Ragıp Zarakolu

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Ragıp Zarakolu (* 1948 in Büyükada , Prince Islands ) is a Turkish publisher and human rights activist who was indicted and in some cases convicted, primarily because of the books he published on minorities and human rights.

Life

Ragıp Zarakolu was born in 1948 on Büyükada, an island near Istanbul , where his father Remzi Zarakolu was district administrator (for all the Prince Islands ). He graduated from Kabataş (Istanbul) high school and studied economics at Istanbul University . His doctorate was interrupted twice by the military coup in Turkey in 1971 and the murder of his professor Cavit Orhan Tütengil in 1979.

In 1968 Ragıp Zarakolu began writing for the magazines Ant and Yeni Ufuklar . He translated an Amnesty International report on torture in Greece and gathered information for the organization. He was charged and acquitted for this after the 1971 coup, but was imprisoned for five months. In 1988 he translated Amnesty International's central document on the Turkey campaign and published it in his publishing house Belge. He was sentenced to two years in prison after 1972 for an article in Ant entitled "Ho Chi Minh and the Vietnam War" and was released after the 1974 amnesty.

In 1977 Ragıp Zarakolu and his wife Ayşenur founded the publishing house “Belge” (German: certificate). In 1979 he founded the daily Demokrat with 36 intellectuals and was therefore briefly imprisoned in 1982. He was not allowed to leave the country between 1971 and 1991. After the military coup in Turkey in 1980 , Belge published 35 books by political prisoners. By 2005 the publisher had published 30 books on Greek literature, 10 books on Armenians and five books on Jews. In 1986 he was one of the founders of the Human Rights Association of Turkey (IHD). Ragıp Zarakolu was for a time chairman of the committee of imprisoned writers in the Turkish PEN and is currently chairman of the committee on freedom of publication in the International Publishers Union .

Zarakolu now lives in exile in Sweden.

Legal proceedings

The wide variety of charges, trials, and judgments against Ragıp Zarakolu include:

  • Charged on July 15, 2002 under Article 312 of the Turkish Penal Code for the book New Racist Attacks in Turkey .
  • In December 2003, Ragip Zarakolu, who was charged with translating the book September 12th in court , was acquitted after the public prosecutor had also called for acquittal.
  • Indicted on December 3, 2003 for an article as a columnist in the Özgür Politika newspaper on March 8, 2003 with the title “What is that to you? On September 10, 2004, the owner and the editor-in-chief of the newspaper were fined. The case against Zarakolu was separated and had not been decided until the hearing on October 11, 2005.
  • In August 2005, Ragip Zarakolu was charged with the translation of the book Experiences of an Armenian Doctor - Garabet Haceryan's Izmir Diary by Prof. Dr. Dora Sakayan raised. The indictment is based on Article 301 of the new TStG (159 old TStG). The proceedings were to begin on September 21, 2005 before the 2nd Chamber of the District Court in Istanbul. In December 2007, proceedings against the book's translator, Atilla Tuygan, continued despite the fact that Zarakolu had been acquitted. Zarakolu has to answer for this because of the book The Truth Will Set Us Free by George Jerjian. He was sentenced to 7.5 years in prison for insulting the state, the republic and Ataturk.
  • In this case, the 2nd Chamber of the Istanbul Regional Court sentenced him on June 17, 2008, under Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code and for "insulting the memory of Ataturk" under Act No. 5816, to six months' imprisonment without the approval of the Ministry of Justice waiting. The sentence was commuted to a fine of 1400 YTL.
  • On June 10, 2010, the 10th Chamber for Serious Crimes in Istanbul sentenced N. Mehmet Guler to 15 months imprisonment under Article 7/2 of the Anti-Terrorism Act (propaganda for an illegal organization) for his book "Decisions More Than Death" . The publisher Ragip Zarakolu was acquitted.
  • On March 10, 2011, the 10th Chamber for Serious Crimes in Istanbul appointed the author of the book "The KCK Act / The Global State and the Stateless Kurds" ( KCK Dosyası / Küresel Devlet ve Devletsiz Kürtler ) N. Mehmet Guler to punish Sentenced 15 months in prison for propaganda for an illegal organization (Article 7/2 ATG). The publisher and owner of the Belge publishing house, Ragıp Zarakolu, was sentenced to a fine of 16,000 TL (approx. 6,500 euros), although the public prosecutor had demanded acquittal for both of the accused.

Ragip Zarakolu was arrested on the evening of October 28, 2011 on the way home. On November 1, 2011, the 14th and 17th Serious Crime Chambers in Istanbul ordered him and another 43 out of 50 people arrested to be held in custody. The arrest took place in the context of operations against the KCK (Union of Kurdish Communities) in the context of which intellectuals and politicians from legal parties (such as the BDP ) are arrested as alleged members of the PKK .

Awards

  • 2003: NOVIB / PEN Free Expression Award
  • A prize from the Union for International Research in Sarajevo, the Freedom of Expression Prize from the Union of Norwegian Writers, the Freedom of Expression Prize from the Association of Journalists of Turkey (2007) and the Hagop Meghabart Lifelong Medal of Honor (February 2011) are among his awards.
  • 2008: Freedom to Publish Prize of the International Publishers Union
  • Ragip Zarakolu is an honorary member of the PEN in Germany, the USA, England, Scotland, Canada, Sweden, the Netherlands and the Kurdish PEN.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ PEN American Center, Ragip Zarakolu, Professional Background ( Memento of the original from May 9, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.pen.org
  2. ↑ a b c d e Article by Celal Başlangıç: "Her zaman 'suç' işliyor" ( Memento of the original from September 30, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Turkish) in Radikal on January 17, 2005; Accessed November 22, 2011 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.radikal.com.tr
  3. ↑ a b c Information from kitapdenizi.com (Turkish) under the title: Books by Ragıp Zarakolu; Accessed November 22, 2011
  4. ↑ The brochure can be viewed in pictures at http://ob.nubati.net/tr/resim/index.php?twg_album=1988+Kampanyasi ; Accessed November 22, 2011
  5. ↑ See a page at keditor.com ; Accessed November 22, 2011
  6. ↑ Turkish police storm Belge-Verlag , boersenblatt.net, May 16, 2017, accessed on May 18, 2017
  7. ↑ a b c d e English PEN on honorary member Ragip Zarakolu ; Accessed November 23, 2011
  8. ↑ See weekly report 49/2003 of the Turkish Democratic Forum; Accessed November 22, 2011
  9. ↑ See weekly report 31/2005 of the Turkish Democratic Forum; Accessed November 22, 2011
  10. ↑ a b See the article Publisher Zarakolu Supported by Writer Jerjian in Bianet of December 6, 2007; Accessed November 23, 2011
  11. ↑ See weekly report 25/2008 of the Turkish Democratic Forum; Accessed November 22, 2011
  12. ↑ See also the reports of the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey in Turkish on the DTF website
  13. ↑ See the DTF report on proceedings against the KCK ; Accessed November 22, 2011
  14. ↑ According to a report at sendika.org ; Accessed November 23, 2011
  15. ^ Prix ​​Voltaire - 2008 , accessed August 29, 2019.
  16. ↑ PEN Center Germany ; Accessed February 1, 2013
personal data
SURNAME Zarakolu, Ragıp
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Turkish publisher and human rights activist
DATE OF BIRTH 1948
PLACE OF BIRTH Buyukada , Prince Islands