Politics looms in Pamuk's Nobel speech

BERLIN (AFP) - Orhan Pamuk, the Turkish author who has won this year's Nobel prize for literature, reportedly plans to use his acceptance speech to explain his views on several subjects.

Pamuk told the German magazine Der Speigel he was preparing "a thought piece in the good European tradition" for delivery when he accepts the award from Sweden's King Carl XVI Gustaf in Stockholm on December 10.

"For the moment I am thinking of making it in the form of an essay," he said.

"I plan to use the opportunity to put across my point of view on several issues," he added, but declined to reveal the content of the speech.

Pamuk, 54, on Thursday became the first Turkish writer to win the prestigious prize.

The politically outspoken author, whose books focus on Turkey's struggle between Islam and secularism and its ties to Europe, has clashed frequently with the Turkish establishment.

Pamuk was put on trial after telling a Swiss newspaper last year that 30,000 Kurds and one million Armenians had been killed during World War I under the Ottoman Turks.

But the case was dropped after it drew widespread international protest.

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