Türkiye: Solidarity with writer Aslı Erdoğan as book bans continue

Photo: CC BY-SA 4.0

27 April 2023 – The Turkish authorities should lift all restrictions against Aslı Erdoğan’s book Not Even the Silence Belongs to You Anymore, PEN International said today. PEN International expresses solidarity with Erdoğan and other writers in Türkiye in the wake of a growing number of books banned or sold in with restrictions in the country.

On 24 November 2022, the Karşıyaka High Court upheld the decision of the disciplinary board of Izmir No. 3 T Type Closed Prison, Western Türkiye, to confiscate Aslı Erdoğan’s book Not Even the Silence Belongs to You Anymore, on the grounds that the book defamed the Turkish state, military, and police, that it spread terror propaganda and that it offended the Turkish nation, amongst other things. Aslı Erdoğan spoke out against the ban in April 2023, stating that the ‘the court decision is a punishment for all those who criticize state violence, that is clear. But also, I interpret this as an attempt to prevent all solidarity actions with political prisoners and between writers of Turkish and Kurdish.’ Erdoğan further described how imprisoned Kurdish poet erdAgron, who notably translated her novel The Stone Building into Kurdish in 2020, recently saw his handwritten translation of her novel The City in Crimson Cloak confiscated by prison authorities.

‘PEN International stands in solidarity with Aslı Erdoğan, and the myriad writers whose books have been banned or restricted on spurious grounds in Türkiye. All baseless restrictions must be lifted at once. We are further concerned by attempts to prevent translation of books into Kurdish. We urge the Turkish authorities to respect Kurdish language and linguistic rights, including by promoting translations of texts to and from Kurdish’ said Burhan Sonmez, PEN International President.

Addition information

Not Even the Silence Belongs to You Anymore by Aslı Erdoğan is a prize-winning collection of essays and articles first published in France in 2016, when Erdoğan was wrongfully imprisoned. The book was subsequently translated into several languages. In March 2023, PEN International issued a statement condemning a string of book bans and restrictions in Türkiye, including against writer Yavuz Ekinci and PEN member Murat Kahraman, and urging the authorities to end their baseless campaign against reading materials. According to a joint statement by PEN Türkiye, the Turkish Publishers Association and the Turkish Writers Union, 36 books were branded ‘obscene’ between July 2018 and December 2022. In 2022, a total of 10 books, including eight children’s books, were declared harmful.

In September 2022, the Assembly of Delegates of PEN International adopted a resolution on the repression of Kurdish language and culture in Türkiye, which specifically called on the authorities to respect the right of Kurdish people to use and promote their own language and culture and to study in their mother tongue. The resolution notably calls on the authorities to promote translation of texts to and from Kurdish.

Aslı Erdoğan was detained on 17 August 2016, following a police raid into her apartment. Her arrest came alongside more than 20 other journalists and employees from Özgür Gündem, a pro-Kurdish opposition daily, which was shut down by decree as part of the state of emergency following the failed coup of 15 July 2016. On 31 August 2016, Istanbul’s Eighth Criminal Court of Peace ordered her arrest on charges of disrupting the unity of the state. She faced aggravated life in prison, without the possibility of parole. Erdoğan was subsequently released on 29 December 2016 after 133 days in detention. PEN International and PEN Centres around the world had actively campaigned for her release. On 13 January 2020, prosecutors requested that Erdoğan be sentenced to up to nine years in prison for ‘making propaganda for a terrorist organisation’. She was acquitted on 14 February 2020. Four months later, the prosecutor appealed against the acquittal to a higher court. Erdoğan was eventually acquitted of all charges on 10 February 2022.

For more information about PEN International’s work on Türkiye please see Impunity Reigns – Writers resist, PEN International’s 2022 Case List, which documents 115 cases of persecuted writers worldwide, including in Türkiye.

For further details contact Aurélia Dondo, Head of Europe and Central Asia Region at PEN International: Aurelia.dondo@pen-international.org