Nobel Laureate Orhan Pamuk: Bulgaria, Turkey Very Much Alike

Orhan Pamuk (R) and Ivan Ilchev, rector of the Sofia University (L) during Thursday's ceremony. Photo by BGNES

Bulgaria and Turkey have much in common according to Turkish Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk, who is on a visit to Sofia.

"For a long time, Bulgaria and Turkey had a common history, though unhappy and very bloody," Pamuk stated. "For 400 years, we led similar lives, we had the same feelings. If we leave out the atrocities, Bulgarians and Turks have had the same everyday lives, similar music and architecture," the writer pointed out.

He spoke upon receiving a doctor honoris causa title by Sofia University, Bulgaria's oldest and biggest higher education institution.

"As a writer, I do not consider history to be about what the king or the sultan did, it is the people's everyday lives. Those are the heroes of my books. And I am truly happy that the Bulgarians understand my books," he said.

Starting 7 PM Thursday, Pamuk will hold a discussion in the Red House in downtown Sofia about his new book "Other Colors", which hit the Bulgarian market two weeks ago.

In "Other Colors" the Nobel laureate confronts openly the readers by presenting in a series of essays and reflections his views on literature, the world around us, the political realities and the state of mind. In a world of crumbling value systems and the lack of new ones Orhan Pamuk seeks the truth in the works of the biggest names in world literature. Thursday is the second and last day of Pamuk's Bulgarian visit.

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