Renowned Turkish writer and recipient of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature, Orhan Pamuk, was officially decorated, in France on Monday evening, with the National Order of the Legion of Honour of France.

Pamuk, whose books have sold over 11-million copies all through the world, left Turkey in 2007 and settled in the US, Lenta.ru reports.

He was forced to emigrate because of his persecution by Turkish nationalists, which had started after his interview with a Swiss newspaper. In an interview with a Swiss newspaper in 2005, Orhan Pamuk had stated that the Turks had killed a million Armenians and 30 thousand Kurds in 1915. “And almost nobody dares to mention that. So I do,” Pamuk said. Subsequently, the Turkish authorities opened criminal proceedings against him under the Turkish Criminal Code’s infamous Article 301, that is, for explicitly insulting the Turkish identity.

As Armenian News-NEWS.am informed earlier, Orhan Pamuk recently received Denmark’s most prestigious prize in literature. The Sonning Prize, which is worth one-million Danish kroner, was awarded to Pamuk in Copenhagen. Representatives from Denmark’s Armenian community likewise were on hand at the ceremony, but Turkey’s Ambassador to Denmark was not in attendance.