Erzurum Dumlu High Security Closed Prison No. 2 Education Board Directorate prevents books from being given to prisoners on various grounds. Most of the books that are not given to prisoners are books for which there is no court decision. The Board of Education cites Article 12 of the "Library Directive" as the reason for the prevention. Expressions such as "Kurdistan" and "Mountain" in the content of the books are also among the reasons for the ban. Prisoners' applications to Erzurum 1st Execution Judge and Erzurum 1st High Criminal Court have not yet been finalised. 

 

The books "General History of Kurds", "Qêrineke Bêdeng Rindêxan (Silent Scream: Rindêxan)", "The origin of Kurds, proto-Kurds and Mitannis" and "Kurds from the Ottoman Empire to the present" sent to prisoner Ferhat Aksoy were not given to him. There is no court decision on the books in question. The books were claimed to be "objectionable".

 

During the Board's examination, the sentence on pages 198-199 of the book "General History of the Kurds", which reads: "The 19th century Ottoman state oppressed the Kurdish people, burned villages, captured people and beheaded them", was found "objectionable". The Board claimed that "(...) unfounded slanders were made against our history". Quoting the sentence "The 19th century Ottoman State waged war against the Kurds at the expense of establishing sovereignty and dominance over the Kurds and tried to incorporate Kurdistan into its sovereignty" on pages 210, 211 and 212 of the book, it was stated that "An attempt was made to put a black stain on our history".

 

QUOTATIONS USED AS JUSTIFICATION FOR BLOCKING

 

The inclusion of the Agirî (Ağrı) Resistance and the Zilan Massacre on pages 213, 216, 217, 218, 218, 223, 356 and 363 of the book was considered a "threat". It was claimed that the information on the massacre was "slanderous". The Board argued that the content of the book constituted "negative examples". The provision on the removal of objectionable parts from the publication was not applied on the grounds of "security weakness".

 

The book "The origin of the Kurds, proto-Kurds and Mitannis" was deemed "objectionable" due to the inclusion of quotations from Abdullah Öcalan's defences.

 

In the book titled "Kurds from the Ottoman Empire to the present day", the fact that there was a confiscation order on the books cited, criticism of the Armenian Massacre, assimilation, and referring to the province of Erzurum as "Erzurum province within Kurdistan" were used as grounds for the ban.

 

The book "Qêrîneke Bêdeng Rindêxan" was deemed "objectionable" due to statements on assimilation policies against Kurds.

 

THE EXPRESSION 'MOUNTAIN' WAS DEEMED 'ORGANIZATION PRAISE'

 

The book "Girti (Captive)" sent to prisoner Mazlum Aksaç was not given to him on 17 May 2024 on the grounds that it was "objectionable", although there was no "confiscation" or "seizure" order. Statements about the banning of the Kurdish language and police torture against Kurdish citizens and children were justified as "objectionable".

 

On page 156 of the book, "The mountain was friendly. The mountain was not as treacherous and unfortunate as they were" was considered as "organization praise".

 

The book "History of Freedom from Spartacus to Mazdek" sent to prisoner Müjdat Akten was not given to him because it contains quotes from Abdullah Öcalan's words and books.

 

TAKING 'INSPIRATION' IS A CRIME!

 

The books "Armageddon of Modernity", "Divine Law and Sociology", "Social Gospel", "Smile O Dersim", "No Death for Us", "My Memoirs" and "The Sun of Courage: Mahir Çayan" sent to prisoner Cihan Gökalp were deemed "objectionable". The committee claimed that the books would create a "security weakness".

 

In the foreword of author Nevzat Çapkın's book "Armageddon of Modernity", it was claimed that he referred to Abdullah Öcalan with the words "Öcalan's work on democratic civilisation inspired my concentration" and that the book was therefore "objectionable".

 

The violations against Kurds, criticisms and evaluations of the Ottoman and Turkish Republic processes, and the banned books quoted in Nuri Dersimi's book "My Memoirs" were also listed as grounds for "objection".

 

In Munzur Çem's book "Smile, O Dersim", criticism of the founding period of the republic was cited as grounds for the ban.

 

The inclusion of attacks against Alevis in Ergin Doğru's story book "No Death for Us" was considered as "insulting the military and police". Torture was described as "slander". In the evaluation part of the judgement, it was stated that "(...) when the book is examined in its entirety, it mentions that the state deliberately carried out a massacre against Alevi Kurds and that unfounded, ugly and baseless slanders such as torture, rape and persecution of citizens by law enforcement officers are made."

 

PRAISE OF MAHIR ÇAYAN

 

The book titled "The Sun of Courage: Mahir Çayan", including the expression "martyr of the revolution" and praising Mahir Çayan were among the grounds for "inconvenience".

 

Metin Aktaş's books "Yezda", "Burseya Mountain" and "Marksman" sent to prisoner Hümmet Deniz were not given. The decision cited the colours representing the YPG flag on the front cover and the star on the back cover as reasons for the ban.

 

The YPG's struggle against ISIS was evaluated as "a glorification of the YPG". In the book "Burseya Mountain", the criticism of the Turkish Armed Forces' attacks on Êfrîn (Afrin) and the statements that FSA militia were settled there were described as "baseless".

 

The following evaluation of the book drew attention: "(...) the book as a whole contains unfounded slanders such as the State of the Republic of Turkey and its organisations deliberately massacring civilians in northern Syria."

 

In the book "Marksman", "The ignored freedom rebellion of a people" and the evaluations on the Sheikh Said rebellion were used as justification for not giving the book.

 

MA / Müjdat Can