Fol­low­ing a judi­cia­ry deci­sion ban­ning his book “Roja­va: Kürt­lerin Zamanı” (Roja­va: the time of the Kurds) Turk­ish inves­tiga­tive reporter Fehim Taştekin, whose reports on Syr­ia have aroused inter­est in the gen­er­al pub­lic, pub­lished a reac­tion on his Twit­ter account Wednesday.

Fol­low­ing the ver­dict ren­dered by the tri­bunal in the town of Kah­ta, province of Adıya­man in east­ern Turkey, sale of Taştekin’s book was for­bid­den on the grounds it con­sti­tutes “ter­ror­ist pro­pa­gan­da”. In his tweet, Taştekin under­lines the absur­di­ty of the tribunal’s deci­sion which accus­es the book of hav­ing the “prop­er­ties” of a ter­ror­ist organization.

Also under­lin­ing the fact the book was pub­lished in all legal­i­ty and was not sub­ject­ed to a judi­cia­ry inves­ti­ga­tion, Taştekin also crit­i­cized the fact his book was tak­en as proof of “ter­ror­ist pro­pa­gan­da” in indict­ments against oth­er per­sons accused of “ter­ror­ism” and “crimes”.

Mithat San­car, pro­fes­sor and par­lia­men­tary mem­ber for the People’s Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty (HDP), ques­tioned par­lia­men­tar­i­ans and the Turk­ish Prime Min­is­ter con­cern­ing three books that have been banned recent­ly – that of Fehim Taştekin and two oth­ers, “Biraku­jî” (Feud between Broth­ers) by Faysal Dağlı, and “Kürt Tar­i­hi” (Kur­dish His­to­ry) by Aytekin Gezici.

Refer­ring to arti­cle 28 of the Turk­ish Con­sti­tu­tion which states: “The press is free and can­not be cen­sored”, San­car put the fol­low­ing ques­tions to the Prime Min­is­ter: “How can you qual­i­fy a book of being a ter­ror­ist orga­ni­za­tion? How many books are present­ly banned in Turkey? Which books are they? Is the ban on their sale and their dis­tri­b­u­tion in con­for­mi­ty with the con­sti­tu­tion and with inter­na­tion­al laws con­cern­ing human rights? What kind of pre­cau­tions to you intend to put in place to for­bid such bans?”

Click to enlarge

Trans­la­tion of the Tweets:

I feel the need to clar­i­fy the hor­rors cir­cu­lat­ing around the book I wrote on Roja­va and the Kurds. With your per­mis­sion, I’ll express myself over sev­er­al publications:

1- My book titled “Roja­va: the time of the Kurds” in which I tell the recent his­to­ry and most recent peri­od of the Kurds in Syr­ia has been unfor­tu­nate­ly banned by the tribunal.

2- Pri­or to this, copies of “Roja­va: the time of the Kurds” found in the homes of mem­bers of Eğitim-Sen [teach­ers’ union] and con­fis­cat­ed, were used as evi­dence against these persons.

3- In Ankara again, my book was con­fis­cat­ed from the home of a teacher who was arrest­ed for a tweet, and includ­ed as evi­dence against him.

4- When our pre­cious col­league Aydın Engin was arrest­ed in the con­text of the Cumhuriyet tri­al, he was sub­ject­ed to an inter­ro­ga­tion where he was forced to admit hav­ing the book in his pos­ses­sion at home.

5- Recent­ly, Ali Bozan, one of the lawyers for the IHD [Human Rights Asso­ci­a­tion] arrest­ed in Mersin, was accused of belong­ing to an orga­ni­za­tion [ter­ror­ist] based on the pres­ence of the Roja­va book con­fis­cat­ed from his home.

6 & 7- Me Bozan was sub­ject­ed to insane ques­tions such as: “To what pur­pose did you have this orga­ni­za­tion­al book in your home?” , “Did you lodge any com­plaint what­so­ev­er to the author­i­ties con­cern­ing this book?”,“To whom did you com­mu­ni­cate instruc­tions on the orga­ni­za­tion­al top­ics includ­ed in the book’s content?”

8- It so hap­pens that, “Roja­va: the time of the Kurds” is a book pub­lished in all legal­i­ty which wasn’t sub­ject­ed to any inves­ti­ga­tion in the past year.

9- It is obvi­ous they need­ed proof to “burn” cer­tain per­sons, and a book with the title “Roja­va” suit­ed their purpose.

10- The fact of using a book that isn’t banned as proof of a crime is null and void. More­over, pos­ses­sion of a banned book is not ille­gal and can­not be so.

11- In order to delete the con­tra­dic­tion between “using” a legal book as “proof of a crime”, there was need to ban the book also.

12- Respon­si­bil­i­ty for ban­ning the book fell on the Crim­i­nal Court in Kah­ta. The ver­dict stip­u­lates “book demon­strat­ing the prop­er­ties of a ter­ror­ist orga­ni­za­tion”.

13- The lawyer appealed, spec­i­fy­ing that the book is not pro­pa­gan­da but research done with an objec­tive approach to the parties.

14-Our work con­sists of tes­ti­fy­ing and writ­ing what is observed. I did not betray the real­i­ties I saw and heard, and I will not betray them.

15- The fact of writ­ing about the most sear­ing real­i­ties can­not be a crime. This book can­not be evi­dence used against its read­ers. This book can­ot be a “ter­ror­ist organization”.

16- Accus­ing of ter­ror­ist pro­pa­gan­da per­sons whose only demands are Peace is immoral. I have noth­ing else to say.


Français : “Roja­va, le Temps des Kur­des”, livre de Fehim Taştekin, inter­dit Cliquez pour lire

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