Orhan Pamuk at the Frankfurt Book Fair

Of all the stories coming out of this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair, the one the American press seems to have overlooked entirely is the one about Nobel Prize-winner Orhan Pamuk‘s inspiring opening address. But as widely noted in the rest of the world, such as in this Guardian story, Pamuk, who was there to represent the Fair’s spotlighted country, Turkey, gave a blistering speech in which he complained about the ongoing oppression of free speech and the banning of YouTube in Turkey, noted that the law that almost got him thrown in prison for commenting on the Armenian genocide — for saying that it took place, basically — is still essentially in effect, and called upon other Turkish writers at the Fair (such as Elif Shafak, Perihan Magden, Asli Erdogan and Sebnem Isigüzel) to join him in speaking out against the government. What’s more, he did all this while standing next to Abdullah Gül … the president of Turkey.