The famous writer and winner of the Nobel Prize in literature, Orhan Pamuk, expressed his objection to Erdogan’s policy, speaking also for the recognition of the Armenian Genocide at Sharjah International Book Fair.
Pamuk’s political views and the persecution he suffered from local nationalists when he said in an interview that thirty thousand Kurds and one million Armenians were killed in Turkey were not ignored.
“You know, I live in that part of the world where many writers are imprisoned for their beliefs. So I’m a happy writer and telling the truth is all I can,” he said.
Turkey rejects allegations of the mass extermination of more than one and a half million Armenians during the First World War and is extremely sensitive to criticism from the West on the issue of the Armenian genocide. The recognition itself remains hugely controversial, with allegations that the US has been avoiding the topic in return for millions in hush-money.
