Meral ŞIMŞEK
Throughout 2024, writer, poet, and Kurdish PEN member Meral Şimşek continued to be on trial, appealing against a 15-month prison sentence imposed by the Malatya 2nd High Criminal Court in Malatya province, eastern Türkiye on 7 October 2021, after it convicted her of ‘making terrorist propaganda’.
Anti-terror police detained Şimşek on 9 December 2020; she was released the following day pending trial and placed under a travel ban. In January 2021, she was charged with ‘membership of a terrorist organisation’ and ‘making terrorist propaganda’. The indictment mentions Şimşek’s short story Arzela, featured in the anthology Kurdistan + 100, in which 12 contemporary Kurdish writers imagine a country they could call their own by the year 2046. Şimşek was found guilty of ‘making terrorist propaganda’ and sentenced to 15 months in prison. The court acquitted her of the charge of ‘membership of a terrorist organisation’ and lifted her travel ban.
Şimşek attempted to flee to Greece on 29 June 2021 but was apprehended by Greek police who reportedly stopped and strip-searched her before handing her over to masked individuals who forced her to cross the border back into Türkiye. On 30 June, she was detained by police at the Ipsala border crossing, north-western Türkiye, and sent to Edirne Prison, where she spent seven days before appearing in court. She was released and asked to report to the police station three times a week. On 20 September 2022, a court in Ipsala found her guilty of ‘entering a restricted military area’ and sentenced her to one year and eight months in prison. Her appeal in this second trial was also ongoing as of 31 December 2024.
Meral Şimşek, born in 1980, is the prize-winning author of three poetry books – Mülteci Düşler (Refugee Dreams), Ateşe Bulut Yağdıran (Clouds on Fire) and İncir Karası (Black Fig). Her novel Nar Lekesi (Pomegranate Stain), published in 2017, tells the story of Şimşek’s family and sheds light on the plight of Kurdish people in Türkiye in the 1990s. Her latest collection of short stories, Arzela, was published in April 2022. Some of her poems and stories have been translated into German, English and French. She currently resides in Germany and is a member of PEN Berlin.