ANKARA: Orhan Pamuk's Nobel literature prize on Thursday drew mixed reaction in Turkey, where the Turkish novelist is both a source of pride for placing Turkish literature on the world map and regarded as a traitor by staunch nationalists.

Culture Minister Atilla Koc ``was delighted'' by news of Mr. Pamuk's win, an aide said.

The Foreign Ministry released a statement congratulating Mr. Pamuk, wishing him continued success and saying the prize would help give Turkish literature a wider audience abroad.

Fellow novelists, poets and publishers were among the first to congratulate him, but nationalists who regard the novelist as a traitor for remarks on the World War I-era of killings of Armenians during the Ottoman Empire accused the Swedish Academy of rewarding the author because he had belittled Turks.

Mr. Pamuk, whose novels include ``Snow'' and ``My Name Is Red,'' was prosecuted earlier this year in Turkey for ``insulting Turkishness.'' An Istanbul court dropped the charges against him in January amid intense international pressure, ending a high-profile trial that outraged Western observers and cast doubt on Turkey's commitment to free speech.

Mr. Pamuk went on trial for telling a Swiss newspaper in February 2005 that Turkey was unwilling to deal with two of the most painful episodes in recent Turkish history: the massacre of Armenians during World War I, which Turkey insists was not a genocide, and recent guerrilla fighting in Turkey's overwhelmingly Kurdish southeast.

``Thirty-thousand Kurds and 1 million Armenians were killed in these lands, and nobody but me dares to talk about it,'' he said in the interview.

``The prize came as no surprise, we were expecting it,'' said Kemal Kerincsiz, a nationalist lawyer who helped bring charges against Mr. Pamuk. ``This prize was not given because of Pamuk's books, it was given because of his words, because of his Armenian genocide claims ... It was given because he belittled our national values, for his recognition of the genocide.''

``Believe me, the next prize will be given to Elif Shafak,'' Mr. Kerincsiz said, referring to another Turkish novelist prosecuted, and acquitted, on the same charges as Mr. Pamuk.

``As a Turkish citizen I am ashamed.''

Prominent Turkish poet Ozdemir Ince agreed. ``If you ask serious literature people, they would place Pamuk at the end of the list,'' he said. ``Turkish literature did not win the Nobel prize, Orhan Pamuk did.''

``Tomorrow, the (international) newspaper headlines will be Orhan Pamuk who accepts the `Armenian genocide' won the Nobel Prize,'' he said. Mehmet Dulger, a legislator who heads Parliament's foreign affairs committee said: ``What Pamuk said about the Armenians was wrong. But not all doors are closing on Turkey. While on the one hand, a terrible decision is being taken, on the other hand a Turkish writer is awarded a prize.'' — AP

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