Frankfurt - German prejudices towards Turks, but also Turkish prejudices against Western people, came under scrutiny Saturday at a symposium on the eve of the Frankfurt Book Fair. Turkey and its literature are special guest at the annual publishing trade show, which begins Wednesday.
"We need to probe all the cliches to figure out to what extent they are true," said Murathan Mungan, a leading Turkish author, in a keynote address beginning the two-day conference among intellectuals of the two nations.
The meeting, entitled Imaginary East, Imaginary West, Thinking Trans-culturally, was aimed at discussing the cliches, including the attitudes of Germans to the 1.8 million Turkish nationals living in the country.
Mungan said he was confident that Turkey "and its whole storehouse of values" would ultimately win acceptance in Europe.
The event was jointly organized by the Book Fair and the organizing committee for Turkey's guest-of-honour activities, which include a special pavilion at the fairgrounds and an opening speech by the 2006 Nobel literature prize winner, the Turkish author Orhan Pamuk.
