Orhan Pamuk named Doctor Honoris Causa of Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań

The ceremony of awarding Orhan Pamuk with the title of doctor honoris causa of Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań was held on Thursday morning (June 29) at the Lubrański Hall in Collegium Minus at Wieniawskiego Street.

"This is a great honour and distinction for me," Pamuk said accepting the title.

The university Senate unanimously approved the decision to award the title of Doctor Honoris Causa to Orhan Pamuk in February

"We are honouring one of the greatest living writers of our time, a man who is not only the author of excellent and moving novels for all of us, but also an individual with an impeccable moral stance," the Dean of the Faculty of Polish and Classical Philology, Prof. Tomasz Mizerkiewicz said at the time.

"Someone who recalls the noblest attitudes of writers who fought against totalitarianism and different regimes. Orhan Pamuk is an author everyone should read at some point," the dean added.

Furthermore, it was stressed Pamuk has been involved in international affairs, and that he was one of the first writers to speak out against the fatwa issued on Salman Rushdie by Ayatollah Khomeini in 1989. In 2005, Orhan Pamuk was also accused of "insulting Turkishness" in his comments regarding the Armenian genocide in 1915 and the victims of the Kurdish uprising in the 1990s.

Orhan Pamuk was born on June 7, 1952, in Istanbul. Having started writing during studies, he graduated from the Institute of Journalism at the University of Istanbul in 1976. His first novel, Karanlık ve Işık (Darkness and Light), was published in 1974. His other works include: Beyaz Kale (The White Castle, 1985), Kara Kitap (The Black Book, 1990), Yeni Hayat (The New Life, 1994), Benim Adim Kirmizi (My Name is Red, 1998) and Kar (Snow, 2002).

In 2006, the Turkish writer won the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Pamuk wasthe main guest of the 33rd edition of Malta Festival Poznań which began on Wednesday (June 28).