Under threat of assassination, Turkish author Orhan Pamuk has left his homeland, perhaps never to return. And it's hard to blame him. First he was put on trial for "denigrating Turkish identity", following an interview he gave to a Swiss newspaper about the genocide of the Armenians in the early twentieth century (which may form the backdrop for a movie, unlikely as it may seem, by none other than Sylvester "Rambo/Rocky Balboa" Stallone).

And for a while it seemed like reason would prevail. Not only was the case dropped, but one would have thought that Pamuk being awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature would have salved any bruised national pride.

But then Armenian journalist and editor of the Armenian-Turkish language weekly Agos magazine, Hrant Dink was gunned down in broad daylight outside his office in downtown Istanbul.

It seems threats have been made against Pamuk's life by the same man who confessed to being responsible for the assassination of Hrant Dink.

British daily The Guardian reports that his lecture tour to the United States might be extended, indefinitely.

The International Herald Tribune reported on Thursday February 1 that Pamuk had boarded a plane for New York to begin a lecture tour of American universities and, according to Fatih Altayli, a prominent columnist writing for the Turkish daily newspaper Sabah, he has no plans to return to Turkey. The writer had already cancelled a tour of Germany, which has a sizeable Turkish community, at the end of last month.

"What I was told was more than mere rumour: Pamuk recently withdrew $400,000 from his bank account and said he would leave Turkey and would not be returning to his country anytime soon," wrote Altayli. According to the Daily Telegraph, those close to Pamuk have declined to comment publicly on the report because of the "sensitivity of Mr Pamuk's position".

Now, some might say, even with no small measure of smugness, that this is the act of a coward, that he should have laid his life on the line, daring the assassins' bullet.

But Pamuk never asked to be a martyr to free speech, only to have the right to it. His death would not vindicate any principles, which should, in Thomas Jefferson's words, be self-evident, but only serve to silence others who would claim the right to state their opinion.

Only the Turkish people, through the Turkish government they elect, can make a forceful case for those principles, by repealing the legal statutes used to make Pamuk, Hrant Dink, and others, targets in the first place.