Internationally acclaimed Turkish novelist Yaşar Kemal’s “Bir Ada Hikayesi” (A Story of an Island) tetralogy has been completed with the release of the fourth novel, “Çıplak Deniz, Çıplak Ada” (Naked Sea, Naked Island).
In 2011, Kemal received France’s highest order of merit as the great chancellor of the French National Order of the Legion of Honor, Gen. Jean-Louis Georgelin, decorated the Turkish writer with “l’ordre national de la légion d’honneur” (Legion of Honor) at a ceremony held at the French palace in Istanbul’s Beyoğlu district.
“I have always believed that hope is one the biggest values of human kind. And I have always tried to sing the song of hope,” Kemal said at the ceremony.
Other holders of the French merit from Turkey include Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of modern Turkey, former Foreign Minister Murat Karayalçın, late Professor İhsan Doğramacı and businesswoman Güler Sabancı.
(Hürriyet Daily News)
