Turkey’s Nobel laureate, Orhan Pamuk, has apparently left the country for Latin America but will eventually return, according to his lover, Karolin Fişekçi, who has become an object of intense media scrutiny since news of their relationship came to light.

“I do not fear losing Orhan. I am trying to explore and experience him. To possess is to capture. It is an objective concept; for that reason, I try not to possess Orhan. I let him be free,” Fişekçi, a Turkish-Armenian artist, told the Hürriyet Daily News in a recent interview.

Fişekçi said her relationship with Pamuk was going through a traumatic period, but refused to comment any further.

She has been heavily criticized in the media and her identity as an artist has come under fire in recent days, she said.

News of the Nobel laureate’s two-and-a-half-year relationship with Fişekçi broke out amid rumors of an ongoing affair between Pamuk and Kiran Desai, a prominent writer of Indian origin.

They had not yet met each other’s families, Fişekçi said, but refused to answer whether they had any plans to get married, HDN reported.