Writers in Turkey under the current regime can be imprisoned for
months or years without any charges being laid. 'Evidence' against them can come
from anonymous sources and be too woolly to counter: someone claims to have
heard an unspecified something at an unspecified date/place that is claimed as
'proof' of an unspecified offence. Punishment by way of jail ‘awaiting
charge/trial’ follows.
The official press release is below. On behalf of the
International Authors Forum we gave it our support.
In an unfortunate coincidence of a footnote, a journalist who had
been at the press conference was prevented from boarding a plane out of Turkey
later that day. It turned out to be nothing more than an overbooked plane but
Turkish writers are routinely jailed for far lesser 'offences' than attending
press conferences and giving interviews. The incident provided further pause
for thought for those of us who attended and were vocal in our support.
It is great that we can take our own freedoms for granted, but
must guard against becoming so blasé that we lose them.
It's to be hoped that Turkey cleans up its act; they'll never be accepted into the EU with this sort of behaviour. I refuse to holiday there because of their abysmal human rights record. Glad you were able to a stand.
ReplyDeleteThe worry for a lot of people is that a blind eye will be turned with cowardly phrases such as 'There are a few human rights issues but things are improving...' We were told firmly that they want the EU to clamp down hard, to force these issues to be addressed properly, but while 'being a writer' is enough to get you locked up, things are way too far away from being 'good enough'.
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