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Manuscripts of Armenian Genocide Books Confiscated from Arrested
Turkish Publisher
11.07.2011 10:13 epress.am
Publisher and Director of Belge Publishing House Ragip Zarakolu
(pictured), a member of Turkish PEN and chair of Turkey's Freedom to
Publish Committee, is one of more than 40 activists who were detained
in Istanbul on Friday, according to PEN and the International
Publishers Association. The arrests are part of a crackdown against
Kurdish political parties which has seen more than 1,800 supporters of
the banned Koma Civakên Kurdistan party jailed since 2009.
Zarakolu founded Belge in 1977 and has tested publishing restrictions
in Turkey ever since by releasing controversial books from Armenian,
Greek and Kurdish authors in Turkish editions, including books
documenting the Armenian genocide, reports The Guardian. His office
was firebombed by a right-wing extremist group in 1995, said PEN, he
was banned from leaving Turkey between 1971 and 1991 and he has been
the subject of repeated charges, most recently being fined for
releasing Mehmet Güler's The KCK File/The Global State and Kurds
Without a State in March 2011.
Zarakolu is accused of being a Kurdish Communities Union (KCK)
executive, is currently kept at the Metris high-security prison while
his son Deniz Zarakolu, the other editor at Belge Publishing House, is
under arrest at the Edirne Prison, reports BÄ°A News Center.
In his first letter sent from prison through his lawyer Ã-zcan Kiliç,
Ragip Zarakolu said: `My arrest and the accusation of membership of an
illegal organization are parts of a campaign aiming to intimidate all
intellectuals and democrats of Turkey and particularly to deprive the
Kurds of any support.'
Zarakolu said that during the raid to his house the police confiscated
only few books as `evidences of crime' and found nothing about his
so-called relations with any organization.
The books that confiscated as evidences of crime are the 2nd volume of
Vatansiz Gazeteci (Stateless Journalist) by Dogan Ã-zgüden, chief
editor of Info-Türk, Habiba by Ender Ã-ndes, Peace Process by Yüksel
Genç, manuscripts of three books about the Genocide of Armenians and
Armenian History.
He added that at the police headquarters, all his bank and credit
cards were confiscated.
Reminding that he is invited as speaker to many conferences abroad,
mainly next week to Berlin, later on to the US University Colgate, Los
Angeles and Michigan, Zarakolu said: `The government should give them
an answer explaining the real reason of my arrest.'
Zarakolu concluded his letter with the following appeal:
`During my interrogation, they did not ask any question about the
organization of which I was accused of being a member. They questioned
me only about the books that I wrote or edited for publication, the
public meetings where I spoke or attended. I think that everybody
should jointly react against this campaign of arrests that turns into
a collective lynching. These illegal practices should be stopped.'
Turkish Publisher
11.07.2011 10:13 epress.am
Publisher and Director of Belge Publishing House Ragip Zarakolu
(pictured), a member of Turkish PEN and chair of Turkey's Freedom to
Publish Committee, is one of more than 40 activists who were detained
in Istanbul on Friday, according to PEN and the International
Publishers Association. The arrests are part of a crackdown against
Kurdish political parties which has seen more than 1,800 supporters of
the banned Koma Civakên Kurdistan party jailed since 2009.
Zarakolu founded Belge in 1977 and has tested publishing restrictions
in Turkey ever since by releasing controversial books from Armenian,
Greek and Kurdish authors in Turkish editions, including books
documenting the Armenian genocide, reports The Guardian. His office
was firebombed by a right-wing extremist group in 1995, said PEN, he
was banned from leaving Turkey between 1971 and 1991 and he has been
the subject of repeated charges, most recently being fined for
releasing Mehmet Güler's The KCK File/The Global State and Kurds
Without a State in March 2011.
Zarakolu is accused of being a Kurdish Communities Union (KCK)
executive, is currently kept at the Metris high-security prison while
his son Deniz Zarakolu, the other editor at Belge Publishing House, is
under arrest at the Edirne Prison, reports BÄ°A News Center.
In his first letter sent from prison through his lawyer Ã-zcan Kiliç,
Ragip Zarakolu said: `My arrest and the accusation of membership of an
illegal organization are parts of a campaign aiming to intimidate all
intellectuals and democrats of Turkey and particularly to deprive the
Kurds of any support.'
Zarakolu said that during the raid to his house the police confiscated
only few books as `evidences of crime' and found nothing about his
so-called relations with any organization.
The books that confiscated as evidences of crime are the 2nd volume of
Vatansiz Gazeteci (Stateless Journalist) by Dogan Ã-zgüden, chief
editor of Info-Türk, Habiba by Ender Ã-ndes, Peace Process by Yüksel
Genç, manuscripts of three books about the Genocide of Armenians and
Armenian History.
He added that at the police headquarters, all his bank and credit
cards were confiscated.
Reminding that he is invited as speaker to many conferences abroad,
mainly next week to Berlin, later on to the US University Colgate, Los
Angeles and Michigan, Zarakolu said: `The government should give them
an answer explaining the real reason of my arrest.'
Zarakolu concluded his letter with the following appeal:
`During my interrogation, they did not ask any question about the
organization of which I was accused of being a member. They questioned
me only about the books that I wrote or edited for publication, the
public meetings where I spoke or attended. I think that everybody
should jointly react against this campaign of arrests that turns into
a collective lynching. These illegal practices should be stopped.'