Writer gets French order at ceremony

ISTANBUL - Anatolia News Agency

Yaşar Kemal poses at the ceremony that was held at the French Palace. AA photo

Internationally acclaimed Turkish novelist Yasar Kemal received France’s highest order of merit on Dec. 17.
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 the 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.

The Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu issued a written statement yesterday to celebrate Kemal. He said that France’s highest order of merit was a source of proud not only for Kemal but for our country, and it is a very important source of morale.