Pamuk On Neighbours

"Let's love our neighbour, let's love Greece, Iran, Syria. Let's enter the EU and live in peace. But let's not abandon our own thoughts, our own identity, our own personality just because we're worried about 'what the neighbours would say', just because we should be getting along well with our neighbours....Each one of us should be thinking a little differently; we shouldn't resemble one another; we should take pride in our neighbourly difference, not in our resemblance. Our neighbour shouldn't question our difference. That's the kind of world we yearn for."

- From Orhan Pamuk's opening address at the 18th European Meeting of Cultural Journals.