Many of you answered the call of international associations for the defence of human rights, the defence of artists and journalists, and of… Kedistan, to send postcards to Zehra Doğan.
Beautiful initiatives such as “writing workshops for Zehra” have been organized, during exhibitions or elsewhere. We cannot name them all here.
And since she can’t answer each one of them, the kedis are improvising themselves as mail carriers.
My dear friends,
I would like to address you as “friends” because since I was arrested, you have never left me alone. I’ve received letters and postcards from you all the time. You constantly made me feel your presence, in this narrow place, with two floors of 20 square meters, containing 32 people. It’s a thing beyond metaphysics. I can’t describe that yet. But, thanks to you, I am now even stronger.
You never made me live loneliness. And now I have hundreds of friends, whom I don’t know, whose names I can’t remember. And this situation has brought a new thought to my mind. To feel the warmth of people, is it necessary for them to be close to me? Or, to love them, is it mandatory to see their faces or to know their names? All of this is not absolutely necessary.
If the universe is a macro cosmos; and if we are each a particle of cosmos, as Aristotle said, coming from a whole, forming a whole, if we are all changing parts, we are one. So I know, in a way, that you are me at the same time. And so you breathe for me too, the beautiful air, of which I am unfortunately deprived. Our lives, our futures, our existences are linked like a spiral to each other. Maybe your objection to my state of imprisonment, and that of others, is determined by that?
In each of your letters, I can read your rejection of all other injustices as well. Knowing that so many beautiful people exist in the world makes me and all the prisoners happy. So when I get out some day, we’ll start chatting like we’ve known each other for years.
Thank you for all the letters and postcards you have written so far, and for the hundreds of postcards you have sent me for my birthday. It was the best birthday of my life. I felt reborn from my ashes.
And I would like to clarify that, around here, perhaps because many children are born, birthdays are not celebrated much, and often, forgotten. I cut a birthday cake, I think, only during my college years, and still only some years… And it had given me a feeling that a woman might feel when wearing an outfit in which she is uncomfortable… That’s why I express that, for the first time, I could give meaning to this day, thanks to your letters that found me here, between the four walls. Thank you very much for that.
Loving Zehra.
Note from the kedis :
Yes, definitely, when solidarity is disinterested but active, it is useful for something, proof.
The next step would be to unite all the multiple supports that have emerged over the past two years to demand her release. It’s a battle still not won, and the obstacles on the way are still numerous…
We encourage you to continue this support. You will find ways to do so HERE.
Some pictures?
With the kind permission of the organizer of this 4th writing workshop in Martigues, in the South of France at the Café associatif “les Rallumeurs d’Etoiles”.
Initiated during this support workshop on May 24, a collective realization continues today to gather support around a creative table and to be enriched with new messages.
The street-artist Kider has also caught the markers for Zehra, and his message exposes in big letters the word “ÖZGÜRLÜK” : freedom !
The realization will be sent to Zehra in the coming days.
Zehra Doğan : “Merci pour vos lettres et cartes !” Cliquer pour lire
Zehra Doğan : “Gracias por vuestras cartas y postales” Haga clic par leer