Orhan Pamuk

According to NRC Handelsblad the Netherlands are faced with a real diplomatic headache: Turkish military personnel that serve in various positions in Europe, mostly at NATO, seek asylum on a massive scale, with the Netherlands being among the countries of choice. The Turkish personnel are afraid that their government will arrest them as “Gulenists” as soon as they land on Turkish soil.

Ali Fuat Yılmazer, the former head of Turkey's police intelligence branch, has given his testimony in the 31st hearing into the 2007 killing of Armenian-origin Turkish journalist Hrant Dink, saying the killing was "deliberately not prevented" and security authorities in Istanbul and Trabzon were responsible. 

Since the failed coup in Turkey on July 15, I have been rather surprised by the silence of the country's intellectuals, who up until recently had been very talkative. Whether they kept silent out of fear or discomfort, we should respect it. Nevertheless, Orhan Pamuk's silence, for instance, cannot go unnoticed.

BELGRADE - Serbian Minister of Culture and Information Vladan Vukosavljevic and Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk met at the Serbian Academy of Science and Arts on Monday to discuss an initiative for Belgrade to next year host an international conference of eminent writers from around the world.

Five Nobel prize winners, including Turkey's laureate Orhan Pamuk, called on Dec. 1 for urgent international action to protect world heritage sites from the destruction wrought by extremist groups and conflicts.

Popular conspiracy theories in Turkey alleging U.S. involvement in the July 15 military coup attempt are deeply disturbing and frustrating, according to Jennifer Davis, the new U.S. Consul-General to Istanbul. 

"If we had known about the coup, I can say with absolute certainty we would have informed the Turkish government," Davis told daily Hürriyet in an exclusive interview.   

On July 14, a night before the failed coup attempt in Turkey, there was a political discussion show on Can Erzincan TV, a small TV channel unofficially operated by the Gülen cult. Ahmet Altan and Mehmet Altan, two brothers who are iconic names in Turkey's liberal-left tradition, were on the show.

About 40 prominent academics and authors from around the world are urging Turkey's government to end what they say is the persecution of the country's own writers and professors voicing a differing point of view.

Turkey is using the charge of insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an to intimidate his opponents and silence dissent and European leaders must take a tougher line with Ankara on free speech, Nobel prize-winning author Orhan Pamuk said on May 3. 

"A Strangeness in My Mind" by Turkey's Nobel laureate writer Orhan Pamuk is among the six books shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize for literature announced on April 14. The longlist for the prize included books from 155 writers from 12 countries in nine different languages.