Pressure from Turkey blamed as Sarajevo reverses decision to honour Orhan Pamuk

The Nobel laureate, who is a vocal critic of Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, was nominated for the honour while writing screenplay about Bosnian war

The city of Sarajevo has abandoned plans to make Orhan Pamuk an “honorary citizen” of the Bosnia-Herzegovina capital, with critics blaming the move on fears of offending Turkey.

Pamuk had been nominated for the honour by local publisher and bookshop Buybook, which suggested the Nobel laureate be made an “honorary citizen of Sarajevo” as he was planning to visit the city this spring while working on a screenplay about Bosnia during the war. According to Buybook director Damir Uzunović, while the council commission initially voted seven to zero to make the Turkish author an honorary citizen, a second vote saw Pamuk’s candidacy rejected by four votes to three.

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