New honorary members of PEN Norway: İlhan Sami Çomak and Ilham Tohti
* Photo: Ilham Tohti and İlhan Sami Çomak
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PEN Norway has announced that it has appointed Ilham Tohti and İlhan Sami Çomak as its new honorary members on June 11, upon the request of the Writers of Prison Committee in PEN Norway.
"When new honorary memberships are appointed, it means that we are committed to paying close attention to their cases," the board of PEN Norway has underlined in its statement.
While İlhan Sami Çomak was a student at İstanbul University Faculty of Arts and Sciences in 1994, he was arrested on charge of "being a member of an organization." He was sentenced to capital punishment by the State Security Court in 2000, his punishment was converted into life imprisonment.
As the Court of Cassation upheld his verdict, he appealed to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), which concluded that "he had not been fairly tried." He stood trial again and was given the same sentence in 2013. The Court of Cassation upheld his verdict for the second time.
The first judgement against him was given based on a statement that he made under torture. His retrial following the ECtHR verdict started years later in 2013 and the requests for his release pending trial were not accepted neither during nor after this process. The Constitutional Court rejected his request for release pending trial on October 28, 2015.
The second verdict of life sentence given by the İstanbul 4th Heavy Penal Court was also upheld by the 16th Penal Chamber of the Court of Cassation.
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Øivind Hånes, the Chair of Writers in Prison Committee of PEN Norway, says the following about İlhan Sami Çomak: "When the 21-year-old Turkish geography student İlhan Çomak was arrested in 1994 in connection with a peaceful demonstration against the Turkish government's treatment of Kurds, he couldn't have any idea of what to expect. Today, 26 years later, he is still serving a life sentence. Over the years, PEN International and other organizations, groups and individuals throughout Europe have appealed to the Turkish authorities for his release, every action fell on deaf ears. İlhan Çomak is still locked up. "Early in captivity, Çomak began writing poetry. Several of the poems have been translated into English by Welsh poet Caroline Stockford, who is also PEN Norway's Turkey Adviser. In total, he has published eight books. They show a rare level of linguistic talent. In March, Çomak wrote a letter to everyone who had supported the campaign for his release, reflecting on what it means that he, as a 47-year-old, says, has been incarcerated for more than half his life. It is striking how little hatred and bitterness this text exudes. Rather, it is a radiance of energy that conveys an impassable and indomitable fascination with life's small and great wonders, as well as a longing to once again be out in the open and participate in daily life. "As he says: 'I long to see vineyards in bloom, I long to get out into streets where children climb over garden walls to skip school, I long for rivers that run out of maps."Such strength, resilience and imagination create great poetry.' |
Ilham Tohti, the Uighur economist and writer (b. 1969), has for many years been a sharp critic of the differential treatment the Muslim minority he belongs to in China. He has called for cooperation between central authorities and regional minorities.
In 2006, he founded the uighurbiz.net website to promote reconciliation between Uighurs and China's majority population. In January 2014, Tohti was arrested, and later sentenced to life imprisonment, for allegedly "separatism".
In April of that year, for sharp protests from the Chinese authorities, he was awarded the PEN / Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award for his long-standing commitment. (SO/SD)