President Erdoğan calls Nobel academy a 'vampire community'

Duvar English

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has called the Nobel academy a "vampire community," as he slammed the decision to award Peter Handke due to him being a backer of late Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic.

"The fact that the Nobel gave the award to this representative of the vampire intelligentsia group shows that a vampire community was formed," Erdoğan said in the sixth International Forum of Women in Local Governments in the capital Ankara on Dec. 11.

Austrian author Peter Handke received his Nobel prize for Literature at a ceremony in Sweden late on Dec. 10, prompting Bosnia, Albania, Kosovo and Turkey to boycott the ceremony.

During his speech, Erdoğan thanked the countries that didn't attend the ceremony in protest.

The Turkish President on Dec. 10 also criticized the decision in three separate occasions, accusing the academy of rewarding human rights violations.

Erdoğan praises Orhan Pamuk

He then went on to slam the academy for awarding a "terrorist" from Turkey in the past, in an apparent reference to Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk due to the novelist being the sole Nobel winner from Turkey.

"There’s nothing disputed about the award given to Aziz Sancar. We applaud and appreciate him. However, if you see those who include terrorists in their novels as worthy of Nobel, it’s impossible for us to recognize you," Erdoğan said on Dec. 10, which was followed by Presidential Communications Director Fahrettin Altun denying that he meant Pamuk.

On Dec. 11, Erdoğan once again praised Sancar, but this time adding Pamuk's name to next to him.

"The award you gave [to Handke] is not the same with the one you gave to Aziz Sancar and Orhan Pamuk. You can't and won't deceive anyone," he said.