After opening an investigation with Turkish Nobel Prize-winning writer Orhan Pamuk in 2006, the Swedish Academy that selects the Nobel Prize Winners in Literature confirmed that it was pursuing the lawsuit against the famous novelist.
He also pointed out in a brief statement on Monday evening, according to the Associated Press, that it expects Ankara to abide by its international obligations, while stressing that it is monitoring the “treatment” that Pamuk receives.
The Turkish authorities had opened an investigation with the writer at the beginning of questyear, after a lawyer based in Izmir, in the west of the country, claimed that the author had insulted the founder of the Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, in his latest novel, “Plague Nights”.
He also claimed that the novel contains passages that violate the laws that protect the memory of the “founder”.
But the investigation initially ended with a decision not to prosecute, but the lawyer himself returned and appealed the decision. The investigation was reopened.
Pamuk denies
Pamuk and his publishing house, Yapı Kredi Yancılık, on the other hand, denied the allegations and said, according to the news site Bianet, “In the novel The nights of the plague, which I worked on for five years, there is no contempt for the founders of the state ».
“On the contrary, the novel was written with respect and admiration for these heroic liberating leaders,” he added.
Interestingly, the Turks still attach great importance to Ataturk, who created modern Turkey from the ashes of the Ottoman Empire in the aftermath of World War I.
It is noteworthy that, before winning the Nobel Prize, Pamuk was tried in Turkey for “insulting Turkish identity”, after claiming in statements to a Swiss newspaper that one million Armenians have been killed in Turkish land in the early 20th century.
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