Plagiarism For Idiots

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Hürriyet Newspaper, 14 April 2018)


           The resemblance is, ugh, uncanny.

Nurşen Karayanız published a book entitled "Kıyamet Çiçeği"
(Judgement Day Flower)  that is an exact copy, line for line
and word for word, of Zülfü Livaneli's "Kardeşim Hikayesi"
(My Brother's Story).  The book's publisher, Kariyer Yanınları,
issued a statement when the incident became known, asking
forgiveness from the public and removed copies from bookstores,
as well.

Kariyer stated that they have abrogated their agreement with
Karayanız and that a suit is planned in relation to her having
involved Kariyer in this plagiarism incident.  Kariye added that
"Nurşen Karayanız brought a manuscript to us for publication.
Our editors looked it over and noticed that certain quotes from
Livaneli's book were circulating on social media were exactly
the same as those in Karayanız's "book".  Nevertheless, after
being asked about this "coincidence", Karayanız assured our
editors that the words in her "book" were her own.   Footnotes
were added to denote a Livaneli "quote" and the "book" was
published."


                                   "What?"

"Since our editors had not read Livaneli's book they were unable
to discover the plagiarism, which surfaced after publication. There
has to be trust among publishers. Although Karayanız was warned
prior to publication, she misused our trust.  We are extremely sorry
that Nurşen Karayanız got us mixed up in this incident and we ask
the public's forgiveness."

Livaneli himself was bewildered by the affair, especially because
it came to light on the same day that his "Kardeşimin Hikayesi"
was published in Russian.  He said "I don't know what to say.
Why did our young friend deem such a thing necessary?  How
could it have been published?  It would have been better if she
had written a book in the "inspired by" category and this whole
unfortunate episode could have been avoided.  Plagiarism has
increased recently but I don't know of any such a word-for-word
copying.  My publisher and translators worked feverishly to
prepare my book's Russian version and then we heard about this
travesty.  I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings but I hope this
bizarre behavior won't be repeated.  The most damage has been
done to herself."



           "I don't get it.  I just don't get it."