Armenia Solidarity
British Armenian All Party Parliamentary Group
Nor Serount Publications
Press Release
Tel 07876561398 or 07718982732
e-mails : eilian@nant.wanadoo.co.uk, eilian@nantperis.wanadoo.co.uk
norserount@btconnec t.com baappg.bazil@btinternet.com
Human Rights issues in Turkey;
An Alternative view on Armenian Genocide Recognition
Speakers: Turkish Publisher and Human Rights activist Ragip Zarakolu and
Murat Aktas
at 4.30 p.m. on Wednesday, 2nd of May 2007
in Committee Room 4 in the House of Lords
The speakers will consider democratic developments in Turkey, the
relationship with the Armenian Genocide,
the treatment of minorities and the role of Europe in these issues.
Biography: Ragip Zarakolu
Professional background
The director and owner of Belge Publishing House, Ragip Zarakolu has been
subject to a lifetime of harassment from the Turkish authorities. After
graduating college in 1968, Zarakolu began writing for magazines such as
Ant and Yeni Ufuklar, both of which focused on issues of social justice in
Turkey. In 1971, a military government assumed power in Turkey and
instituted a crackdown on writers it deemed subversive. Following a
conviction and a three-year stay in prison, Zarakolu steadfastly refused to
abandon his campaign for freedom of thought, striving for an "attitude of
respect for different thoughts and cultures to become widespread in
Turkey." Since his writings were repeatedly banned in Turkey for their
criticism of the country’s military regime, Zarakolu began to turn his
attention to abuses of human rights by governments in South America and
elsewhere.
In 1977, Zarakolu and his wife Ayse Nur founded the Belge Publishing House,
which has been a focus for censorship since its inception. Its publications
have not only drawn the government’s ire. Zarakolu’s office was firebombed
by an extremist rightist group in 1995, forcing it to be housed in a
cellar. Despite the death of his wife in 2002, Zarakolu has continued to
publish writings critical of human rights violations around the world,
especially in his native Turkey.
Case history
Zarakolu’s staunch belief in freedom of expression, his vocal campaign
against book bannings, and his persistence in publishing works that violate
Turkey’s repressive censorship laws have resulted in a catalogue of
indictments dating back to the early 1970s.
His aforementioned 1971 conviction and three-year imprisonment stemmed from
accusations by Turkey’s new military government that Zarakolu was in
cahoots with an international communist organization. In the 30 years since
his release, Zarakolu has continued to defy Turkey’s censorship laws,
especially Article 312 of Turkey’s Penal Code, which outlaws "making
divisive propaganda via publication." The Belge Publishing House operated
under a barrage of charges brought by Turkish authorities against Zarakolu
and his wife. Over the years, such charges resulted in further imprisonment
for the couple, the wholesale confiscation and destruction of books, and
the imposition of heavy fines. Zarakolu’s wife passed away in 2002.
Current status
Ragip Zarakolu is currently being tried in two separate cases for
publishing works deemed "insulting" to the Turkish government.
Representatives from International PEN and the International Human Rights
Federation were present for his most recent trial in Istanbul on June 21,
2006. At this trial, Zarakolu faced charges under Article 301 of the Turkish
Penal Code for the publication of two books by George Jerjian and Professor
Dora Sakayan, with a maximum possible jail sentence of 13.5 years.
George Jerjian’s book, History Will Free Us All, which was considered
"insulting" to the memory of Kemal Atatürk, suggested that close advisors
to Atatürk were responsible for the mass deportation of Armenians in 1915.
It has also been accused of "ridiculing the state," and its publication
carries charges of up to seven and a half years in prison. In response to
claims that "the court is trying a book which it has not read," a new
experts’ committee has been appointed to assess the offensiveness of
History Will Free Us All. In the case regarding Professor Dora Sakayan’s
book, An Armenian Doctor in Turkey: Garabed Hatcherian: My Smyrna Ordeal of
1922, the prosecutor demanded a six-year prison sentence for Zarakolu for
having "insulted the Army" and also "Turkishness" by publishing this book.
Although Zarakolu invited an expert witness to speak in his defence at the
trial, the court refused to hear him. Both cases were adjourned to June 21,
2006, then October 9, and have been now postponed again. A date has not
been set.
The news that the trials against publisher Ragip Zarakolu will drag on for
at least another four months following a prior two-month delay and eight
previous trial dates has been met with increasing alarm that, far from
improving, the state of free expression in Turkey is taking a steep
downward curve.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress