Ragıp Zarakolu is a founding member of the Turkish Human Rights Association (IHD). He is also the chairperson of the Freedom to Publish Committee of the Turkish Publishers Association (TPA/TYB). Zarakolu has been documenting and making public the numerous violations of freedom of expression in Turkey and has been at the forefront of defending other publishers’ freedom to publish and other writers’ freedom to write, including those small Kurdish publishers and writers few people have shown interest in. R. Zarakolu’s report assessing the level of freedom of expression in Turkey can be found here. In late January 2012, 7 Members of the Swedish Parliament from various political parties nominated Ragıp Zarakolu to the Nobel Peace Prize 2012.

Background: Ragıp Zarakolu

Ragıp Zarakolu, born in 1948, started his publishing house Belge with his wife Ayşe Nur in 1977. He has always been an ardent proponent of freedom of thought striving “for an attitude of respect for different thoughts and cultures to become widespread in Turkey”. His work as a publisher and his wholehearted support of freedom to publish have often brought him into conflict with the authorities and endangered his personal safety. Over the years, the charges brought by the Turkish authorities against Ragıp Zarakolu and his wife resulted in attacks, imprisonment, confiscation and destruction of books, and the imposition of heavy fines, endangering the survival of the Belge publishing house. Despite the string of attacks, he has persistently continued to tackle contentious issues, thus encouraging healthy debate and democratization in Turkey. Throughout his publishing career, Ragıp Zarakolu has been singled out by the authorities because of his decades of struggle for freedom of expression, and particularly his promotion of minority rights and his quest for truth, justice and reconciliation.

Arrest of Ragıp Zarakolu

Ragıp Zarakolu was arrested on 28 October 2011 on his way home as part of a larger crackdown initiated in 2009 and still on-going against Kurdish political parties. Ragıp has been held on pre-trial detention since 1 November 2011 under Turkish Anti-Terror Legislation (ATL) for belonging to an illegal organisation, Koma Ciwaken Kurdistan-Kurdistan Communities League (KCK). The KCK would be an umbrella organisation including for instance the PKK. Ragıp Zarakolu’s lawyers’ application for his liberation, pending trial, was rejected. The accusation file has not been finalised yet, thereby raising serious questions about the rule of law in Turkey. Ragıp Zarakolu’s lawyers have therefore filed an application to the European Court of Human Rights, accusing Turkey of violating articles 3, 5 and 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The Secretary General of the Council of Europe, T. Jagland, recently declared that 1,000 of the pending cases before the European Court of Human Rights concern freedom of expression in Turkey. Turkey is actually, year after year, the country which gets the highest number of convictions by the European Court on Human Rights, ahead of Russia. All this is incompatible with the values of a free and democratic society.

 

 “On the BBC’s Hard Talk program, Turkish EU Minister Bağış recently declared that no intellectual or journalist was behind bars in Turkey for being a journalist or an intellectual. He added that only rapists, killers and bank robbers were in prison. In that somewhat highly irrational context, we welcome the recent release of journalists Şık and Şener [although pending trial and after 375 days in prison], and urge the Turkish authorities to show consistency by also releasing 2012 Nobel Peace Prize Nominee publisher Ragıp Zarakolu”. William Nygaard, representing IPA at the Istanbul 15 March freedom of expression rally, said, “The detentions of publisher Zarakolu, academic Ersanlı and many others symbolize Turkey’s fall in all international freedom of expression rankings. The situation is extremely serious. IPA is therefore very concerned and keeps urging the Turkish authorities to release Ragıp Zarakolu, his son Deniz, Büşra Ersanlı, and all the others who are in prison solely for having exercised their right to non-violent freedom of expression immediately. IPA also calls on the Turkish authorities in particular to amend the anti-terror legislation and to abolish Article 301”.

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