Dispelling Yaşar Kemal/Nobel rumors

       The Swedish Academy's Nobel Prize-point man (for a few more weeks -- Sara Danius is taking over shortly) Peter Englund doesn't often comment about Nobel-related gossip but apparently he's concerned about the Academy's honor being besmirched by some swirling rumors, and so at his weblog he wants to counter claims apparently made in the Turkish media, that the Swedish Academy caved to outside pressure and that's why the just-deceased Yaşar Kemal was denied the Nobel Prize.
       In both English and Swedish (but, disappointingly and oddly, not in Turkish) Englund says: no way. So there.
       (It sounds reasonable enough: why would the Swedish Academy care about the possible (Kurdish, Turkish) interest groups that might care about this, one way or another ?)
       Englund proudly defends the honor of the institution:

From time to time the Academy is subjected to campaigns, mostly about promoting an author, sometimes about trying to do the opposite thing. It never works. At least not as intended. If it has an effect, it is in the form of a backfire of sorts. The Academy is in all respects an independent body, and reacts almost vehemently to attempts to tell us what we should or should not do.

       The petulant 'backfire' admission is anything but reassuring -- after all, who is to say interested parties, recognizing this, wouldn't approach furthering their interests in this way (by pretending to undermine them, trying to influence the Academy to do the opposite of their real ends ...) ? And human psychology suggests it's hard to maintain true objectivity in the face of any sort of outside pressure -- but I imagine that for the most part it is true enough.
       Still, for all its 'independence', it would be foolish not to realize that there are surely a lot of (personal and institutional) agendas constantly in play in the hallowed Academy halls.