Tatari, Cemal Books Pulled Off Shelves, Punitive Fine for Ahmet Şık

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The decision has been issued to pull Journalist Tatari’s book “Grandma, I was not really in Diyarbakır” and Hasan Cemal’s books “Delila, A Young Woman Guerilla’s Mountain Diaries” and “Kurdistan Diaries in the Solution Process” off the shelves.

Journalist Ahmet Şık on the other hand has been sentenced to a punitive fine of 1,232 euros (4,000 TL) due to his book “We have walked parallel* on these roads”.

According to the report of Canan Coşkun from Cumhuriyet daily, 3rd Criminal Court of Peace has ruled that books of Cemal, Tatar and Abdullah Öcalan which have been detected on the persons who had been taken into custody during an operation run with accusement of being members of the United Kurdish Community in Western Kurdistan (KCK), the Patriotic Revolutionary Youth Movement (YDG-H) and the People’s Protection Units (YPG), to be pulled off the shelves.

“Cemal’s books contain elements of being a crime”

While Characterizing Cemal’s Books as “publishing in accordance with the perspective of Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and KCK and thus implicating elements of crime” the court has included the following its decision text:

”According to the examination held on the materials taken hold, the conclusion has been reached that the books propagandize in a kind of way that legitimizes or praises the terrorist organization’s methods including constraint, violence and threat or encourages to use such methods as well as prove to crime and praise the crime and the criminal.”

With regard to the Articles 25 of the Press Law and 28 of the constitution, the court has ruled to pull the books off the shelf.

Tatari’s attorney Aslı Kazan Wilmore, reminding that the book had made eight issues, has stated that they would object to the decision.

1,232 euros punitive fine for Şık

Anadolu (Anatolia) 22nd Criminal Court of First Instance on the other hand has decided on the case brought to trial based on charges of Ahmet Işık defaming Binali Yıldırım, Minister of Transport, Maritime and Communication in his book titled “We have walked parallel on these roads” and sentenced Şık to a punitive fine of moral indemnity in the amount of 1,232 euros. (EA/DG)

*The expression “parallel” used in the title of Şık’s book “We have walked parallel on these roads” which is originally quoted from an old and well-known song “We have walked together on these roads”, makes a reference to the term “parallel state” used by the government to connote an inner-state formation arising from the Gülen Movement.

 The Gülen movement is a transnational religious and social movement led by US-based Turkish preacher Fethullah Gülen. The Turkish Authorities refer to the movement as the Fethullah Gülen Terrorist Organization (FETO) due to charges of wiretapping high-ranking authorities and establishing a parallel state by means of infiltrating important state institutions such as judiciary, security department, and media.

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