our society thinks. There can be a small intellectual group who think it was for his writing. This award is reward for the lies he says about the so-called genocide. His writings are nothing to do with Turkish values but the old rotten ideas of the west, that is why he was awarded the Nobel Prize. Its all part of Europe's plot to partition Turkey, like they did 90 years ago. They want to give our land to the Armenians, the Kurds and Greeks. Pamuk and the Europeans he loves so much are the enemy of Turkey. But today more and more Turks are now seeing the European danger and are making their voices heard"

Kerincsiz is also preparing to file a case against the Nobel academy for Pamuk's award. Once dismissed as oddball extremists, people like Kerincsiz are now increasingly winning the ear of the Turkish public. As Turkey's EU membership bid continues to falter, support for the right is predicted to rise. Next month Brussels is due to publish what is widely expected to be a highly critical report on Turkey's membership bid. Such are the concerns over Turkey many European politicians and commissioners are warning that the whole process could grind to a halt if not collapse.

Etenian Mahcupian of the Turkish think tank Tesev warns that would have far reaching consequences for Turkey.

"To do politics now has 2 sides it, one is the European Union side, reforms and so on so forth, democratization and so on. And on the other side of course which is to collect votes, which means populism, which means nationalism. What happens if the first side, kind of evaporates and we are left with just the second side then all the political parties in turkey we will see will become more and more nationalist even fascist."

Observers such as Etenian Mahcupian fear the sounds of nationalism are rising in Turkey. For authors such as Orhan Pamuk and others who argue for understanding and social reform, even a Nobel Prize does not guarantee their message will be heard. The growing feeling in Turkey is that the country stands at a crossroads - But which road it chooses could well be determined in Brussels.

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