Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk has won the 2006 Nobel prize for Literature.
In giving him the prize, which is worth almost €1.1m, the Swedish Academy said he had 'discovered new symbols for the clash and interlacing of cultures' in writing about his native city of Istanbul.
Mr Pamuk is best known for his third novel, The White Castle.
In December last year he was sent for trial for insulting 'Turkish identity', but the case was later dropped on a technicality.
The case was brought against him by a state prosecutor in Istanbul under article 301 of the criminal code after he talked about the massacre of 1.5m Armenians during World War I, and the deaths of 30,000 Kurds in recent years.
Born in Istanbul in 1952 to a wealthy family, Mr Pamuk abandoned studying to be an architect to write his first book, but struggled to find a publisher.
His novels, which have been translated into dozens of languages, include 'My Name is Red' and 'Snow'.
They deal with the clash between past and present, East and West, secularism and Islamism, often against the colourful backdrop of Istanbul.
