Despite every­thing, a book of satir­i­cal car­toons titled “Duvar­ları Delen Çizgiler” (Lines that pierce through the walls) has been pub­lished in Turkey, to accom­pa­ny a trav­el­ling exhibition.


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The exhi­bi­tion “Duvar­ları Delen Çizgiler” is present­ly in Istan­bul. It could be seen on Octo­ber 12 and 13 in the meet­ing place of the asso­ci­a­tion Divriği Kültür Derneği, in the Bey­oğlu neigh­bor­hood. Both the project of the exhi­bi­tion and of the book are the ini­tia­tive of Görülmüştür.org, a col­lec­tive and web­site that col­lects address­es of polit­i­cal pris­on­ers in Turkey.

livre Turquie caricaturesMore than a year ago in Turkey, con­trib­u­tors to the web­site began attempt­ing to col­lect draw­ings and satir­i­cal car­toons done by pris­on­ers. The works of twen­ty-two pris­on­ers appear in the book, includ­ing Barış İnan, Cenan Genç, Hüseyin Yıldırım, Mehmet Enes Tunç, Mehmet Boğatekin, Melih Gür­ler, Ömer Özdu­rak, Ser­dar Sürücü, Aynur Epli, Menaf Osman, Özlem Özdemir, Zehra Doğan…

And of course, all the draw­ings bear the famous stamp from the “cen­sor­ship com­mis­sions” found in all the pris­ons. “Görülmüştür” (“seen” in Turkish).

Adil Okay from the Görülmüstür team who sent the book to sev­er­al pris­on­ers in dif­fer­ent pris­ons, tells in an inter­view on Duvar how the book and exhi­bi­tion came to be. He denounces also how this book – although it is absolute­ly not list­ed on the “for­bid­den books list”, is cen­sored and its entry is for­bid­den in the jails.

For years now we have con­duct­ed col­lec­tive projects with pris­on­ers and orga­nized exhi­bi­tions. This year, we want­ed to bring the pris­on­ers’ dreams of free­dom out­side, thanks to their own pen­cil strokes.

I attempt­ed to con­tact close to 50 pris­on­ers by vis­it­ing dozens of pris­ons. I sent over one hun­dred rec­om­mend­ed let­ters and fax­es (nor­mal­ly the admin­is­tra­tions have to oblig­a­tion of turn­ing over the fax­es to the pris­on­ers). The let­ters were lost, or were not giv­en to the per­sons they were addressed to, with the excuse of fre­quent “cor­re­spon­dence pro­hi­bi­tions” insti­tut­ed as dis­ci­pli­nary sanction.s Oth­er let­ters were returned ‘not at this address” since forced trans­fers from one prison to anoth­er are also frequent.

After per­sist­ing for 7 months, we col­lect­ed 70 orig­i­nal satir­i­cal car­toons on the theme of “free­dom”. We put togeth­er the exhi­bi­tion, con­tain­ing the works of 22 artists, with the sup­port of the col­lec­tive Homur Mizah Grubu. And the exhi­bi­tion has trav­elled to sev­er­al towns. Then, we pub­lished a book with the pub­lish­er Ütopya Yayınları.

Of course, the first to whom we sent the book were its con­trib­u­tors in jail. While the book pen­e­trat­ed in some ten pris­ons with­out any prob­lems, some pris­ons have begun for­bid­ing its access. One, then two, then the refusals increased…”

The joke being that the draw­ings in the book all car­ry the cen­sor­ship com­mis­sion stamp, and have thus crossed the cen­sor­ship bar­ri­er in Turkey…

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Sey­it Oktay, a writer incar­cer­at­ed in a Type T prison in Tokat, talks about it in a let­ter he sent us,” says Adil Okay: “The fact the book would not be giv­en to me was ver­bal­ized in the deci­sion of pro­hi­bi­tion by the Edu­ca­tion Coun­cil attached to the Admin­is­tra­tion of Type T pris­ons in Tokat. So I was­n’t able to say that this was maybe a joke…They had tak­en this deci­sion because ‘the book con­tains draw­ings and texts that may imper­il the estab­lish­men­t’s secu­ri­ty’. Bare­ly a month ago, a new pack of laws sup­pos­ed­ly ‘widen­ing the field of free­dom of expres­sion” were announced in flam­boy­ant press arti­cles. (…) Unfor­tu­nate­ly the draw­ings done in prison, and that could escape it, once trans­formed into a book, could not make their way back through the walls of our prison again.”

Adil Okay con­tin­ues: “I would like to add the fol­low­ing… As you know, fol­low­ing the coup on Sep­tem­ber 12 1980, pris­ons in Turkey were trans­formed from “cen­ters for the reha­bil­i­ta­tion of detainees” into lab­o­ra­to­ries for the loss of iden­ti­ty. Even if there have been breathers fol­low­ing strug­gles, it is still the king­dom of the arbi­trary. We know this arbi­trari­ness well, through prac­tices and deci­sions that are not only ille­gal but often devoid of all con­science on the part of prison direc­tors, guards and edu­ca­tion com­mis­sions. The infor­ma­tion and the com­plaints we received con­cern­ing base­less prac­tices of a total­ly arbi­trary nature, the pro­hi­bi­tion of books, news­pa­pers, cor­re­spon­dence, forced strip search­es, mil­i­tary-style roll calls, med­ical exam­i­na­tions while hand­cuffed, and even child­births while hand­cuffed, tor­ture and forced transfers…”

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The law con­cern­ing books in prison is crys­tal clear: “Entry into the estab­lish­ment is autho­rized by the admin­is­tra­tion for print­ed edi­tions that will be put into the library, or if brought by the pris­on­ers or sent from the exte­ri­or, con­di­tion­al on their entry and dis­tri­b­u­tion on the cam­pus­es not being for­bid­den by a court deci­sion. (3/2/1994–94/5382K)” In short, any pro­hitibion decid­ed by the admin­is­tra­tion, if not based on a deci­sion of jus­tice, is arbi­trary and illegal.

Adil Okay said: “In the lat­est news, at Diyarbakir prison, the book was also refused to Mr. Enes Tunç who work appears in it. He then filed a request by legal means. The judge refused his request. He turned to the Penal Court and says he will go all the way to the Con­sti­tu­tion­al Tri­bunal… The pris­on­ers are fight­ing for our rights as well as for their own. They must fight, even to read a book.”

Adil spec­i­fies that arti­cle 64 of the Con­sti­tu­tion states that the State pro­vides sup­port to artists and artis­tic activ­i­ties. “This is what the Con­sti­tu­tion says but when the artists are con­sid­ered ‘oppo­nents”, the laws no longer apply. And despite all the laws, legal book become ille­gal in jail. We must­n’t aban­don the pris­on­ers to their strug­gle. Sup­port­ing them in their efforts to read is also a duty for poets, authors and journalists…”

Adil Okay clos­es with a mes­sage for the Turk­ish Min­is­ter of Jus­tice, “If these laws exist then undo these con­tra­dic­to­ry prac­tices and bring pro­ceed­ings against arbi­trary cen­sors. Oth­er­wise, one way or anoth­er, we will make our way through the pro­hi­bi­tions, just as these artists pierced the prison walls with their pencils.”

  • Plus aucune dif­férence entre l’ex­térieur et intérieur…
    No more dif­fer­ences between out­side and inside…

Lead Pho­to: One of the pre­vi­ous exhi­bi­tions in Adana.

Translation by Renée Lucie Bourges
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