Orhan Pamuk, the Turkish author who won the Nobel prize, hears about the attack on his friend Salman Rushdie in the middle of the night. As he was not used to sleeping for more than four hours continuously, he woke up during his sleep and heard the shocking news. They became friends while in America. Like Rushdie, Pamuk lives under the shadow of threats. For talking about Turkey’s genocide against the Kurds. Most recently, in the novel Nights of Plague, the founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, was insulted. At one point Pamuk’s travels were surrounded by three security guards. Not having the freedom to walk freely through the streets of my beloved Istanbul or even to enter a coffee shop and get a coffee. But Pamuk seriously says that now only one person guards his life instead of three people. Half joking. Yes, he said, Turkey is also ‘changing’. That is ongoing. Knowing that it would invite criticism.
Pamuk had to appear before the investigators twice because of the new novel. She asked him to indicate in which page of the novel he insulted Turkey. But the public prosecutor replied that he could not point to a specific page. The investigation is not over yet. Pamuk was not expelled. It only says that it continues.
Pamuk, now 70, no longer lives in Istanbul. With his wife in a will for rent on an island an hour and a half from the city. He recently got married after years of friendship. He is currently working on his latest novel. Hours of research and writing every day.
Plague Knights is a theme that Pamuk has been with for 40 years. There are references to the plague in early novels such as Y Castell Gwyn. Finally, in 2016, it was decided to make the novel a reality. He also knew that a regime led by Erdoğan in Turkey would remember the days of the plague. After three years of research, by the time I started writing in 2020, Covid had gripped the world. Pamuk looked at the manuscript and was disturbed. The fear and anxiety of the days of the plague have returned throughout the world. People are confined to their homes in reeds for fear of infection. Countries are closing their doors. When an aunt who lived just two blocks away from Pamuk’s residence died of Covid-19, he asked his wife Ash Akyavas:
I write novels about people dying in droves like flies. Do you think I’m a cruel person?
Seeing the words come true with a prophetic nature, he stopped writing, but after the world was free of covid, Pamuk completed and published the novel. The novel came out in 2021 when Turkey was in total lockdown. Pamuk’s novels were readily available in bookstores. But all the shops were closed. There was not a single person to be seen on the street.
The attack on a trade center in the United States came when the novel Snow, which discussed the threat of religious fundamentalists, was released. In one chapter of the novel, Osama bin Laden appeared as a character. But he dropped the role before it was announced. Since then, politics has been the main theme of his novels. He also says that he cannot live as a famous novelist in Turkey without politics.
Pamuk says that he is also a person who worships the Ottoman Empire, but I do not agree with the unjust conquest of other countries. Violence and injustice cannot be tolerated.
He does not bow his head even when faced with an investigation. Say what needs to be said, no matter how strong the opposition and persecution.
In modern times, Pamuk writes with fountain pen ink. He starts writing every day after filling four pens. He only uses the computer to catch up on news and read mail.
Pamuk says that attacks like those against Rushdie come from the neglected. From those who ignore, oppress and ignore. It is the writer’s job to make such people visible through writing. Writers should raise their voices for democracy. And for freedom of expression. Pamuk says that although he is disappointed with the way the world is going, he has hope for the future.
Why shouldn’t I be optimistic? Oppressors will be oppressed once – says Pamuk confidently.
