Publisher honoured for courage to publish Kurdish books in Turkey

KurdishMedia, UK
April 21 2005

21/04/2005 — International Freedom of Expression Exchange Abdullah
Keskin, a publisher who has been legally persecuted in Turkey for
publishing books in Kurdish, has won the 2005 Jeri Laber International
Freedom to Publish Award.

The annual prize honours book publishers outside the United States
who show courage in the face of political persecution and restrictions
on freedom of expression.

Keskin is the co-founder of Avesta, the first company in Turkey to
publish books in Kurdish, a language that was banned until recently.
Since its launch in 1996, Avesta has published more than 200 books
in Kurdish, Turkish and French.

More than 10 of Avesta’s books have been banned under Turkey’s
Anti-Terrorist Law, including a translation of former “Washington
Post” reporter Jonathan Randal’s book “After such Knowledge, What
Forgiveness: My Encounters with Kurdistan”. Keskin has also been
charged with disseminating “separatist propaganda.”

Although the Turkish government has relaxed restrictions on freedom
of expression in its bid to enter the European Union, writings on
Kurdish issues are still considered “dangerous” information.

Keskin will be honoured with the award at PEN American Center’s annual
Gala dinner in New York City on 20 April 2005.

The Jeri Laber International Freedom to Publish Award is administered
by the Association of American Publishers’ International Freedom to
Publish Committee.

For more information, visit: – Jeri Laber Award – AAP International
Freedom to Publish Committee – Writings by Jeri Laber

International Freedom of Expression Exchange

Turkish Publisher to Receive 2005 Jeri Laber International Freedom
to Publish Award

New York, New York, April 4, 2005-Abdullah Keskin, the courageous
Turkish publisher of Avesta, has been selected as the 2005 recipient
of the Jeri Laber International Freedom to Publish Award. He is being
recognized for his long commitment to Kurdish writings in the face
of great political obstacles-and personal peril-over the past decade.
The annual award, given for the third year by the International Freedom
to Publish Committee (IFTPC) of the Association of American Publishers,
will be officially presented at PEN’s annual Gala on April 20, 2005
at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.

Hal Fessenden, chair of the International Freedom to Publish
Committee, said “Abdullah has courageously published politically
sensitive books on Kurdish issues, books long banned in Turkey,
books on current affairs, women’s studies, Mesopotamian culture,
and classics of Eastern and Western literature. We’re delighted to
recognize Abdullah with this award for his unfaltering commitment to
freedom of expression and for publishing such a rich and varied list.”

Abdullah Keskin was born in the Kurdish town of Nusaybin, in eastern
Turkey, in 1967. He is the eldest of ten children, and the first
person from twenty surrounding villages to go to university. While
at Ankara University, he was arrested and charged with reading an
illegal publication; he was held for five months before his trial,
and then acquitted. In 1992, he became the publisher of a weekly
Kurdish newspaper in Istanbul, one of the first to be published in
this prohibited language in Turkey.

In 1996, together with his wife Ruken Bagdu Keskin and sister Songul
Duraker, Abdullah Keskin founded Avesta, the first company in Turkey
to publish books in Kurdish, then still a prohibited language. They
began with four books in Kurdish, and have now published more than
200 books in Kurdish, Turkish, and French by writers from around the
world and across many genres, including women’s studies, literature,
poetry, travel, science, current affairs, minority studies, and
history. Avesta’s books have also been translated into more then
ten languages, including French, English, German, Bulgarian, Arabic,
Farsi, Norwegian, Swedish, Armenian, and Russian. Books prohibited
in Turkey for 150 years were brought to light through their efforts.

More than ten of Avesta’s books have been banned by the Turkish
State Security Council under Turkey’s Anti-Terrorist Law. These have
ranged from doctoral theses by respected scholars to Washington
Post correspondent Jonathan Randal’s “After Such Knowledge, What
Forgiveness: My Encounters with Kurdistan.” Keskin has been charged
with disseminating “separatist propaganda,” and has faced both
imprisonment and stiff fines. The books remain banned even though
Turkey’s laws have now changed. According to one judge’s statement,
Avesta’s fines could not be reduced because the publisher did not
show sufficient regret for his actions.

Although the Turkish Parliament has in recent years passed
constitutional reforms aimed at enhancing freedom of expression,
writing about – and in – Kurdish remains a sensitive and often
dangerous activity. In a recent meeting with a delegation of American
publishers, Keskin wisely commented that while he was not currently
on trial, he was only “storing the coffin” for future use. Throughout
his trials, and despite widespread publicity campaigns to discredit
Avesta’s work, Abdullah Keskin has never retreated from his commitment
to freedom of expression.

“I am pleased this year’s prize is being presented to a
Kurdish-language publisher,” said Keskin, reached in Istanbul.
“Throughout the Kurds’ modern history, our ability to express ourselves
and our culture freely has been repressed. I hope the work of Avesta
and the authors we work with can contribute to the widening of freedoms
enjoyed by Kurds.”

The International Freedom to Publish Award recognizes a book publisher
outside the United States who has demonstrated courage and fortitude
in the face of political persecution and restrictions on freedom of
expression. The award is named in honor of Jeri Laber, one of the
founding members of the IFTPC and the committee’s professional advisor
for more than twenty-five years. She was a founder of Helsinki Watch
(which ultimately became Human Rights Watch), and was its executive
director from 1979 to 1995. Her memoir, The Courage of Strangers:
Coming of Age with the Human Rights Movement, was published in 2002
by Public Affairs Books.

The IFTPC was founded in 1975 by the Association of American Publishers
(AAP). It was one of the first groups in the world formed specifically
to defend and broaden the freedom of the written word and to protect
and promote the rights of book publishers and authors around the
world. Among its activities, the committee monitors and publicizes
free-expression issues around the world, sends fact-finding missions
to countries where free expression is under siege, lobbies both at
home and overseas on behalf of persecuted book publishers, and offers
moral support and practical assistance to threatened publishers abroad.

The AAP is the national trade association of the U.S. book publishing
industry. The AAP’s approximately three hundred members include most
of the major commercial book publishers in the United States, as well
as smaller and nonprofit publishers, university presses, and scholarly
societies. The defense of intellectual freedom at home and freedom of
expression worldwide, the protection of intellectual property rights
in all media, and the promotion of reading and literacy are among
the association’s primary concerns.

PEN American Center and the AAP are partners in ongoing efforts to
protect the freedoms to write, publish, and read in the United States
and to expand these freedoms internationally. Presented at the PEN
Gala in New York, The Jeri Laber International Freedom to Publish
Award, the PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Awards and the
PEN/Newman’s Own First Amendment Award all serve to draw attention
to women and men who have fought, often at great personal cost,
for these essential freedoms.

PEN American Center