Orhan Pamuk, the famed Turkish author and Nobel Prize winner in literature, spoke for N1 during his visit to the Bosnian capital, where his 'Snow' novel was performed on the stage of Sarajevo National Theatre this Wednesday.

In an exclusive interview for N1, Pamuk elaborated among other topics on the issue of identity, saying that Turks are very occupied with their own.

“Take a look at the map, you will see half of Turkey or more is in Asia and another half in Europe. There is a Turkish past in Europe. Some things in Turkey come from Europe, some from Asia, Islam… Of course, there is a clash or harmony of civilisations in Turkey. And all my life I've been seeing people discussing from the shape of gas lights, or electricity or light posts, whether they should be oriental or imitating Paris, or of some Arabic design. Everything is reduced to identity politics in Turkey. But I don't find this as a sickness. If everything was harmonious then you'd go to totalitarianism. I find that having a culture made of different sources is a wonderful thing but these sources should speak with each other in a harmonious way, their talk should not be ‘machine-gunning’ but it should be a democratic conversation. This is what I am for and I am struggling for in Turkey. We are under a lot of repressions over the past five years. But looking through this prism, I understand Bosnia so well. It is very good to have different sources, different civilisations, it's very good to have Muslims, Catholics, Orthodox together but they should not shoot, they should talk in an open free speech area where they believe in free speech and not in force or guns,” he said.

Full interview available in the video below: