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PUBLISHER AND LEADING TURKISH PEN MEMBER RAGIP ZARAKOLU ARRESTED
Targeted News Service
October 31, 2011 Monday 10:54 PM EST
The PEN American Center issued the following news release:
PEN American Center is shocked to learn that Ragip Zarakolu, a
renowned publisher and a leading advocate for freedom of expression in
Turkey, was arrested on October 28, in what PEN calls "a disturbing
acceleration of violations of the rights of Turkish and Kurdish
activists, writers, and scholars."
Ragip Zarakolu, director of the Belge Publishing House and a member of
the Turkish PEN Center and chair of the Freedom to Publish Committee
of the Turkish Publishers Association, was arrested around 6:00 p.m.
on October 28, 2011, one of at least 40 activists who were detained
in Istanbul on Friday. Turkish authorities have arrested up to 1,000
scholars, writers, publishers, and rights advocates during a two-year
crackdown targeting activists who focus on Kurdish issues. This list
of those arrested Friday also includes Busra Ersanli, a constitutional
law expert and a member of the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party
(BDP). Zarakolu's son, Deniz Zarakolu, who is an editor at Belge
Publishing House and a Ph.D. student at Bilgi University, was arrested
on October 4. It is unclear whether charges have been filed against
any of those arrested in Friday's roundup.
PEN American Center Freedom to Write Program Director Larry Siems
expressed dismay about the most recent wave of arrests, which comes on
the heels of intense military operations against Kurdish rebels after
attacks by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) killed 24 Turkish solders
earlier this month. "It is essential not to confuse the efforts of
those who, like Ragip Zarakolu, have worked to bring down barriers of
censorship in Turkey with those who press political agendas through
violence," said Siems. "Zarakolu is an honored PEN colleague and an
internationally-recognized defender of the right to write and publish
freely. We emphatically protest his arrest."
Zarakolu's staunch belief in free expression, his tireless campaign
against book bannings, and his courage in publishing works that
challenge Turkey's repressive censorship laws have resulted in a
catalog of indictments dating back to the early 1970s. The Belge
Publishing House, which Zarakolu founded with his wife Ayse Nur in
1977, has tested Turkish publishing restrictions by translating and
publishing controversial books from Armenian, Greek, and Kurdish
authors in Turkish editions, including works that documented the
Armenian genocide and the experiences of Turkey's Kurdish minority.
Zarakolu's office was firebombed by a right-wing extremist group
in 1995, and from 1971 to 1991, Zarakolu was banned from traveling
outside Turkey.
Ayse Nur Zarakolu received the PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write
Award in 1997. Since her death in 2002, Ragip Zarakolu has faced an
ongoing barrage of charges, most recently for publishing Mehmet Guler's
The KCK File/The Global State and Kurds Without a State in March 2011.
"Ragip Zarakolu's arrest is a blow to Turkey's efforts to create a
free and open society," said poet and essayist Peter Balakian, whose
memoir Black Dog of Fate: An American Son Uncovers His Armenian Past
was published in a Turkish edition by Belge. "For over four decades
Ragip and his late wife and son have been at the cutting edge of social
change in Turkey, publishing books on subjects that the government
has deemed taboo--especially subjects dealing with minority issues
in Turkey and the histories of minority cultures."
"Ragip Zarakolu has been honored by almost every leading publishing
organization in the world for his courage, his patience, his
intellectual rigor, and his pursuit of genuine democracy," Balakian
added.
Writer, historian, and PEN Member Barbara Goldsmith called Zarakolu's
arrest a matter of urgent concern to writers and publishers around
the world. "Ragip Zarakolu, who has devoted his life to freedom of
thought and expression, human rights, and social justice has been
repeatedly imprisoned and his writing banned in Turkey," Goldsmith
said. "If Zarakolu is not given his freedom, then all of us give up our
freedom to write. If Zarakolu is not free, then none of us are free."
From: Baghdasarian
Targeted News Service
October 31, 2011 Monday 10:54 PM EST
The PEN American Center issued the following news release:
PEN American Center is shocked to learn that Ragip Zarakolu, a
renowned publisher and a leading advocate for freedom of expression in
Turkey, was arrested on October 28, in what PEN calls "a disturbing
acceleration of violations of the rights of Turkish and Kurdish
activists, writers, and scholars."
Ragip Zarakolu, director of the Belge Publishing House and a member of
the Turkish PEN Center and chair of the Freedom to Publish Committee
of the Turkish Publishers Association, was arrested around 6:00 p.m.
on October 28, 2011, one of at least 40 activists who were detained
in Istanbul on Friday. Turkish authorities have arrested up to 1,000
scholars, writers, publishers, and rights advocates during a two-year
crackdown targeting activists who focus on Kurdish issues. This list
of those arrested Friday also includes Busra Ersanli, a constitutional
law expert and a member of the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party
(BDP). Zarakolu's son, Deniz Zarakolu, who is an editor at Belge
Publishing House and a Ph.D. student at Bilgi University, was arrested
on October 4. It is unclear whether charges have been filed against
any of those arrested in Friday's roundup.
PEN American Center Freedom to Write Program Director Larry Siems
expressed dismay about the most recent wave of arrests, which comes on
the heels of intense military operations against Kurdish rebels after
attacks by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) killed 24 Turkish solders
earlier this month. "It is essential not to confuse the efforts of
those who, like Ragip Zarakolu, have worked to bring down barriers of
censorship in Turkey with those who press political agendas through
violence," said Siems. "Zarakolu is an honored PEN colleague and an
internationally-recognized defender of the right to write and publish
freely. We emphatically protest his arrest."
Zarakolu's staunch belief in free expression, his tireless campaign
against book bannings, and his courage in publishing works that
challenge Turkey's repressive censorship laws have resulted in a
catalog of indictments dating back to the early 1970s. The Belge
Publishing House, which Zarakolu founded with his wife Ayse Nur in
1977, has tested Turkish publishing restrictions by translating and
publishing controversial books from Armenian, Greek, and Kurdish
authors in Turkish editions, including works that documented the
Armenian genocide and the experiences of Turkey's Kurdish minority.
Zarakolu's office was firebombed by a right-wing extremist group
in 1995, and from 1971 to 1991, Zarakolu was banned from traveling
outside Turkey.
Ayse Nur Zarakolu received the PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write
Award in 1997. Since her death in 2002, Ragip Zarakolu has faced an
ongoing barrage of charges, most recently for publishing Mehmet Guler's
The KCK File/The Global State and Kurds Without a State in March 2011.
"Ragip Zarakolu's arrest is a blow to Turkey's efforts to create a
free and open society," said poet and essayist Peter Balakian, whose
memoir Black Dog of Fate: An American Son Uncovers His Armenian Past
was published in a Turkish edition by Belge. "For over four decades
Ragip and his late wife and son have been at the cutting edge of social
change in Turkey, publishing books on subjects that the government
has deemed taboo--especially subjects dealing with minority issues
in Turkey and the histories of minority cultures."
"Ragip Zarakolu has been honored by almost every leading publishing
organization in the world for his courage, his patience, his
intellectual rigor, and his pursuit of genuine democracy," Balakian
added.
Writer, historian, and PEN Member Barbara Goldsmith called Zarakolu's
arrest a matter of urgent concern to writers and publishers around
the world. "Ragip Zarakolu, who has devoted his life to freedom of
thought and expression, human rights, and social justice has been
repeatedly imprisoned and his writing banned in Turkey," Goldsmith
said. "If Zarakolu is not given his freedom, then all of us give up our
freedom to write. If Zarakolu is not free, then none of us are free."
From: Baghdasarian