![\"Panel](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.studentoftheworld.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/FrankfurterBuchmesse_27.png\")
<\/a>“I found my own books in the prison library”<\/h2>\n
\u201cSolidarity is crucial in prison. It is the last tie to life for the 180 authors and journalists who are still in jail,\u201d said Asli Erdogan who was released from prison after four months in January. Authorities didn\u2019t issue her passport until early September. Although she is free now, the process against her continues and the prosecution filed for a lifelong sentence. The irony of a once relatively healthy state that is now falling apart: Mrs. Erdogan found her own books in the prison library during her confinement \u2013 the books she was imprisoned for.<\/p>\n
Asli Erdogan\u2019s aim is to reach the younger audience with her books. A trained physicist and journalist she writes novels about the atrocities against Kurds in Turkey. \u201cMy role as a writer is not to shout at people. But to whisper into their ears,\u201d she explains.<\/p>\n
“My magazine website was blocked before anything was published”<\/h2>\n
Can D\u00fcndar<\/a>, on the contrary, wants to scream and shout: \u201cThe government controls the media. We want to give a voice to the voiceless\u201d. He was once the editor-in-chief of Cumhuriyet, one of Turkey\u2019s oldest secular newspapers. For one year he has been in exile in Berlin. That\u2019s where he started the website and magazine \u00f6zg\u00fcr\u00fcz<\/a> which means \u201cwe are free\u201d. The website is available in German and English. However, before any articles were published, the website was already blocked in Turkey. \u201cLuckily people in Turkey know how to circumvent censorship,\u201d said Mr. D\u00fcndar. For the German national newspaper Die Zeit <\/em>he writes the column Meine T\u00fcrkei<\/em> (my Turkey).<\/p>\n Burhan S\u00f6nmez is an author and human rights lawyer. After being injured by the Turkish police in 1996, he received medical treatment in Great Britain and lived there for ten years. He returned to Turkey when he thought the situation had improved just to find out he was wrong. Mr. S\u00f6nmez teaches creative writing and is a member of the PEN club for writers in exile in both, Great Britain and Turkey.<\/p>\n The Turkish authors stressed that in Turkey many people were not aware of the value of the freedom of speech \u2013 until it was gone. They warned that we should not take freedom of speech and democracy for granted. Mr. S\u00f6nmez warned: \u201cAny country can turn into a dictatorship: T<\/p>\n rump, Moodi\u2026 Democracy is not by default but it is something we have to protect and work for.”<\/p>\n The host of the panel discussion, Juergen Boos, Director of the Frankfurt Book Fair saw some hope in the fact that Turkey still has a good funding<\/p>\n for translations of foreign books into Turkish.<\/p>\n The irony of the entire situation: Turkish Airlines is one of the major sponsors of the exclusive Business Club in which the panel took place.<\/p>\n The authors pleaded that isolating Turkey would support president Erdogan. \u201cTurkey doesn\u2019t belong to Erdogan. It belongs to us. Don\u2019t boycott Turkey. Come visit us,\u201d said S\u00f6nmez.<\/p>\n More about the book fair:<\/p>\n Mega Event of International Publishing Industry<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\nFreedom of speech is fragile anywhere in the world<\/h2>\n
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