Turkish Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk ties the knot in Istanbul

By Handan Kazanci

ISTANBUL (AA) – Turkish Nobel laureate novelist Orhan Pamuk and his longtime companion tied the knot in Istanbul on Wednesday, his Turkish publisher announced.

“Orhan Pamuk (69) got married to Asli Akyavas (47) in a wedding held by Beyoglu Municipality at noon today,” said Yapi Kredi Culture and Arts Publishing in a statement.

Due to coronavirus, the ceremony was a small family gathering, the statement added.

Pamuk and Akyavas have reportedly been together for a decade.

A graduate of Istanbul’s prestigious Bogazici University, Akyavas is known for spearheading Turkiye’s health tourism sector, the statement said.

Istanbul native Pamuk’s books have been translated into dozens of languages worldwide and sold millions of copies.

His novels My Name Is Red and Snow became the most translated and read Turkish works in history.

In 2012, Pamuk opened the Museum of Innocence in a nineteenth-century house in Istanbul, as a companion to his novel of the same name. In 2014, it won the European Museum of the Year Award.

When Pamuk won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2006, the Swedish Academy said: “In the quest for the melancholic soul of his native city, he has discovered new symbols for the clash and interlacing of cultures.”