The book details Türkiye's central, multifaceted, and stabilizing role in achieving peace and ending conflicts in the region.

The five-part book, published both in Turkish and Russian, includes Türkiye's initiatives to establish peace and tranquility thanks to its entrepreneurial and humanitarian foreign policy.

In the first part of the book, Türkiye's attempts to end the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war through diplomatic means are explained.

The second part focuses on Ankara's mediation role between the two countries to find a solution to the global food crisis by signing a historic deal in Istanbul on July 22.

In the third part, where Ankara's struggle against terrorist organizations is explained, efforts to ensure peace in Syria and prevent terror groups from posing a threat to the countries in the region are also stressed.

Türkiye's role in reducing bilateral and multilateral tensions in international relations is explained in the fourth part by focusing on the country's success in maintaining an environment of non-conflict with neighboring countries while protecting its rights based on international law and equity in the Eastern Mediterranean.

In the last part of the book, Türkiye's multifaceted contribution to regional cooperation processes and its attempts to normalize relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia are discussed.

"Türkiye, which is an effective power in its region, will continue its efforts to become a global actor on the path of peace and stability under the leadership of our President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and will continue to do its part as a stabilizing power," Communications Director Fahrettin Altun said.

Turkiye as a Stabilizing Power in an Age of Turmoil offers “a concise yet detailed analysis of Turkiye's foreign policy within the context of civil wars, humanitarian tragedies, and the structural changes taking place in Turkiye’s neighborhood.”

The book has been published in English by Academica Press, which is based in London and Washington, DC.

Setting out President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s basic parameters of foreign policy, it analyzes Turkiye’s role in the global system over the past two decades and the challenges it has faced.

Altun emphasizes the need for a new approach as he criticizes the existing global system and institutions for their failure to deal with “pressing problems, emerging challenges, and regional and international conflicts.”

Amid an unraveling global order, deepening humanitarian crises and rising violence, Turkiye, the book explains, has persistently advocated the importance of international cooperation and “adopted a more proactive foreign policy with an eye toward ending long-standing international disputes while avoiding the trap of unilateralism.”

Altun also provides “valuable insights into Turkiye's perspectives on the situation in Cyprus, the Syrian civil war, the future of Iraq, Iran’s nuclear ambitions, the Arab Spring, and the Libyan conflict.”

Turkiye's communications director has concluded his latest offering by laying out the reasons for the country’s push for reforms to international organizations such as the United Nations and NATO.

Altun has also shed light on the ways in which Turkiye has responded to growing new challenges, including the rise of populism, far-right extremism and Islamophobia.

"Wilbur Smith’s novels have gripped readers for over half a century, selling over 140 million copies worldwide in more than thirty languages. His bestselling Courtney Series, the longest-running in publishing history, follows the Courtney family’s adventures across the world, spanning generations and three centuries, through critical periods from the dawn of colonial Africa to the American Civil War and the apartheid era in South Africa," it said.

In the 49 novels, he transported readers to gold mines in South Africa, piracy on the Indian Ocean, buried treasure on tropical islands, conflict in Arabia and Khartoum, ancient Egypt, WWII Germany and Paris, India, the Americas and the Antarctic, encountering ruthless diamond and slave traders and big game hunters in the jungles and the African wilderness.

However, it was with Taita, the hero of his acclaimed Egyptian Series, that Smith most strongly identified, and River God remains one of his best-loved novels.

Smith’s very first novel, When the Lion Feeds, published in 1964, was an instant bestseller and each of his subsequent novels were featured on the bestseller charts, often at number one, earning the author the opportunity to travel far and wide in search of inspiration and adventure.

Named after one of the pioneer brothers of air flight, Wilbur Wright, Smith was born on Jan. 9, 1933, in Northern Rhodesia, now Zambia in Central Africa. His father, Herbert Smith, was a sheet-metal worker and a strict disciplinarian. It was his more artistically-inclined mother, Elfreda, who encouraged the young Wilbur to read the likes of CS Forester, Rider Haggard and John Buchan.

At the age of 18 months, Smith became seriously ill with cerebral malaria and there was a possibility he would have brain damage if he survived.

His father thought his son’s obsession with books was unnatural and unhealthy and Smith became a secret reader, spending hours in the outhouse long-drop latrine where he kept his cache of favorite novels.

Rassam, a renowned Pakistani artist, and his over 200 associates have been working since 2017 to prepare what he says is the world’s largest copy of the Holy Quran, Islam’s holy book.

The rare project is scheduled to be completed in 2026.

The rare artwork, measuring 8.5 feet long and 6.5 feet wide, is poised to break the record currently held by a copy of Quran sized at 6.5 and 4.5 feet which was prepared in Afghanistan in 2017 and is now kept at the Kul Sharif Mosque in the Russian city of Kazan.

According to Rassam, it marks the first time in the over 1,400-year history of Islam that the Quran is being cast in aluminum. Calligraphers have previously produced classic art in creating copies of the holy book using conventional materials like wood, paper, animal skin and cloth.

“This is my lifetime project,“ Rassam told Anadolu Agency as his associates continued concentrating on their work.

Over the past several months, Rassam, 49, who took two years to prepare the first two pages of the Holy Quran, has been spending an average of 10 hours a day on the project.

"It’s more than a challenging task, and equally sensitive [in terms of the sanctity of the Quran]. One minor mistake can ruin the whole effort," he noted.

Inspired by Turkish, Arabic and Iranian art

Rassam will display the first sample of his artwork, Surah Rahman at the ongoing Dubai expo 2020 in November.

The Karachi-based artist said his work is inspired by Turkish, Arabic and Iranian art designs.

“We have created our own design [to cast the Quran] after studying the Turkish, Arabic and Iranian designs. It’s not a mixture of these designs, but it is inspiration,” he said.

In the first step, he said, the letters are cast in clay, which is later plastered and finally converted into fiber before being cast in aluminum.

Over 200 kilograms of gold, 2,000 kg of aluminum and 600 canvas rolls will be used to cast 77,430 words on 550 pages. To illuminate and enrich the design, precious stones like rubies, sapphires and emeralds will also be used, he said.

Italian glazing technique and acrylic colors have been used to develop the design, as it can last for hundreds of years, he maintained.

Not all about religion

Rassam said he had prepared a sample of the artwork at the request of a friend in 2016, which propelled him to make it on a wide scale.

“I kicked off this project solely on my own. I am still disbursing my own resources on it. There has been no [financial] support by the government or any institution,” he said when asked how he would bear such huge expenses.

“Some foreign governments, however, have approached me in this regard,” he said, without mentioning the countries’ names.

These types of rare and huge projects, he observed, always require support from the state.

Rassam said his work is not all about religion but about art and culture as well.

“This [work] is not meant for Muslims only but to attract people from different religions through art. It is aimed at highlighting Islamic art and culture,” he said.

He said a separate museum would be required to display this huge artwork.

Proud to be part of rare artwork

Jawad Ahmad Jan, one of Rassam’s associates, said he is proud of being associated with such rare artwork.

“You get this opportunity once in a lifetime, and I am proud to be part of this project,“ he said.

“Just imagine, at the very outset of your career, you get such a gigantic opportunity.”

Sharing a similar view, Mahnoor Khan, another young assistant, who has been part of this project for the past two years, said: “I feel myself lucky to be part of this history-making project. It’s a lifetime thing for me.”

Titled "Belene Olum Icin Yer Sert Ucmak Icın Gok Uzak" (Belene Ground is Tough to Die Sky is Far to Fly), the book recounts the assimilation, disidentification policies and torture that Turkish people suffered at the hands of the communist regime in Bulgaria between 1984 and 1989, focusing on the Belene Camp.

The YBT said in a statement that the study on the community's oral history was carried out to inform future generations about the Bulgarian Turks and help their legal struggle.

It said the study, edited by historian Tufan Gunduz, mirrored the experiences of actual eyewitnesses and their struggle against ethnic cleansing. It added that the book would also be an important source for academic research.

The book was published on the 30th anniversary of their forced migration from Bulgaria to Turkey, it noted.

* Writing by Dilan Pamuk in Ankara

Reuters: What is happening with gender diversity in 2020?

Johnson: Organizations are bleeding female talent. Millions of women are considering exiting the workforce, or downshifting, because of the demands of the pandemic. All the progress we have been making on gender equity and diversity is being threatened, right now. That's why allyship is more important than ever.

Turkish publishers are “very speedy” at producing translations of foreign works, Aslihan Dinc, an editorial coordinator at Yapi Kredi Publishing, told Anadolu Agency ahead of Sept. 30, International Translation Day.

“After signing a contract with [authors] abroad and getting the text to be translated, the work begins immediately, and with excitement,” she said.

Whenever the book hits the shelf in its original language, the volumes are ready to come out in Turkish, and often simultaneously, she added.

“Sometimes there are times when we get a book ready and [have to] wait for it to be published in its original language first,” she explained.

According to Dinc, while Turkey has a great many translators able to render works from English, French, and German, skilled translators from Russian, Hungarian, Norwegian, Chinese, Danish, Polish, Swedish, and other tongues are harder to find.

But she stressed that translation from the original is the standard, and that only in rare cases does Yapi Kredi translate a work from a second tongue, and only with the author's explicit approval.

“But we don’t prefer that,” she added.

-Translators' devotees

For Dinc, the quality of translations should not be gauged by the translator alone but together with the book’s editors, who collaborate by carefully comparing each sentence in Turkish with the original.

Praising Turkey’s ranks of diligent translators, she said: “We have translators who have devoted years to this profession and have mastered every book they translated.”

“Seeing Roza Hakmen's name on a book is reason enough to snap it up right away,” she added, referring to the translator of French and Spanish classics alike, such as Marcel Proust’s multi-volume In Search of Lost Time and Cervantes’ picaresque Don Quixote.

According to Dinc, proper translation is not just about knowing the language.

“Translating a book requires a tremendous store of knowledge about the subject, the period, terminology, and wordplay. Not everyone who knows a language can be a translator,” she said.

Dinc said she believes that beyond knowing a second language, translators need to have a firm command of their native tongue, Turkish.

In Turkey, in addition to quality publishers and authors, interested readers often know and follow skilled translators.

Freelance editor Setenay Karacay said that while most translations in Turkey are still done from English, contemporary offerings from authors in Japan, Norway, and Poland are also winning admirers.

“The diversity in translations of classical or contemporary classical works, as well as the rapid and beautiful translations of current works, and our ability to follow world literature very closely make me happy as a reader,” she added.

“When we look at the books of the year selected by the votes of readers like Goodreads or the awards given to certain genres such as the Hugo and Nebula [for science fiction/fantasy], we see that most of the winning and nominated books were rendered into Turkish that same year,” she added.

- 'Etgar Keret, best-loved Israeli writer in Turkey'

According to Turkey’s Culture Ministry, the year 2019 saw nearly 9,100 translations, and this year through July alone, over 6,000 books were translated into Turkish from other tongues.

Last month, in an interview with the Los Angeles Review of Books, Mustafa Cevikdogan of Can Publishing highlighted Turkish translations from Israeli authors.

“Eshkol Nevo and Amos Oz are popular, but the most beloved Israeli writer in Turkey is probably Etgar Keret,” he said, referring to a short story scribe and graphic novelist whose book signings in Istanbul have attracted hundreds of readers.

“Perhaps because of the general love for the short story genre in Turkey, his books have enjoyed many reprintings,” he was quoted as saying.

“On the other hand, it’s hard to find literary translators who can translate from Arabic to Turkish, and I think our editing world still keeps its distance from the Middle East,” he added.

“Some Arabic writers get translated from French or English,” he admitted.

According to Cevikdogan, the Turkish literary world is a small one and centers in Istanbul, the commercial capital, akin to the New York-centric American publishing world.

“We have popular writers whose books sell 200,000 copies, but most books sell 2,000 to 3,000 copies,” he said.

“In 2019, about 70,000 new titles were published, and over 400 million copies were printed,” he added.

Karacay praised Turkish readers for paying attention to translations and translators, carefully reading comments about different translations of the same work, and then deciding which one to pick up.

“Especially the old works that are freely translated and published need to be read by a good translator, and it’s a great thing for readers to approach this with care, appreciate translators, and look for the names of translators they love,” she added.

The book, entitled 'Finding Freedom', is due to be published in August and is expected to shed light on the couple's frustrations with the palace and press, local media reported on Saturday.

"The Duke and Duchess of Sussex were not interviewed and did not contribute to 'Finding Freedom'," a spokesperson for the couple said in a statement.

"This book is based on the authors' own experiences as members of the royal press corps and their own independent reporting", the statement added.

The book, authored by royal reporters Carolyn Durand and Omid Scobie, is expected to detail how the couple felt the royal institution had failed to support them, according to The Telegraph newspaper.

The Times newspaper cited extracts from the book suggesting infighting among family members, with Harry believing Meghan was not liked by some of his relatives and others feeling that the popularity of the couple had to be "reined in".

The newspaper said Meghan described tabloid criticism as "death by a thousand cuts".

According to The Telegraph, the book presents Harry and Meghan as disruptive forces with the ability to modernise the monarchy, only for them to be discouraged by the "grey suits" and hostile media coverage of their private life.

The couple and their 14-month-old son, Archie, now live in Los Angeles after they stepped down from their royal roles in March to forge new careers. In January, they announced plans to lead a more independent life and to finance it themselves.

Harry and Meghan, a former actress, married in May 2018 in a wedding which was heralded at the time as infusing a blast of Hollywood glamour and modernity into the monarchy, and made them one of the world's biggest celebrity couples.

Websites The Leaky Cauldron and Mugglenet said they would no longer provide links to the British author's personal website, use photos of her, or write about achievements that do not relate to the Wizarding World she created.

The joint statement by the fan sites said Rowling's views on "marginalized people (are) out of step with the message of acceptance and empowerment we find in her books and celebrated by the Harry Potter community."

It follows a lengthy personal essay by Rowling last month in which she detailed her research and beliefs on transgender issues, including examples of where she thought demands by transgender activists were dangerous to women.

The essay was widely criticized by LGBTQ advocacy groups as divisive and transphobic.

Rowling's seven "Harry Potter" novels about a boy wizard have sold more than 500 million copies worldwide and were turned into eight blockbuster movies. She followed up with a spin-off movie franchise "Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them."

The fan sites, which together have more than one million Facebook followers, said they found it difficult to speak out against Rowling because they had admired her work for so long, but said "it would be wrong not to use our platforms to counteract the harm she has caused."

"While we don’t condone the mistreatment JKR (Rowling) has received for airing her opinions about transgender people, we must reject her beliefs," the statement added.

Rowling's representatives declined to comment on Friday's statement.

Trans writers Fox Fisher and Ugla Stefania Kristjonudottir Jonsdottir, known as Owl, gay novelist Drew Davies and a fourth unnamed author said they were "saddened" to leave The Blair Partnership because of its refusal to speak up for trans rights.

"Harry Potter" author J. K. Rowling sparked controversy with an essay this month linking her experience of sexual assault to her concern over trans women's access to women-only spaces, which she said offered cover to "predators".

"It was never about changing anyone's opinion or censoring anyone," Jonsdottir told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in a joint phone call with partner Fisher.

"But for us it was about having an open and an honest conversation within the agency about trans rights and being trans people within the agency, for us as clients but also potential other clients or even staff."

A spokeswoman for The Blair Partnership, which also represents boxer Tyson Fury and retired Olympic cyclist Chris Hoy, said in an emailed statement that the agency was "disappointed" the four authors had left.

"We believe in freedom of speech for all; these clients have decided to leave because we did not meet their demands to be re-educated to their point of view," she said.

"We value all our authors' voices and, as an agency, champion equality and inclusivity."

J. K. Rowling declined to comment.

In Britain and the United States, there is heated debate over what it means to be a woman, pitting trans activists against some feminists who believe hard-won rights for women should remain ring-fenced for those born into that gender.

Access to single-sex spaces such as domestic violence refuges and bathrooms is a key flashpoint, with opponents of trans rights saying predatory men could pose as trans women to gain access to such places.

U.S. women's rights groups said in 2016 that 200 municipalities that let trans people use their shelters and services saw no rise in sexual violence or public safety issues as a result.

"Agencies bring authors like me into their agency to be part of that diverse voice," said Davies. "But when it comes down to having meaningful conversations in terms of diversity that becomes much more challenging."

The Blair Partnership declined to comment further.

The number of e-books increased by 6.8% in 2019, reaching 98.3 million, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) said in a report.

The country had over 32,411 libraries -- national, public, university and formal and non-formal education libraries -- as of the end of 2019..

The number of public libraries increased by 1.7% in 2019 compared to the previous year and reached 1,182 in 2019.

Meanwhile, the number of registered members of public libraries increased by 39.3% in 2019 compared to 2018, totaling 3.9 million.

"The number of beneficiaries of public libraries increased by 11.4%, reaching 31.4 million," the report said, adding materials in public libraries also increased by 1.4% in 2019 compared to the previous year.

In Turkey, a total of 198 universities have a library, 126 of which are state universities and 72 are foundation universities.

The letter was bought in Paris on Tuesday by the Vincent van Gogh Foundation which will display it in its museum in Amsterdam. The artists wrote the letter to French painter Emile Bernard in late 1888 during their stay in the French city of Arles, where the foundation also has a museum.

The letter, written a week after Frenchman Gauguin joined Van Gogh at the Dutchman's house in Arles, tells Bernard of their discussions on art and their work.

"Now something that will interest you — we’ve made some excursions in the brothels, and it’s likely that we’ll eventually go there often to work," the letter says.

"At the moment Gauguin has a canvas in progress of the same night café that I also painted, but with figures seen in the brothels. It promises to become a beautiful thing."

The Vincent van Gogh Foundation said the letter was the most important document by van Gogh not held by any museum, as it was the only letter he wrote with Gauguin.

"Their artistic dialogue was unstoppable in those days and was even continued in brothels and in this letter," it said, adding that it "gives a visionary picture of their artistic cooperation and the future of modern art."

In the letter, Van Gogh refers to Gauguin as "an unspoiled creature with the instincts of a wild beast. With Gauguin, blood and sex have the edge over ambition."

Gauguin spent about two months with Van Gogh in Arles but their relationship soured. He left after Van Gogh suffered a breakdown and cut off part of his ear.

($1 = 0.8860 euros)

"I REFUSE TO BOW DOWN"

Rowling said that she believed most trans people not only posed zero threat to others but were vulnerable, and that they deserved protection.

At the same time, she said, she did not want girls and women to be less safe, and she gave some examples of where she thought demands by trans people were dangerous to women.

"When you throw open the doors of bathrooms and changing rooms to any man who believes or feels he's a woman ... then you open the door to any and all men who wish to come inside."

Describing some of the abuse she had received -- including being told she was "literally killing people with your hate" and being compared with Voldemort, the villain of the Potter series, Rowling said many women were terrified by trans activists.

"I refuse to bow down to a movement that I believe is doing demonstrable harm in seeking to erode 'woman' as a political and biological class and offering cover to predators like few before it," she said.

Addressing the specific issue of the use of phrases like "people who menstruate" as a way of including trans women, Rowling said such language was demeaning to many women.

"I understand why trans activists consider this language to be appropriate and kind, but for those of us who’ve had degrading slurs spat at us by violent men, it’s not neutral, it’s hostile and alienating."

Rowling said she had not written the essay in the hope that anyone would get out a violin for her, and that she considered herself extraordinarily fortunate.

"I’ve only mentioned my past because, like every other human being on this planet, I have a complex back-story, which shapes my fears, my interests and my opinions. I never forget that inner complexity when I’m creating a fictional character and I certainly never forget it when it comes to trans people.

"All I’m asking – all I want – is for similar empathy, similar understanding, to be extended to the many millions of women whose sole crime is wanting their concerns to be heard without receiving threats and abuse."

The tweets came in response to an opinion piece on global development site Devex where Rowling took umbrage with the headline "creating a more equal post-COVID-19 world for people who menstruate".

"'People who menstruate'. I'm sure there used to be a word for those people. Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?" Rowling said late Saturday.

Critics pointed out Rowling's views equated womanhood with menstruation while many trans men menstruate and many other women do not.

"You can write a whole magical world but can't fathom that trans men exist? I haven't had a period since 2017 - has my womanhood been paused until I can summon one?" said British author and relationship advice columnist Beth McColl.

Rowling, 54, said her comments were not intended to offend the trans community and only meant to highlight that "sex is real and has lived consequences".

"I respect every trans person's right to live any way that feels authentic and comfortable to them. I'd march with you if you were discriminated against on the basis of being trans, Rowling wrote on Twitter.

"At the same time, my life has been shaped by being female. I do not believe it's hateful to say so."

A spokesman for Rowling declined to add further comment.

The British author has come under fire for her views about the LGBT+ community in the past.

Last December she supported a woman who was fired for tweeting that people cannot alter their biological sex. She has also been criticised for adding a gay relationship to her "Harry Potter" series after the book was published.

In recent years debates between trans activists and feminists have raged over what it is to be a woman.

At the heart of the debate is whether the rights of trans women are compatible with those of other women, particularly in terms of access to single-sex spaces, including women's refuges.

Cara English of Gendered Intelligence, a UK-based trans rights organisation, said Rowling's timing in rekindling this debate at such a turbulent time in the fight for equality was "remarkable".

"As white supremacy and its bedfellows sexism, classism and fascism are being loudly challenged on the streets, it seems remarkable to be reheating tepid, essentialist arguments against trans people," English told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

"Let's focus our energies not on chastising or even really caring what negativity comes our way as a community, but on making the world a better place for all of our trans siblings, especially our black trans siblings."

In the wake of the new criticism, some Harry Potter fans also revisited a long-running debate about Rowling's representation of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) people in her books with the character name "Cho Chang" trending.

Cho Chang was the only Chinese character in the book series.

Known for her prolific output, the 81-year-old writer has written 60 novels as well as multiple short story collections, plays, and a memoir, but has yet to win a Nobel Prize for Literature.

The Cino del Duca is often seen as a forerunner to the Nobel.

The ceremony to hand out the prize was to take place in France in June but has been cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Oates’ other literary honors include the US’ National Book Award.

The Cino del Duca is also France's richest prize, with a purse of €200,000 (some $220,000), second in the world only to the Nobel Prize. It is run by the Institut de France along with the Academie Francais, the official arbiter for the French language.

The prize is named for an Italian-born businessman, film producer, and philanthropist who made his fortune starting in the 1920s in France's publishing business.

Del Duca's prominent role in the French resistance during World War II earned him the prestigious Croix de Guerre from the French government.

The story concerns rumours of a fierce child-eating monster with extraordinary powers which lives in the northern tip of an imaginary land known as Cornucopia.

Further chapters will be published every weekday until July 10, Rowling said on Twitter, adding in capitals: "THIS IS NOT A HARRY POTTER SPIN-OFF".

Rowling got the idea for The Ickabog when she was writing Harry Potter and she intended it to be published after "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows", the last of her seven-book Potter series.

But the mostly handwritten manuscript ended up in her attic and stayed there for a decade until a few weeks ago. She has rewritten parts of it in recent weeks.

"The Ickabog is a story about truth and the abuse of power," said Rowling, 54. "The themes are timeless and could apply to any era or any country."

"To forestall one obvious question: the idea came to me well over a decade ago, so it isn’t intended to be read as a response to anything that’s happening in the world right now," she said.

The first chapters of the fairy tale were published on The Ickabog website on Tuesday.

"I’ve decided to publish The Ickabog for free online, so children on lockdown, or even those back at school during these strange, unsettling times, can read it or have it read to them," Rowling said.

She will donate her royalties to projects and organisations helping the groups most impacted by COVID-19.

The Harry Potter books tell the saga of a young wizard's battle with evil in the form of Lord Voldemort. The series has been translated into over 80 languages and sold more than 500 million copies worldwide.

Murakami, whose breakout novel "Norwegian Wood" debuted in 1987, will play favourite songs and welcome listener comments during a "Stay Home Special," the name evoking a plea from Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike for residents to avoid going out.

"I'm hoping that the power of music can do a little to blow away some of the corona-related blues that have been piling up," Murakami wrote on a web page promoting the special.

While a nationwide state of emergency is due to last until May 31, officials said some regions may be able to lift restrictions as early as this week if infections are under control. Tokyo, the epicentre of Japan's outbreak, confirmed 15 new cases on Monday, the first time in 42 days that the daily number has fallen below 20.

Murakami, a perennial favourite for the Nobel Prize in Literature, is a notorious recluse but has hosted his Murakami Radio show every couple months. As a teenager he developed a passion for jazz and spoke of writing to its beat. He and his wife, Yoko, opened a jazz club while still university students and ran it for seven years.

The Murakami Radio Stay Home Special will play on Tokyo FM 80.0 and 38 stations nationwide on May 22 from 10 p.m. to 11:55 p.m. (1300-1455 GMT).

Four students across different disciplines started the initiative and shared the idea. Soon, the library had begun to attract visitors from Turkey, the UK, Germany and others.

One of the masterminds behind the project, Ahmet Bahaddin Ersoz, is a PhD student at Middle East Technical University in the Turkish capital Ankara and was struck by the news that Turkey would be completely shutting down universities as part of its measures against the virus.

"As graduate students, we are so used to working at libraries, study rooms and offices. Most of us don't have experience of working at home for such a long time. Since we can't meet our friends to study together, we were feeling quite lonely. Most importantly, we needed to feel like we weren't alone in having difficulty in concentrating," he said.

Upon learning that universities would remain closed until the end of the semester, the group together came up with the idea of setting up the virtual library.

- Video-conferencing

Coming across study videos on Youtube, the group decided to carry this to their virtual platform, inviting their colleagues and friends and create a study-friendly atmosphere.

"We tested the current video-conference software and prepared a live broadcast platform. We wanted participants to join, open their cameras, see 20-25 people working at the same time and feel motivated by this. We shared the idea with our friends first, then it spread through a larger group," said Yasin Goktas, another organizer and master's student at Swansea University in the UK.

The library link and password are open for 24 hours and anyone can log in at any time.

Each study session is managed by an administrator, who also helps keep motivation and productivity up via a method known as Pomodoro, in which work is separated customarily into 25-minute intervals set by a timer on the screen with short breaks in between.

The administrator also shares motivational instrumental music on-screen for those who would want to listen without having to spend time to find the individual tracks.

- Library open to all

Egesel Bozgeyik, another member of the group, said: "We didn't only invite academics to our library. It's open to all students who are studying for their exams or simply people who have lost motivation to even read at home,

"Most of the participants are academics, so we also started some activities aimed at them. Every Tuesday and Thursday, we invite one academic or graduate student to speak about their experiences and work."

The fourth member, Ayse Guzel from Ankara University, said: "Along with these creative leisure activities, participants even get together to play games online in their free time. We started this and it turned out to be a great platform. Any group of students or close friends can do the same. We know how vital it is, especially for postgraduate students, to get together and be motivated by one another's pace of work."

- Motivation, friends, focus

Aysel Akbulut, a teacher and master's student, heard about the virtual library on Instagram.

"I'm trying to decide on the subject for my thesis and I think I'll do research on enhancing teachers' abilities and capacities. The virtual library motivated me very much, just like in a normal day, I wake up, sort out my daily chores and log into the library. Even being able to wave at my friends while studying keeps me going under quarantine," she said.

Akbulut said she was very happy with the atmosphere and friendship in the library.

Another user, a Turkish PhD student in the UK said: "We were in search [for something like this] in the first weeks of quarantine -- both anxious and trying to keep on with our work. Usually, a PhD student can enter any university building in the UK 24/7, so we were kind of in shock,

"The virtual library brought this to our homes. Being in front of a camera forced us to wear decent clothes and 'get us out of the house' in a way. Personally, I got used to using Pomodoro technique with virtual library, which I found very effective."

Mehmet Ali Yavuz, a master's student in Germany, said the virtual library had become a great source of motivation under quarantine, while being subject to so much bad news from all over the world, especially Europe.

Another participant, who just finished their master's degree in marine trade, said: "I always loved going to libraries to work. I had lost motivation to prepare for my PhD, but now, when I see others working with me, I can work two or three hours a day."

"In quarantine, every day started feeling like exactly the same, which got very depressing. In a postgraduate student's life, every day is already more or less similar, so we definitely needed a motivational push. I can work longer now when I log in to the library and I can work at nights as well, without feeling alone," said a second-year PhD student in the UK.

Lastly, another postgraduate student with ADHD and another participant in the library said: "I've always found it very hard to concentrate on work even in normal times. I always wanted to start a similar virtual platform even in 'normal' times, then I came across this initiative. It was such a good coincidence."

Many virtual library-goers say they will continue using it for reading, studying on weekends or in the middle of the night and simply socializing even after lockdown measures come to an end.

Bringing together a very diverse group of academics, students and professionals, the library's virtual doors are open to all who are in search of a study platform they can access online from homes.

It seems that Grint has come a long way since then, as the ginger-haired heartthrob became a father to a baby girl with girlfriend Georgia Groome, who is best known for her role in Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging.

A representative told the U.K. publication The Mirror that that the couple would like the press to respect their privacy: “Rupert Grint and Georgia Groome are delighted to confirm the birth of their baby girl.

“We would please ask that you respect their privacy at this very special time.”

Grint, 31, and Groome, 28, who have been together since 2011, had announced last month that they were expecting after the mother-to-be was spotted with a baby bump.

Harry Pottering around at home? Rowling to rescue bored kids in lockdown

Grint had previously expressed his desire to settle down and start a family shortly after his 30th birthday.

“Turning 30 felt strange. It just doesn't feel like I'm there yet and I don't know what the future holds. I'm just going to go with the flow, keep playing interesting characters and see what happens.

“I'd like to settle down and have kids soon. If I had a son, would I call him Ron? It's quite a good name, but probably not. And Grint's a tough name to pair a one-syllable first name with,” he told The Guardian.

Raif Ipek, an executive board member of the kidega.com, an online bookstore, said statistics show that during the start of the self-isolation in Turkey, the book sales rose by 32% compared to the previous week.

He noted that during the current quarantine process in the country, book stocks were renewed and book sales increased by 30%.

Marking World Book Day, children who study and read at home become more likely to continue their habits ever before, Ipek said.

In an interview with Anadolu Agency, Ipek said that people have mostly been buying Mandala adult coloring books, book sets, and psychology and philosophy books from the online bookstore.

He also recommended works of Sigmund Freud, Jack London, Trevanian, Herman Melville, and Jose Saramago to readers who are in self-isolation.

Ipek said children should also take a shot at reading Momo, Forrest Carter, and My Sweet Orange Tree.

"Unfortunately, when we compare Turkey with developed countries, our reading habits are low. However, we encounter an increasing reading rate every year.

"Especially the millennials and their teachers have been putting up a great effort on practicing reading habits," he said.

Ipek said 57% of their mass customers are women, 23% of the readers are aged between 18-24, 35% are aged between 25-34 and 21% are between 35-44 years old.

- Healthy diet books among top sold

Recipe books are among those which are expected to be sold out in a period where people started to bake their bread at home, however this is a false assumption, Ipek said.

Cooks at home prefer online sources like Youtube to find and serve their favorite dishes, he added.

He said people have been focusing on healthy diet books specifically on strengthening immunity, allergy-friendly recipes, and grain brain books.

- Are e-books taking over competition?

Ipek says these are two different topics that should be evaluated separately.

"The reason why the expected level in the e-book has not been met so far is that the publishers' expectations have not been met sufficiently.

"The publisher should be sure about the copy of the books and the accuracy of the sales figures and e-books make it hard to follow up," he said.

Ipek said a software called digital right management is being offered to publishers so that they do not fear the books being copied and follow sales instantly.

He emphasized that e-books bring equal opportunities to everyone, noting that someone living in a rural area can easily find academic publishing like anyone living in a metropolis.

E-books are preferred for being cheaper than the printed book in terms of cost, therefore is an opportunity for many authors who cannot print their books.

- Book shipments during COVID-19

Except for the logistics department of Kidega, the staff has been working from home.

The bookstore has rent private cars for the transportations of the workers, the storehouse is being disinfected every 20 days and the fever of the staff is being checked three times a day.

The store has decreased the number of staff working at the same time trying to preserve social distancing and have been supplying masks and gloves.

Ipek said in this process, publishers and cargo companies faced several problems such as delays however Kidega customer services are always on service for recovery.

"Because we know how upset people can get when they do not receive their books on time," he noted.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, the first book in the series about the boy wizard, will be available for free worldwide as an ebook and audiobook throughout April, as part of an initiative to help parents, carers and teachers entertain housebound children, Rowling announced on Wednesday.

The audiobook will be available in English, Spanish, French, Italian, German and Japanese, with the version performed by British actor Stephen Fry accessible in North America for the first time.

A new online hub, Harry Potter At Home, will be aimed at younger children and launched on WizardingWorld.com, the official website for fans of Harry Potter and the spin-off film series Fantastic Beasts.

Each week "Wizarding Wednesdays" and an email newsletter will provide creative activities, quizzes and ideas.

The coronavirus pandemic has seen more and more countries limiting citizens' movements, closing schools and leaving many parents simultaneously working from home and looking after their children.

Britain is in its second week of lockdown, after Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced on March 23 that people would only be allowed to leave the house when absolutely necessary, such as to buy food.

"The teachers, parents and carers working to keep children's lives as normal and happy as possible while we're all on lockdown deserve a bit of magic," Rowling said.

"I hope these initiatives will give children and even adults a happy distraction during their enforced stay-at-home time."

The Harry Potter series was an unprecedented worldwide phenomenon in children's literature, enthralling a generation of readers around the world. It sold more than 500 million copies in 80 languages and sparked a $7 billion movie franchise.

Born in Ankara, the Turkish capital, on June 11, 1923, Asaf was known to be a man with gentle characteristics and love for life.

After completing his primary education in Ankara, Asaf had moved to Istanbul with his family. He graduated from Kabatas High School in 1942.

Asaf met his first wife Selma Tezakin when he was a law student at Istanbul University in the 1940s.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency about his father, Seda Arun said she first discovered that his father was writing poems during the frequents visits of renowned poets of the era, including Fazil Husnu Daglarca, Sait Faik Abasiyanik, Peyami Safa and Bedri Rahmi Eyuboglu back in 1954.

“During these conversations at home, I learned that my father also wrote something,” Arun said.

“I didn't know if he was writing proses or poetry. He was reading a poem. Moreover, he insistently read the same poem. I asked my dad who wrote it, and he said that it was him.”

In 1951, Asaf established the Art Printing House and started to work as a printer. In 1955, he founded a new publishing company, Round Table Press, and started to publish his poetry books.

“In 1955, he published his first poetry book called Dunya Kacti Gozume (The World Caught My Eye), and he prepared the cover of the book himself with his manual cutting machine,” Arun said.

“There was no crew fault in the book. Because he was the crew. The first evening he brought his book, I never forgot his enthusiasm at home,” she added.

Asaf participated in the Belgian International Poetry Biennial in 1959, representing the Turkish Literary Union, and in 1966, he joined the Poetry Congress in Yugoslavia at the invitation of the Macedonian Writers Association.

The poet, whose translations and poetry books continued to be published, closed his printing and publishing companies in 1970.

Asaf’s early poems feature semi-lines and quatrains. He often kept the number of lines in his poems at minimum. The poet also applied to irony and verbal speech.

In his distinguished poem Lavinia, Asaf poeticized unrequited love around a theme of longing. He hides the name of the loved one but nicknames her as Lavinia.

Lavinia (1957)

I won't ask you not to go.

You are cold, take my jacket.

These are the loveliest times of the day.

Stay with me

…

I won't ask you not to go.

But Lavinia, don't go.

I will keep your name as a secret

Even you shall not know, Lavinia.

The themes of love, separation, death, which the poet used a lot, gradually left its place to the uneasiness of escape and despair.

In early December 1980, Asaf began receiving treatment for a lung disease at Vakif Gureba Hospital in Istanbul.

On Jan. 28, 1981, he died of a brain tumor at his home in Istanbul’s Bebek district. He was laid to rest in the Asiyan Cemetery upon his request.

“My father, who everyone thought was a painter and later learned that he was a poet, always has a cigarette in his hand and walks fast with big steps,” Arun wrote for her biography assignment in the middle school.

“My father, always looking angry at first sight with his brown eyes, mustache trying to cover his whole face, his bony nose, his tallness and his books between his hands, is always cheerful," Asaf's daughter said.

Pamuk was speaking at a panel discussion on the newly-published, Writings on My Name is Red, a book combining 21 articles from various critics and writers as well as an interview with the Turkish author.

The book's editors, Erkan Irmak and Feride Cicekoglu, who also contributed with two articles, accompanied Pamuk during the panel discussion.

Istanbul native Pamuk began his speech by projecting a miniature depicting Husrev and Shirin, a 12th-century Persian love story by poet Nizami Ganjavi.

A miniature is an art form of the medieval period that realistically portrayed events while adhering to the traditional rules of Islamic art, as Islam bans figuration.

“This miniature is important to me," Pamuk said. "It is important to tell a story by looking at a miniature, and that a miniature is the beginning of a story."

“In my case, it is beginning of a novel," he added.

Noting how he was inspired by classical texts when he began writing his novel, the novelist said: "But in the classical texts, Shirin falls in love with Husrev when she sees his miniature for the third time. I didn't want to use this tale. I was writing a contemporary novel using old stories, and wanted them to fall in love at first sight."

He added that the title of his novel had originally been "Love at first sight" when he first began writing it roughly 25 years ago.

My Name is Red was published in 1998 and translated into English three years later, as well as over 50 languages since then. The book sold around 5 million copies around the world, according to Pamuk's publisher, Yapı Kredi Culture Arts and Publishing.

According to Yapi Kredi, Pamuk described the book as his "most colorful and optimistic novel."

Set in 16th century Istanbul, My Name is Red tells its story from the different perspectives of a myriad of characters, including a gold coin, the color red and some corpses.

- East and West

When asked about themes such as Western and Eastern civilizations in his books, Pamuk said that although cultures were the sources that inspired writers, he "hates" views that saw one identity as superior to others.

"Yes, I look for trouble and wrote East-West themed novels but my understanding of East and West is not such that sees one as better or worse -- one that I like more or less," he stressed.

"Actually, people like us living in Istanbul can not be like this," Pamuk said, adding: "Maybe we are the only nation in the world who should not ask this question because we can take whatever we want from both sides as it suits us with pleasure and we don't make it a problem."

"That is a huge privilege for us," the author added.

Located between Asia and Europe, Turkey is described by many as a "bridge between East and West" and a connection between the civilizations. The East-West dichotomy is one of the most common issues Pamuk focuses on in his works.

His books, My Name Is Red and Snow, became the most translated and read Turkish works in history.

When Pamuk won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2006, the Swedish Academy said: "In the quest for the melancholic soul of his native city, he has discovered new symbols for the clash and interlacing of cultures."

Independent publishers in the country have published 423 million books in 2019, Kenan Kocaturk, head of the Turkish Publishers Association (TPA), told Anadolu Agency

He was speaking on the sidelines of the Cukurova Book Fair in southern Adana province.

According to Kocaturk, 410 million books were published in 2018.

The figure of new books published in 2019 was 68,000-70,000. This figure was 66,000 in 2018 and 60,000 in 2017.

A book in Turkey costs around $2.5, while a book in Europe costs around $15, the head of TPA noted.

The association supports efforts to improve the culture of reading across the country by expanding public libraries, bookmobiles, and school libraries, Kocaturk said.

The tournament will be held in Antalya, a Mediterranean resort city, between March 31-April 7.

A total of 1,000 athletes from 37 countries will compete in the tournament, according to Ensar Kurt, the vice president of the Turkish Special Athletes Sports Federation.

Turkey will join the event with 120 athletes in eight categories.

The event will involve various competitions, including athletics, basketball, gymnastics, futsal, judo, tennis, table tennis and swimming.

Kurt told Anadolu Agency that Turkey is ready to host the second edition of the competition, known as Olympic Games for the athletes with Down syndrome, and the Turkish national team is also well-prepared to compete in the championships.

"We aim to claim more medals than we collected in the European championships," he said.

The tournament was first held in Italy in 2016.

The Turkish international gymnast Umit Samiloglu said they are working to increase the participation of people in sports, especially of children.

"We arrived at the camp to give support to our special athletes. They are so emotional and beautiful. We carried out a very enjoyable activity with them," Samiloglu said.

Ilhan Karanlik, the coach of the special athletes, said three of them are candidates to be crowned with the champion title in gymnastics.

* Writing by Muhammed Enes Calli

“Rumi has deeply influenced the literature and the poetry of this region. It is a fact that Rumi is so much popular or a source of inspiration for many Pakistani writers and poets”, Faleeha Kazmi, head of the Persian department at Lahore University for Women, told Anadolu Agency.

Turkey's central province of Konya is hosting a series of international events between Dec. 7-17, marking the anniversary of Rumi’s death on Dec. 17, 1273, which is known as Sheb-i Arus or the night of union with Allah

In Pakistan, at many places Rumi’s poetry and stories are part of early school curriculum. His Masnavi has been translated in Urdu – the national language – and even in regional languages, Pashto, Punjabi and Sindhi.

Among the local poets, deeply influenced by Rumi’s poetry and vision, include Mian Mohammad Bakhshk, Waris Shah, Bhullay Shah, Sultan Bahu (Punjabi language), Khushkhaal Khan Khattak and Rahman Baba (Pashto), Shah Abdul Latif Bhatai (Sindhi), and most of all, Pakistan’s national poet, Mohammad Iqbal (Urdu and Persian).

Citing key reasons behind Rumi’s popularity in Pakistan, Kazmi said: “Pakistanis are more familiar with Persian literature than Arabic or English, as Islam came to Northern part of undivided India through Sufis and saints. They had mostly migrated from Iran and Central Asia (Persian speaking world). Even under British rule, Muslims were still under the influence of Persian poets and writers.”

Another main reason is because Rumi presents a beautiful combination of love and philosophy, leading to divine truth. So that is why Rumi’s poetry is still an important part of curriculum in Pakistani educational institutes, she said.

- Rumi and Iqbal

Pakistan’s national poet Allama Iqbal- also known as Iqbal Lahori outside Pakistan- is seen as extension of Rumi’s philosophy and by many literary critics. His Persian poetry, in particular, is heavily influenced by Rumi, also widely known as Mevlana.

Talking to Anadolu Agency, Zahid Munir Aamir, head of Urdu department at Punjab University Oriental College in Lahore, said that Iqbal had himself associated with Rumi.

“In fact, in his famous book 'Javednama', the famous poet advises his son Justice Javed Iqbal, that if he fails to find a wise friend in his life then associate with Rumi’s ideology because he [Rumi] knows the difference between reality and mere appearance of things”, he added.

“Rumi, and Iqbal are two of the best explainers of Quran in Persian through their poetry”, said Aamir, who is author of 40 books on history, literature and Iqbal in Urdu, English and Arabic languages.

Shahnawaz Farooqui, a Karachi-based writer, said Iqbal had proudly described himself a pupil of Rumi.

"Iqbal, in his poetry has described Rumi not only his mentor but also spiritual leader, “said Farooqui.

"Their baseline is the same. Both operated within same framework,” said the writer.

He, however, believed that Rumi's stature in terms of spiritually, and understanding and explanation of Quran and Hadit (saying of Prophet Muhammad) through poetry is far higher than that of Iqbal.

- Raqs-e-Dervish

Whirling dervishes are another introduction of Rumi to Pakistanis.

The whirling dervishes from Turkey now visit Pakistan every year, whose performances are attended by thousands of people, including art and music lovers.

Art critics and historians describe the cultural similarities and uniqueness, as two key factors for the popularity of whirling dervishes in Pakistan.

The dervish from Konya perform a special ritual called Sema -- an act of meditation through dance and music -- that originated among Sufis of the Mevlevi order in the 13th century.

The traditions of whirling dervish from Konya, Qawwali -- a special form of singing of spiritual poetry unique to the subcontinent -- and Dhamal -- a special form of Sufi dance found in the subcontinent -- are all linked to reaching spiritual connections through ecstasy, whether it is through dance or music.

Apart from Sufism, language is another area where Turkey has influenced the region, especially Pakistan, where Urdu has adopted a huge number of words from Turkish, according to Faleeha Kazmi.

In fact, she noted, the word Urdu has also been taken from Turkish, which means “army”.

- Rumi

Born into a Turkic family in 1207, in what is now Afghanistan, Rumi is one of the most widely read philosophers in the world, with teachings that transcend boundaries of race, color, and religion.

In Turkey Rumi is fondly remembered by his followers as Mevlana -- which means scholar.

Rumi's poem the Masnavi, with more than 50,000 verses, is considered the most influential work in Sufism, and has been translated into 25 languages.

He penned the poem on man’s predicament in his search for God after losing his friend, the wandering dervish Shams Tabriz.

Upon his death in 1273, Rumi’s followers founded the Mevlevi Order, also known as the Order of the Whirling Dervishes, famous for the Sufi dance known as the Sama ceremony.

Every year, an international commemoration ceremony marking the anniversary of Rumi’s union with God, known as Sheb-i Arus or the night of union, is held in honor of the Muslim scholar.

The Navy’s Chosen Ones (Muntehab-i Bahriyye) or the Historical Geography of Mediterranean and Aegean, written by Katib Celebi in 1645-1646, was edited by historian Fikret Saricaoglu at Istanbul University and reprinted by the Turkish Rare Books Library.

The book covers geographical information for historians and sailors, Saricaoglu told Anadolu Agency.

“The book tells about the locations of reefs and harbors, people in the region and the castles and towers of that region,” he said.

Saricaoglu underscored that Celebi based his book on The Navy’s Book which was written by Piri Reis, admiral of Ottoman-Egyptian fleet who wrote on the science of navigation. He aimed to update the geographical features first mentioned by Piri Reis by drawing new maps and carrying out some researches.

Saricaoglu said Celebi’s books were also translated into English, including A World Geography (Cihannuma) and a Bibliographical Dictionary (Kashf al-zunun).

Muntehab-i Bahriyye has 93 maps, two scales, geographical definitions, and the names of the places. It also contains the contents of the author's own pen as well as detailed information about the work.

The 38th International Istanbul Book Fair, organized by Tuyap Fairs in partnership with the Turkish Publishers Association, opened with the theme of The Generation 50 in Our Literature.

Anadolu Agency is the global communications partner of the fair, which is opened at the Tuyap Fair and Congress Center in the Buyukcekmece district of Istanbul.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, Istanbul Governor Ali Yerlikaya said they are expecting over a million visitors this year.

Yerlikaya said the number of visitors in previous years stood at 750,000, which is very less for Turkey as there are over 3 million students and teachers in the country.

Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu highlighted the importance of the fair and said they want to make the municipality a big part of the fair in the coming years.

Kenan Kocaturk, head of Turkish Publishers Association, said over 800 national and international publishers and non-governmental organizations attend the fair, which includes around 300 cultural events and thousands of book signing sessions.

Kocaturk also said that the fair will bring illustrators and publishing houses together on Nov. 6 for the first time this year.

The next day, publishers and freelancers -- including editors, translators, designers -- will come together, he added.

He also noted that over 30 books will make their debut in the fair.

The fair will run through Nov. 10.

*Writing by Sena Guler

In an interview with Reuters on Saturday at the Ake literary festival in Nigeria's commercial capital Lagos, she also said she was in talks over the rights for film and theatre adaptations of "Girl, Woman, Other".

The 60-year-old author, who described winning the Booker Prize for her eighth work of fiction as "life-changing", split the 50,000 pounds ($62,800) annual prize with Margaret Atwood, author of "The Testaments", in a surprise double award earlier this month by the judging panel.

Of Nigerian and British parentage, Evaristo was the first black woman to win the prize, which honours "the best novel of the year written in English and published in the UK and Ireland".

The book tells the stories of 12 characters living in Britain who are mainly female and black, aged between 19 and 93, and with a variety of sexual orientations.

"For people on the continent who don't necessarily have access to British society I would think a book like 'Girl, Woman, Other' would give them insights into the multiplicity of experiences that we have in the UK," said Evaristo.

The author, who lives in Britain and whose father was raised in Lagos and left Nigeria for Britain in 1949, said she participated in the annual Ake festival because it was important to "bridge the gap" between people in Africa and its diaspora.

The author - on her fourth visit to Nigeria - said she hoped her work would do the same in Britain, where she said she felt the debate surrounding Britain's exit from the European Union had led to an increase in "street level bigotry".

"Literature speaks to our humanity and hopefully that's what this book is doing, so hopefully it is helping people understand and create empathy about people they aren't necessarily coming into contact with," she said.

Aside from the political backdrop, Evaristo said she felt it was important for the book to be recognised because of the shortage of published literature either by, or about, black women in Britain.

"We need to see ourselves reflected in the society we're living in. The fact that I have to draw attention to the fact that we are pretty absent from literature is a real problem because I think a lot of people don't notice that," she said.

The stories of the 12 characters featured in the book may yet reach an even broader audience.

Evaristo said discussions were "pretty far along" regarding film and theatre rights, both of which began when the book was shortlisted for the Booker Prize.

Talks over the film rights were with a UK production house, said the author. "Netflix hasn't come calling yet," she added, laughing.

"I think this would be great in the theatre. Twelve women on stage would be amazing," added Evaristo, a former actor who co-founded a theatre company in the 1980s.

"I wouldn't want to run it or write it. The company who took it would take care of the writing. I might work with the writer but not writing it myself," she added.

While the prize has been jointly awarded twice previously, the rules changed in 1993 limiting the award to one author. The judges defied those rules this year, saying they could not agree on a winner between the books by Evaristo and Atwood.

"I'm just happy to get the Booker Prize. I'm happy to share it with Margaret Atwood. It's all good," Evaristo told the audience during a panel discussion at the Ake festival, with a smile.

Dressed in a dark dress, colourful scarf and red hat, the 79-year-old, who wrote the best-selling 1985 dystopian novel "The Handmaid's Tale", received the honour from Britain's Queen Elizabeth, 93.

"I got a bit emotional. You're really looking at a lot of history and I’m old enough to remember a lot of that history," British media quoted Atwood telling the PA Media news agency after the ceremony.

"Short form, she was brilliant in the war ... When you see the Queen at her age and her schedule that she puts out, it’s an inspiration to everybody, you just keep going."

Atwood later posed for photos outside Windsor Castle.

Founded by King George V in 1917, the award is given to those who have made "a major contribution to the arts, science, medicine or government lasting over a long period of time" and there are 65 members at any one time, according to the official royal website.

Current members include actress Maggie Smith, former British Prime Minister John Major and Canadian historian Margaret MacMillan.

Atwood this month won the prestigious literary Booker Prize, in a rare joint double award with British author Bernardine Evaristo, for "The Testaments", the Canadian's hugely anticipated sequel to "The Handmaid's Tale".

Atwood, who has a long list of prizes and honorary degrees to her name, has written more than 40 books of fiction, essays and poetry.

Ibrahim Muteferrika, who is the first printer of Ottoman period, printed rare collections such as Lugat-i Vankulu in 1729, two books by celebrated author Katib Celebi on naval wars with maps and drawings, and also first editions of Plato’s works. All of them are exhibited at the library.

Bogazici University's library has archives dating back to 1863.

The library’s rare archives were established with Cyrus Hamlin’s donation of 200 books from Harvard College to Robert College, which was a predecessor of Bogazici University. The collection was later developed by further donations and purchases.

Rare collections, including nearly 29,000 unique books, are protected in the library’s special storage under proper climate conditions.

Ibrahim Muteferrika’s print house, established in his own home in Fatih district of Istanbul province with a royal edict in 1727, printed 17 works and seven more after his death. Thirteen of those 17 works and three of them printed after his death are included among the rare collections exhibited.

The first printed book of Muteferrika press Lugat-i Vankulu, printed in 1729, is one of the most important works exhibited in the rare collections.

The first Turkish book about the U.S., Tarihu’l-Hindu’l-Garbi, was printed in 1730. Katib Celebi’s Cihannuma, printed in 1732, and his Tuhfetu’l-Kibar Fi Esfari’l-Bihar, printed in 1729 on naval wars, were other rare books.

- 506-year-old works

The oldest book of the collections is the first edition of Plato’s works published in Venice in 1513. The book, written in the Greek alphabet, is one of Aldine editions printed by Renaissance era’s printers Aldus Manutius in his print house in 1494 in Venice.

Another work of the collection printed by the same press is Athens politician Demosthenes’s speech in 1527.

Other significant books in the rare collections were donated from Tevfik Fikret’s library by his wife Nazime Hanım after his death.

Another attractive piece in the collection, a Moorish style written calligraphy piece, is a book by philosopher Ahikar, Assyrian king Sennacherib's chief counsellor. In the early 1800s, the work is estimated to have been copied from pre-Christian Syriac literature, and is one of the oldest examples of Assyrian literature that have survived to date.

The collection also includes works written in various languages such as Latin, German, English, Ottoman, Arabic, Hebrew, Karaman Language, and Armenian from the 16th to the 20th centuries, with Krill, Arab, Armenian, Hebrew, Gothic and Latin alphabets.

- First 200 books donated by Harvard University

There are still many books exhibited in rare collections donated by Harvard College, Sevgi Atila Cunus, Bogazici University's librarian told Anadolu Agency.

The library was enriched with various donations by renown Turkish intellectuals also after being transferred from Robert College to Bogazici University, she added.

The collections include pieces in a variety of styles such as manuscripts and Ottoman-era print pieces as well as some of the oldest European works from 1513.

* Writing by Davut Demircan

Tokarczuk was awarded "for a narrative imagination that with encyclopedic passion represents the crossing of boundaries as a form of life," the academy said.

Handke was awarded "for an influential work that with linguistic ingenuity has explored the periphery and the specificity of human experience," it said.

Due to a scandal, the 2018 prize was delayed from last year.

Nobel week will continue on Friday with the prestigious Peace Prize.

Next Monday the academy will announce the Nobel in Economics.

Created in 1994, the Giller Prize recognizes excellence in Canadian fiction. The award has been backed by Canadian bank Scotiabank since 2005, with the top winner earning C$100,000 ($75,330). Atwood, who won the honor in 1996 for her novel "Alias Grace," is competing with her new work "The Testaments," which is set to be released by McClelland & Stewart on Sept. 10.

"The Testaments" is the sequel to Atwood's famous 1985 dystopian novel "The Handmaid's Tale". The upcoming novel was also short-listed this week for the Booker Prize for fiction.

Also among those up for the Giller Prize is Toronto-based author Andre Alexis for "Days by Moonlight," published by Coach House Books. Alexis won the Giller Prize in 2015 for his novel "Fifteen Dogs."

The prize's short-list of five authors will be released on Sept. 30, with the winner revealed at a Toronto gala on Nov. 18.

The complete long-list, which a jury narrowed down from 117 submissions, is as follows:

Andre Alexis - "Days of Moonlight," published by Coach House Books

Margaret Atwood - "The Testaments," published by McClelland & Stewart

David Bezmozgis - "Immigrant City," published by HarperCollins Publishers Ltd

Michael Christie - "Greenwood," published by McClelland & Stewart

Megan Gail Coles - "Small Game Hunting at the Local Coward Gun Club," published by House of Anansi Press

Michael Crummey - "The Innocents," published by Doubleday Canada

Adam Foulds - "Dream Sequence," published by Biblioasis

K.D. Miller - "Late Breaking," published by Biblioasis

Alix Ohlin - "Dual Citizens," published by House of Anansi Press

Steven Price - "Lampedusa," published by McClelland & Stewart

Zalika Reid-Benta - "Frying Plantain," published by Astoria, an imprint of House of Anansi Press

Ian Williams - "Reproduction," published by Random House Canada

Some 15,000 copies will be distributed to the Muslims once the publication is completed with the cooperation of Turkey’s Presidency of Religious Affairs as part of the project “Let my gift be the Quran,” Cemil Alici, the religious services advisor at the Turkish Embassy in capital Addis Ababa, told Anadolu Agency.

Alici said 6,000 of the copies will be distributed in the holy month of Ramadan.

The work, which is supported by the Ethiopian Islamic Affairs Supreme Council, is of great importance for Muslims as translation of the Quran in the country’s official language Amharic is not widespread.

Alici said that Ethiopian youth, especially those living in the rural areas, are having lack of access to the Quran in book form.

“One of the most widespread languages in Ethiopia is Oromo,” he said, adding that works to publish the Quran with Oromo translation may be on the agenda after the Amharic version, as there is a demand for that.

The TDV also plans to publish translation of the Quran in Japanese, Nepali, Bambara and in Urdu languages.

The holy Quran has been published in 67 countries so far in the scope of the project.

*Writing by Sena Guler

HBO said Sunday's audience on linear television as well as its HBO GO and HBO NOW apps exceeded the previous series high of 16.9 million viewers for the Season 7 finale in 2017.

On social media, Sunday's premiere for the final season of the medieval fantasy series was also the most-tweeted-about episode of the show ever, with more than 5 million Tweets, and 11 million mentions throughout the course of the weekend, HBO said in a statement.

Auctioneers Profiles in History said on Monday it also is selling some 25 other "Star Wars" items, including an original black TIE-fighter pilot helmet from the first, 1977 movie that could fetch even more money - up to $300,000.

"Star Wars" movies have made billions of dollars at the box office worldwide and props and costumes from the sci-fi saga can fetch sky-high prices at auction.

A complete R2-D2 droid used in the first, 1977 movie sold for $2.76 million in 2017, and a different lightsaber used by Skywalker fetched $450,000 last year.

Profiles in History called next week's offering unprecedented for "Star Wars" memorabilia.

The lightsaber up for auction was used by actor Mark Hamill's young Skywalker character in "Star Wars: A New Hope" and was designed by Oscar-winning set decorator Roger Christian.

In a letter accompanying the sale, Christian describes how the hand made the lightsaber, one of about five used in the first film, "using whatever I could lay my hands on at the time."

Profiles in History said the estimate was conservative and the sale price could easily go higher given the 2017 sale.

The "Star Wars" items will be sold during the Profiles in History Hollywood auction from Dec 11-14 in Los Angeles.

Other lots include a high-speed visual effects camera designed by director George Lucas's Industrial Light and Magic company that was used on "The Empire Strikes Back," "Raiders of the Lost Ark," "E.T.," and other Hollywood blockbusters. The camera is expected to fetch up to $150,000.

A pair of droid C-3PO's hands used in "Return of the Jedi" carries a pre-sale estimate of $40,000 - $60,000, while a Stormtrooper helmet used in the 2015 movie "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" and signed by the main cast members carries an estimate of $80,000 - $120,000.

The miniature watercolour and gouache portrait by Margaret Gillies, valued at 220,000 pounds ($280,000), was painted in 1843 as the young Dickens, in his early 30s, was writing "A Christmas Carol".

The painting shows the Victorian writer clean shaven, with long, wavy hair, looking over his left shoulder, a contrast to the more common image of an ageing Dickens, with long bushy beard and messy, balding hair.

The portrait was last on public display in 1844 at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, only to then disappear some time after, with Gillies writing in a letter in the 1860s that she was unsure of its whereabouts. After a fruitless search, she reported it unaccounted for in 1886.

The five-and-a-half inch (14cm) high oval portrait was found late last year in KwaZulu-Natal by an unknown buyer and has since been restored.

London Art dealers Philip Mould and Company now own the painting and will display it from Thursday.

"Dickens was a celebrity, people followed him down the street and so with that dramatic twist of the head she has caught that, she has caught the man that turned heads himself," Philip Mould told Reuters.

It is unknown how exactly the portrait moved from London to South Africa. One theory offered by the dealers is that the portrait was taken to South Africa by family friends of the Dickens and Gillies family.

The Charles Dickens Museum, situated at the author's former home in London, is trying to raise money to buy the portrait at a reduced price of 180,000 pounds.

"This must never escape again. This is such an important, emotive face at such a critical time in his career," Mould added.

The country had over 28,000 libraries -- national, public, university and formal and non-formal education libraries -- as of the end of 2017, according to TurkStat's report.

"In 2017, there were 1 national library, 1,146 public libraries, 564 university libraries and 26,415 formal and non-formal education libraries in Turkey," TurkStat said.

TurkStat data also showed that, last year, there were nearly 29,000 libraries in Turkey.

The number of books in the national library were 1.4 million, up 8.6 percent year on year in 2017, and the number of beneficiaries of it decreased 1 percent to nearly 630,000 in this period.

Public libraries had nearly 20 million books, university libraries had 16.5 million and formal and non-formal education libraries had 26.7 million books in the last year.

The national library had nearly 26,500 registered members, while public libraries have over 2.2 million and university libraries have 3.8 million in 2017.

TurkStat will release next report on libraries in August 2019.

The library’s 17-story Tower, designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, became home to the so-called "secondary material" received under the Copyright Act, which entitles Cambridge University Library to get a copy of every book published in the U.K.

Some of the oldest items in the Tower dates from 1710, with the most recent material dating from the early years of the 21st century.

The access to the collections has been limited to a handful of library staff, researchers and academics, with the majority of its hundreds of thousands books remaining unopened, according to information obtained from the library.

Visitors will be able to have a chance to tour the tower for a limited time, as well as seeing the exhibition.

Among the books the tower holds, there are famous works such as The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien and Ian Fleming’s Casino Royale. Such novels were deemed of little academic value at the time of publication and effectively banished to the Tower.

There, they sit alongside the myriad toys, board games, Valentine’s cards, pop-up books and Mr Men cartoons, which have all found their way into the Tower since its completion in 1934.

“Now regarded as an archive of global importance, the Tower’s irreplaceable contents tell the story of our national life through the printed word,” the exhibition’s curator Liam Sims told Anadolu Agency.

Library contains 8M books

“For the first time, we are giving people the chance to explore both the remarkable collections and to glimpse inside this most visible yet mysterious of the city’s landmarks,” he said.

The University Library has been central to the support of teaching and research at Cambridge for the past 600 years.

More than eight million books and periodicals, one million maps and many thousands of manuscripts occupy more than 125 miles (200 km) of shelving, which extends by a further two miles every year.

The Library collections’ content includes many items from Chinese oracle bones from the second millennium BC to the the latest online scientific journals.

Some of the most valuable collections include the papers of Isaac Newton, an archive of Charles Darwin’s correspondence, archives of the Royal Greenwich Observatory and the library of the Royal Commonwealth Society.

The Library is entitled to acquire a copy of each book and journal published in the U.K. and Ireland, which results in a rich and diverse collection providing future scholars with the raw materials for research in many fields.

The Cambridge University’s history goes back to 1209 and it holds 31 independent colleges, 150 departments, faculties and institutes.

Currently, 19,000 students, including 3,700 foreign students, receive education at the university.

The building bears semblance to a bookshelf, with books stacked alongside each other.

The architecture emulates the Kansas City Public Library in the U.S.

The library, which was built at Karabuk University (KBU) with support from Kamil Gulec, a Turkish philanthropist, provides access to 60,000 books in print and six million digital publications.

Kamil Gulec Library is equipped with cutting-edge technology, said Ozcan Buyukgenc, head of the library documentation department at the university.

Students can borrow and return books at kiosks equipped with self-check systems.

He added that through an interlibrary system, students can order books from any other library across Turkey.

"If we don't have a resource and any of the 192 libraries in Turkey has it, the reader can order it and it will be delivered to them within three days," he added.

Some 450,000 people have used the library since it opened 10 months ago, Buyukgenc said, adding that the library stays open 24 hours.

He said 50 different schools and institutions from different cities have visited the library.

Students visiting the library told Anadolu Agency that they benefit greatly with the facility.

“There is no book that we can’t find in the library,” said Emrah Cakan, an automative engineering student.

"We like the study area," said Fadime Kaplan, a child development student.

Muhammet Furkan Turkmen, a student at the theology faculty, said: “It’s not rich only in terms of design but also content.”

Turkey is celebrating National Library Week.

The event is marked in the last week of March, every year since 1964.

The week aims to encourage reading habits among children and raise awareness for improving libraries.

Municipality workers have established a library in the capital's Çankaya district with books they collected from the unlikely source of garbage bins.

"We actually helped books that had lost their value after being thrown into the garbage, to regain their value," Sema Keskaya, head of human resources, told Anadolu Agency.

“The initial idea for establishing this library came up after city workers asked how books that were thrown out could be re-utilized,” Keskaya said.

Classical music welcomes visitors who enter the library. The bookshelves are spread along a corridor with a reading area, lined with tables and chairs, awaiting book lovers.

In a matter of just eight months, the library has come to boast 5,000 books in 17 categories, ranging from literature to history and politics. Now it is at a stage where it can donate books to schools and other institutions.

Keskaya said the library was first established within the municipality’s compound for the use of workers and their families, but after other non-city workers showed an interest, now it is open for everyone.

Galeri: Garbage collectors dig out treasure from trash in Turkey

Quality checks

Aside from books picked out of the garbage, the library gets a wide range of donations from people who use the library.

Serhat Baytemur, a 32-year-old garbage collector, is happy about the project.

“Before, I wished that I had a library in my house. Now we have a library here and it's good. I want to read all the books,” he said.

The library lends out books to readers for an initial two-week period, and can extend the loaning period if necessary.

As the library is open from early morning until 5:30 p.m. local time, the workers make use of it during their lunch hour or before starting their shifts.

The project has gathered up “distinct” and “highly valuable” books, said Keskaya. However, not all the books come in good shape, and so the workers take on the extra duty of sorting and checking books for missing pages.

“When we first began, we really had a lot of shelves but not so many books. I actually was a bit nervous as I feared we wouldn't be able to fill the shelves. I looked at the shelves and told myself, ‘We need at least 3,000 books’. But then we saw how quickly they were filled and now we can't even keep up,” she added.

“Our goal isn't to find books and keep them for ourselves but rather to make them available to our children and our people. We want these books to reach students and foster reading habits in them,” Keskaya said.

Eray Yılmaz, who serves as librarian, urged people to share books with them.

“Books they share with us will reach the people who need them,” he said.

The Presidency of Religious Affairs is publishing 20,000 copies of the handbook, called Al-Fiqh ilmihal, for Syrian Muslims of the Sunni Shafii sect.

The Arabic handbook will be distributed both in Syria and to Syrians living in refugee camps in Turkey.

The two-volume handbook, prepared by the help of Syrian Islamic scholars, aims to dispel misrepresentations of Islam spread by terrorist groups in the region like Daesh, offering instead a reliable source of information on Islam.

The books will be distributed through the offices of the muftis in Turkey’s southern Kilis and Gaziantep provinces, neighboring Syria.

According to the UN, Turkey is the top refugee host in the world, providing home to some 3.2 million Syrian refugees who have taken shelter after fleeing the war.

Syrian sisters become voice of E. Ghouta on Twitter

Syrian children with Down syndrome get therapy in Turkey

Syria has been locked in a devastating conflict since early 2011, when the Bashar al-Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests with unexpected ferocity.

Since then, hundreds of thousands of people are believed to have been killed and millions more displaced by the conflict.

Rumi -- his title Mevlana means scholar -- was a Sufi poet-philosopher born in present-day Afghanistan in 1207. His legacy of poems is particularly popular across western, central and southern Asia and he is buried in Konya, central Anatolia.

"The Mathnawi has been translated into Swahili, one of the foremost languages of the world," Konya Mayor Tahir Akyurek told Anadolu Agency on Monday.

The Mathnawi, a poem boasting more than 50,000 lines, is considered as one of the most influential works of Sufism and Persian literature.

"It has been printed in 25 languages since 2005," Akyurek said. "Our target is to translate Mathnawi into 50 languages."

Mathnawi or Masnavi-I Ma'navi is one of the best-known and most influential works of both Sufism and Persian literature. Comprising six books of poems that amount to more than 50,000 lines, it pursues its way through 424 stories that illustrate man's predicament in his search for God.

Swahili is a Bantu language that is spoken by nearly 150 million people across East Africa including Kenya Tanzania, Democratic Republic of Congo and Somalia.

"On Thursday, Guangzhou, capital of south China's Guangdong Province, stopped live poultry trading for the rest of the month, with all poultry markets to be thoroughly disinfected", the official Xinhua News Agency said.

Sales have also been suspended in Xiamen, Suzhou and several cities in south-central Hunan and southwestern Sichuan provinces on the order of the National Health and Family Planning Commission.

Xinhua said the bans have greatly reduced the number of new infections in many regions, citing Ni Daxin, deputy director of the emergency response center at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

According to the agency, the eastern coastal province of Zhejiang is suffering the worst epidemic in three years with 35 human infections and 11 fatalities in January.

"The virus was found in 40 percent of live poultry markets this month, compared with 10 percent in September. All rural live poultry markets there were closed from Saturday", it said.

At least 269 H7N9 human infections have been reported in China since January, with at least 87 fatalities, according to Xinhua, which said most cases were around the Yangtze and Pearl river deltas.

China reported its first case of human infection with the H7N9 strain in March 2013 while the world's first bird flu case was reported in May 2014, in southwest Sichuan Province.

Colombia launched on Friday a new bill of 50,000 pesos with the image of Nobel Prize winner Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

The noted which amounts to $17.50 was issued pursuant to a law that allows the nation to honor the memory of the legedenary writer, novelist and journalist who dead in 2014 in Mexico at the age of 87.

"This character ... has so far taken the name of Colombia since the middle of last century," the head of Colombia´s Central Bank Jose Dario Uribe said during the presentation of the new note.

The note is the third this year in a new family bills from the bank to provide enhanced security and attractiveness to the currency.

Earlier this year, the south American nation unveiled a new highest denomination of 100,000 pesos featuring former President Carlos Lleras Restrepo and a 20,000-peso in June that bears the image of ex-President Alfonso Lopez Michelsen.

"After nearly two decades of appearance of banknotes ... (this replacement) is one of the ways in which the bank of the republic executes its responsibility to maintain public confidence in paper money," Uribe said.

The change also helps the flow of daily economic transactions and prevents obstacles for the circulation of durable and difficult counterfeit bills, he said.

The most novel safety feature of the new note is the incorporation of images showing effects of color changes and movement. A hummingbird biting a flower, which appears left of center on the front of the bill, changes from green to blue to turn the bill.

Superimposed on the image of the bird is a green circle that appears to move when tilted, according to the bank.

Colombia will circulate new denominations of 10,000, 5,000 and 2,000 pesos in the fourth quarter.

Pottermore, the digital publishing and e-commerce world founded by Rowling for fans of the boy wizard, said on Wednesday it would be releasing three short ebooks starting Sept. 6.

Called "Pottermore Presents," the series is a collection of Rowling's writing for Pottermore.com, as well as new stories about characters including Potter's potions master Horace Slughorn, Hogwarts headmistress Professor Minerva McGonagall and Ministry of Magic bureaucrat Dolores Umbridge.

The ebooks will be available on the Pottermore website as well as through digital book sellers. They are the latest extension of the Harry Potter franchise, which includes seven books, eight movies, three theme park attractions and the sold-out London stage play "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child."

The ebooks, approximately 10,000 words long, are intended for tablets, cellphones and other mobile devices and as a supplement to the original Harry Potter books, which have sold more than 450 million copies worldwide.

"J.K. Rowling's writing in these collections reveals intricate details of her characters' lives, their histories, as well as her inspiration," Pottermore chief executive Susan Jurevics said in a statement.

"Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them," the first of three Potter spin-off movies, is due for release worldwide in November.

Shakespeare's birthplace, Stratford, has been the center of events for those who wanted to honor him.

Hundreds attended a parade in Stratford wearing Shakespeare facemasks. People wearing the clothes from his era have took to the streets in his hometown.

Prince Charles also visited the house of the playwright and the exhibitions in the town. He will attend, with his wife, the Duchess of Cornwall, Camilla, a play on Saturday night at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon. The play, celebrating Shakespeare's life, will be televised in the U.K.

In London, the Globe Theater, which was designed by Shakespeare himself and built in 1599, was the site of several events.

U.S. President Barack Obama made a morning visit to the playhouse in Southwark on Saturday to mark the anniversary of the famous poet. The Globe Theater, which collapsed in 1644, was rebuilt in 1997 and opened by Queen Elizabeth II.

Along the Thames River in London, the plays of the writer have been shown on large screens all day.

British Prime Minister David Cameron also published a message, in which he described Shakespeare as the “world's greatest writer”.

“Shakespeare's genius captivated and changed the world, and men and women across England continue to do that today,” he stated.

William Shakespeare has written almost 40 plays and 150 sonnets. He died when he was 52 years old, on April 23, 1616. His grave is in Stratford where he was born. According to some records, the famous playwright was also born on April 23.

It is the first time an author from Turkey has been nominated for the British-based award, which recognizes international writers whose work is originally in English or has been translated from their native language and published in the UK.

The £50,000 ($71,000) prize for the winner, to be announced on May 16, will be divided equally between the author and translator.

Pamuk is nominated for his 2014 novel A Strangeness in My Mind, which was translated by 27-year-old Turkish-born Londoner Ekin Oklap.

Five other authors are nominated for this year's Man Booker International Prize, including A General Theory of Oblivion by Angolan author Jose Eduardo Agualusa, Austrian Robert Seethaler's A Whole Life, and South Korean writer Han Kang's The Vegetarian – all representing countries nominated for the first time.

China's Yan Lianke, who wrote The Four Books, and Italian Elena Ferrante's The Story of the Lost Child make up the remaining nominees.

Boyd Tonkin, chairman of the judging panel, said: “This exhilarating shortlist will take readers both around the globe and to every frontier of fiction. In first-class translations that showcase that unique and precious art, these six books tell unforgettable stories from China and Angola, Austria and Turkey, Italy and South Korea.

“In setting, they range from a Mao-era re-education camp and a remote Alpine valley to the modern tumult and transformation of cities such as Naples and Istanbul.

“Our selection shows that the finest books in translation extend the boundaries not just of our world - but of the art of fiction itself.”

The international award complements the annual Man Booker Prize, given to the best original English-language novel.

However, she is not grading papers or doing research; she is signing books from her personal archive to donate to this unique and venerable institution.

Berktay – a professor of political science at Istanbul University and the writer of many books on women's issues in Turkey – is chair of the executive board of Kadin Eserleri Kutuphanesi ve Bilgi Merkezi Vakfi [Women's Library and Information Center Foundation].

A renovated Byzantine-era building closely linked to the Fener district's Greek community, the library was once a female school connected to a nearby monastery on the banks of Istanbul's Golden Horn.

After going into decline, the building is now home to this special library founded in 1990 by five Turkish women.

The group, who came from academia, librarianship and anthropology were Sirin Tekeli, Asli Davraz, Fusun Akatli, Fusun Ertug and Jale Baysal.

Having prevailed against the odds, Turkey's largest women's archive and library is now looking for new ways to expand and fund itself after a 2015 campaign where donors could contribute a modest 25 Turkish liras [$8].

“We remain standing [only] with donations,” Berktay tells Anadolu Agency, speaking in the meeting hall of the library's second floor where, despite a pleasant and quiet atmosphere, old and out-of-date PCs are still used to keep records.

The room's walls are decorated with paintings and sculptures donated by Turkish feminist artists.

Some other objects in the hall are a typewriter that belonged to Kerime Nadir, Turkey's best-selling female writer who published more than 40 blockbusting books, plus a painting by Mihti Musfik Hanim, one of the first and most-renowned Turkish female artists.

The library – which forms an important part of Turkey's women's memory with its unique archive – hosts more than 12,000 books, over 400 magazines and 10,000 periodicals as well as more than 5,000 articles plus 526 post-graduate and doctoral theses.

The oldest piece at the library is a Greek-language women's magazine called Kypsela that dates back to 1943, Berktay says.

According to Berktay, the library's creation was sparked by a women's movement which developed during 1980s Turkey when a military coup overthrew the elected government.

“We were all part of this movement,” she says, adding: “Through the 80's women's movement we discovered both our ties with the Ottoman women's movement and the rising second wave of feminism around the world.”

This modern women's movement forced Turkish society to confront uncomfortable issues, such as violence against women, Prof. Berktay adds.

“All those things [opening of the library and foundation of a women's ministry in Turkey's government] were not just coincidences; the women's movement in the world and in Turkey were behind it,” she says.

This groundbreaking work is supported by the small Fener library. Around 190 people's small contributions helped the library get started; Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality later donated the historic building.

For Berktay, the importance of the library's collection is to create a “women's memory” in Turkey.

“Women and men are the ones who create history but because history is not written by women, they are not mentioned…,” she says. “A special effort is needed to reveal women's history.

“The library documents not only the fight of the Turkish women's movement but also women's struggle to become individuals in the country and build a bridge between the past and the future,” she says.

Berktay says that women living in the Ottoman Empire during the 1910s would “openly call themselves 'feminist'.

“They were saying 'feminism is a highly respected movement and men and women who have reached maturity should become feminist'”, Berktay adds.

In 1913 women demanded their voting rights, she says: “They wanted to watch parliamentary meetings and were dreaming about having voting rights one day.

“They were saying 'If you do not give our voting rights, we will chain ourselves like British suffragettes in front of the parliament building',” she adds.

'Suffragette' is a term used to describe members of a women's organization, mainly in the U.K., which fought for females' right to vote in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

“It is so obvious that [Ottoman-era feminists] were in contact,” with like-minded women around the world, says Berktay.

Berktay says that when the 100th anniversary of the Gelibolu [Gallipoli] war happened last year, the commemoration was of modern Turkey's foundation.

“Nobody mentioned women,” during the celebrations, she says, giving an example of a nurse called Safiye Huseyin Elbi who worked for the Ottoman army in Canakkale, where much of the fighting took place.

The library now has both Elbi's school diploma and her passport for posterity.

For Berktay, another very important job the library has done so far is to translate Ottoman-language women's magazines into modern Turkish.

Although the library will in April mark 25 years since its foundation, plans are already afoot to preserve and expand its valuable collections.

Berktay says the library' is expected to fully digitize its archive this year.

Dorit Rabinyan's “Gader Haya," English title “Borderlife," presents an uncommon story of love between an Israeli Jew and a Palestinian Muslim to its reader. It has become an unlikely bestseller after the ministry refused to allow the book in the high school curriculum.

“Borderlife," published in 2014, won the Bernstein Prize for young writers, an annual Israeli award for Hebrew literature.

A lower committee of the education ministry suggested adding the book to the high school curriculum after getting many requests from teachers. However, senior ministry officials overruled the suggestions.

Among the reasons given was, “intimate relations between Jews and non-Jews threatens the separate identity," according to the protocol of a parliamentary debate on the issue.

The ban sparked a backlash by Israeli cultural figures and a buying frenzy as the book shot to the top of the fiction chart, becoming a bestseller in bookstores and online, according to The Guardian newspaper.

The country's main chart does not provide numbers, but Rabinyan's agent said more than 5,000 copies had been sold in a week, a huge figure in Israel's small market, with many bookstores selling out.

Borderlife is a semi-autobiographical story of an Israeli woman who falls in love with a male Palestinian artist in New York. The two part ways as she returns to the Israeli city of Tel Aviv and he to Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Relationships between Israeli Jews and Palestinians are rare and frowned on by large parts of both societies.

The ministry said the book was not disqualified but merely not included among the curriculum, adding that teachers were still permitted to study the book with their students.

Rabinyan thanked her readers and said she thought that the response of the public was “a demonstration" against the authorities' attitude.

The decision also provoked fury from left-wing Israelis and cultural leaders.

In a video shared on social media in reaction to the controversy, Arabs and Jews kiss on camera to break what they call a taboo in Israeli society.

This year, the 34th International Istanbul Book Fair will host over 750 publishers from all over the world, plus panels, seminars and workshops among a total of 300 activities.

The state of Romania will be the honorary 'guest' of the event which will host prominent Romanian writers such as Mircea Cartarescu and Matei Visniec.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the fair Saturday, Governor Vasip Sahin said: "Today, reading a book is no longer seen as leisure time activity, rather it has started to be taken as an obligation, need and duty."

Sahin said reading habits and art activities are considered as a development level not only for individuals but also for society.

He added that, last year about 500,000 people visited the fair.

Matei Ioan, general director of Libraries and Publications at Romania's Culture Ministry, said: "I believe that written culture constitutes a whole purification system of the soul in these geopolitical conditions."

Turkish Publishers' Association head, Metin Celal, said: "Last year, we produced 561,000 books. According to the International Publishers' Association, we are the world's 11th largest publishing sector."

Meanwhile, publications of journalism and photographs by Anadolu Agency are also on show.

The agency's Corporate Communications Director Esra Kirecci said: "We are very pleased with being the Global Communication Partner of Istanbul International Book Fair for the last two years."

The prominent author's 1943 book, “Kurk Mantolu Madonna" [The Fur Coated Madonna] will be published in English at the beginning of 2016, more than 70 years after its debut in Turkish.

The deal has been struck between Turkish copyright agency ONK and publishers Penguins UK.

A poet, writer and journalist, Sabahattin Ali was born in 1907. A critic of the then-government, he was murdered in 1948 by an unknown assailant in mysterious circumstances.

Rumors flourished later that his killer was a member of the national security service.

His revived work, The Fur Coated Madonna, centers on a post-WWI-era love story between a Turkish student and a German singer in Berlin.

Kurk Mantolu Madonna has already been published in German by Dorlemann and has seen four print editions in Russian, Croatian, Arabic and Albanian.

Speaking to The Anadolu Agency, managing director of ONK, Meric Gulec, said that they had been meeting with Penguin UK since the Frankfurt Book Fair last October and finalized the new publishing agreement in March.

“The book's latest success in Turkey was an important detail for them [Penguin UK]," said Gulec, referring to the book's renewed popularity among young Turkish readers.

According to the book's publishing rights owner in Turkey, YKY Publishing, the company released almost one million copies of the book since 1998.

“Its profound historical and political content, as well as being a romance novel, easily grasps young readers," Gulec added but did not speculate on who will be the possible translator.

Ali's work will also be published in Spanish, Italian, Dutch and Georgian, according to ONK.

Last year, Penguin translated another prominent Turkish writer, Ahmet Hamdi Tanpinar. His 1962 work – “The Time Regulation Institute" – was produced in English for the first time, with publishers calling it “a literary discovery."

The former head of Police Intelligence Agency, Sabri Uzun, said in his 326-page book that Cezvet Soysal, a father of six and an ex-worker of the Turkish Petroleum Corporation, or TPAO, was killed in the province of Batman by two police officers, who were disguised as members of the intelligence service of the Turkish gendarmerie, or JITEM, after being abducted outside his home on his way to the office.

“They killed him when they broke his neck in the Beşiri district, where he had been held under torture for 30 days. He was buried in a remote part of Beşiri,” Uzun said in his book, İN, which is mostly based on privileged information provided by an informant, who is formerly linked to Gülen’s illicit network.

In the page-turner, Uzun tells of his confrontations with followers of the U.S.-based cleric Gülen, currently wanted in Turkey for forming and running an armed terror group in the parallel state probe.

The work is an in-depth look at notorious operations by Gülen’s illicit network’s supporters, nested within the state, from the sex tape blackmail that plotted to topple the former opposition leader Deniz Baykal to the murder of Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink.

The book also said that the police officers, involved in the killing of the suspected Hezbollah member, have been removed from duty in the wake of the Dec. 17 massive corruption and graft investigation. 

PARALLEL THREAT TO FAMILY OF ‘UNSOLVED MURDER’ VICTIM

The family members of the victim never heard from him over 16 years ever since the day he had been abducted in a Toros car. His son tried to trace his father for several times but could not have any response about his father's fate until Turkey's Yenişafak called him to inform of his father's death on Wednesday.

The son of Cezvet Soysal said that the police threatened to kill him if he insisted to track the whereabouts of his father, speaking to Yenişafak in a phone interview.

“A police warned me not to press this issue. Otherwise, I would have shared the same fate as my father,” said Mücahit Soysal, who was just two at the time when his father disappeared.

"The police officer shouted at me saying not to visit the police department once again. Otherwise, I would get into big trouble.”

GULEN’S FOLLOWERS WORK THEIR MAGIC ‘ILLEGALLY’

The confidential informant, a one-time Glen follower, confirmed all the facts and the claims, which have been brought to daylight in the book.

“The officers, embedded within the police, have been involved in several illegal activities to prove their high performance in the terror fight. This fact was clarified in the wake of the Dec. 17 investigation,” said the informant.

On Dec. 17, surprise police raids targeted allies of the then-Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his inner circle, sending shockwaves through his cabinet, months before the March 30 elections in which the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AK Party took the lead.

RAMPANT TORTURE AND ARBITRARY DETENTION

Among the Kurds, taken by Gülen’s supporters on suspicion of being linked to Hezbollah, is Kazım Uysal who was tortured in the basement of the Batman police department in 1999’s June.

“They handcuffed my hands behind me. They covered my face with a ski mask. They trampled on my body they had covered with a cardboard,” said Uysal in his phone interview with Yenişafak.

Uysal was stopped on his way home from the Batman state hospital by police officers driving a civilian car. The police pushed him into the car and took him for interrogation at the police department, where he was tortured for 24 days with his hands bound behind his back and his eyes blindfolded.

“Then, they took me into a garbage-dumping field where a police officer officially detained me. The court sentenced me six years in prison,” said Uysal.

Uysal added that the officers, who kidnapped him, called each other “yes my major”, “my commander”, pretending to be a member of JITEM.

This year, the 33rd International Istanbul Book Fair will witness over 850 publishers from all over the world, plus panels, seminars and workshops among a total of 270 activities.

Speaking at the ceremony, Zoltan Balog, the minister of human resources of Hungary -- the fair's guest of honor -- said that the translation of books between Turkish and Hungarian and book fairs connect the two cultures.

"Many of you might not have chance to go to Hungary but the Hungarian books that visitors buy will be an invitation to our country. They will see centuries-old friendship betweenTurkey and Hungary," he added.

Hungarian pavilion at the international book fair will host the country's leading writers such as Peter Esterhazy, Laszlo Darvas and Dora Csanyi, Katalin Szegedi.

Also delivering a speech at the ceremony, Turkish movie critic and this year's honorary writer of the fair, Atilla Dorsay, said that "being the honorary writer is very important for me not only because it is the 100th year of the Turkish cinema but Turkey made huge progress this year in many areas like cinema, literature and music."

The TUYAP Fair in Istanbul's Beylikduzu district will run with the theme of '100 years of Turkish cinema' in celebration of the centennial of Turkish cinema industry.

The fair includes a large number of interviews, panels, music recitals and exhibitions that witness the century-long journey of cinema in Turkey.

The book fair also will bring together 40 foreign writers and scriptwriters such as Polish author Janusz Glowacki, movie critic and history writer Philip Kemp and novelist Tess Gerritsen.

Publications by The Anadolu Agency will also be on show.

From the 'Anadolu Agency Was There' series will be: "The Orphaned Nation: Syria"; "The Incomplete Revolution: Egypt" and; "War, Blockade, Resistance: Gaza."

The fair can be visited between 10.00 a.m. to 7.00 p.m. every day until November 16. As in previous years, the fair will be free for students and teachers, while the entrance for other visitors will be 5 Turkish Lira.