Nobel laureate Pamuk sad EU enthusiasm waning in Turkey

STOCKHOLM, Dec 7 (Reuters) Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk, the 2006 Nobel Laureate for literature, said he was sad to see the appetite for Turkey's European Union accession flagging, although he still sees membership as inevitable.

The European Commission has proposed partially suspending Turkey's year-old accession talks over its failure to open harbours and airports to traffic from Cyprus, whose government Ankara does not recognise. In Turkey itself, opinion polls show waning enthusiasm and resentment over EU reform demands.

''If Turkey joins ... this is good for Europe because Europe learns to be more tolerant and multicultural, this is good for Turkish democracy and economy and Turkish people, and ... this is good for the world because it will set an example,'' Pamuk, in Stockholm for events leading to Sunday's Nobel award ceremony, told a news conference.

''But unfortunately, in the last say two years, the enthusiasm for this is fading away, both in Europe and in Turkey. That's why I'm sad,'' he said.

Pamuk, 54, is known internationally for novels that illuminate the complexities of Turkey, including its love-hate relationship with Europe.

His fame burgeoned in 2006, a year that began with a headline-grabbing trial and will end with his acceptance of literature's most coveted award. It also saw him take his first job outside of fiction writing, teaching at Columbia University.

Pamuk became a symbol for freedom of expression after Turkish prosecutors tried him in January for violating Turkey's article 301 -- a controversial law that bans insults to ''Turkishness''. The case was later dropped on a technicality, but not before it brought a sharp EU rebuke.

EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn hailed Pamuk's Nobel win as a triumph for free speech.

Turkey is trying to change the law in time for a mid-December EU summit, when leaders will discuss the fate of its EU candidacy.

(NO PROTECTION) Pamuk said he did not believe winning a Nobel would make it any less risky to weigh in on politics.

''I don't think this prize, or any prize, legally protects me from any prosecution in Turkey,'' he said, adding that he would not allow the prize to change his ''political habits''.

Pamuk, who learned he had won the award just 10 days after starting his Columbia teaching job, said he would not let the pressure of being a Nobel Laureate affect his writing.

He is at work on a novel he began 3-1/2 years ago.

''I know that this is a unique distinction in world literature. I am very proud of it. But I will not allow this to change my working habits, my devotion and intensity,'' he said.

''I am devoted to spending 10 hours writing fiction at my table all the time ... That's the best thing for me in life and I am not going to stop it.'' Nor does he want to be known for writing to bridge cultures, a label he called the creation of journalists and politicians.

''I am not writing fiction to explain one civilisation to another one,'' he said, adding that the urge to write fiction did not come from such ''utilitarian needs''.

''It comes from the desire for a man to express himself, to close himself in a room, to be solitary, to search the inner truths of his spirit through writing,'' Pamuk said.

REUTERS MS BS1014