JINHA

ISTANBUL – Aslı Erdoğan has sent a message from prison, saying: “I was imprisoned by prosecutors and judges who are totally unaware that I am an internationally known writer, who haven’t read my book or even a single thing written by me. This could only happen with the tragicomic cultural level of our country!”

Aslı Erdoğan, a writer and member of the advisory board of forcibly closed newspaper Özgür Gündem, has been imprisoned since August 19 at Bakırköy Closed Women’s Prison in Istanbul. Aslı responded to questions from newspaper Evrensel via her lawyer. Aslı’s prison interview continues, in part:

“’Writer, journalist, academic, lawyer! Your title doesn’t matter; you will pay!’ So said the political powers a few months ago. From their perspective, we’re all in the same bag: that of those who will be burned at the first opportunity because they don’t agree with the state’s official opinion. In fact, each of us is a unique individual; and each of us has been brutally wrenched from our lives. For each of us, it was our right to a fair trial that was violated first. With every newspaper and journalist silenced, the people’s right to the news is being violated. With every academic threatened, the production of ideas and a critical approach are being cut off. With lawyers being imprisoned, society’s right to defense is being threatened.

“Because all of these individuals wished for that which is every human’s most natural desire, peace; because they questioned the state’s official history; and because they called on the state to respect universal human rights, let alone its own laws, they are packing the prisons. In short, with us, it is thought and historic conscience that is being executed without trial. As for me, I’m just a writer. Being a writer isn’t a title; it’s the act of taking up the words, ‘the situation of humanity.’ With every person of letters being silenced, it is the human voice that they actually intend to keep us from hearing.

“From the Nazis until today, with the exception of the period in France, no person of letters has been imprisoned for political reasons in Western Europe to the best of my knowledge. They, at least, had the sense to know that to imprison a person of letters is to cut out your own tongue! Europe doesn’t easily give up on the concepts, thought, and freedom of speech that were shaped by centuries of blood. But to what extent have we been able to relate these concepts to our own society? We, as ‘intellectuals,’ have a serious responsibility here. I was imprisoned by prosecutors and judges who are totally unaware that I am an internationally known writer, who haven’t read my book or even a single thing written by me. This could only happen with the tragicomic cultural level of our country!”

(mg/fk/cm)