Turkey: Short lived freedom for three books, poem censored

“Despite the ban on book lifted under Judicial Pack 3, nine days after the legal statutory period, three books by Umut Publishing were decided to be confiscated,” wrote Antenna TR in the Freedom of Expression Weekly Bulletin on 1 March 2013.

İstanbul 3rd Magistrate assigned to Anti-terrorism Law (TMK) Article 10 has decided to confiscate the book titles ‘Umut 30 Yaşında, Parti ve Devrim Şehitleri Albümü’, ‘Belgelerle TKP/ML-2, Fırtınalar İçinde Bıçak Sırtında’ and ‘İşkencehanelerde Kızıl Devrim Ruhunu Yaşatmaya Hazırlıklı Ol’, with regard to Chief Public Prosecutor’s requests of 2, 3, and 4 January 2013, on the grounds that the three books were found to contain terrorist organisational propaganda, and thus offending §5187 Press Law article 25/2.

The bans on these books had been lifted by the Judicial Pack 3 under the transitory amendment to the same law.

Another poem censured

According to the website bilgicagı.com by Onur Caymaz, now it is poet Cahit Külebi’s turn to be censored in a 9th grade course book.

The Turkish Education Ministry’s 9th grade ‘Literature book’ contains a well-known poem, ‘Hikaye’, by Cahit Külebi. The poem goes somewhat like this in (what Antenna TR describes as “a meek translation attempt”):

“At villages I was born / north winds prevailed / therefore my lips are parches / kiss me some!”

– where the last line now have been replaced with three dots:

“At villages I was born / north winds prevailed / therefore my lips are parches / …”

The book was edited by Dr. Sakin Öner.

Lately ‘Of Mice and Men’, and ‘My Sweet Orange Tree’ were found unfavorable as well, and poems by famous Turkish poets like Yunus Emre, Kaygusuz Abdal, Edip Cansever have also been removed by the censors, reported The Freedom of Expression Weekly Bulletin on 1 March 2013.

via Turkey: Short lived freedom for three books, poem censored « Knowledge and news about Artistic Freedom of Expression.