This article contains a list of

writers A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles and techniques to communicate ideas. Writers produce different forms of literary art and creative writing such as novels, short stories, books, poetry, travelogues, plays ...

(

fiction Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying individuals, events, or places that are imaginary, or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent with history, fact, or plausibility. In a traditi ...

writers,

journalists A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

academics An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, ...

, etc.) who have been prosecuted by the

Republic of Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

Grounds for prosecution

Many are prosecuted for statements deemed unpatriotic by official institutions, or by Turkish nationalists. Several disputed laws are often used for this, among others Article 301. On the scale of those prosecutions, and especially the abuse of Article 301,

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...

stated that: "The frequency with which Article 301 is being used and the arbitrary nature of its application represent a real threat to freedom of speech in Turkey. Individuals are being harassed and threatened with imprisonment simply for speaking or writing about aspects of Turkish history or culture that do not conform to an imposed nationalist ideal." The scale of these state-sponsored actions against dissenting opinions is also clear from the fact that in one case, in 1996, 184 of Turkey's leading writers, artists and publishers were indicted under the Anti-Terror Law for "advocacy of separatism" in a single trial at Istanbul State Security Court. The trial was halted in October 1997 by force of a new law passed by the Turkish parliament.

List of writers

The following is an incomplete list of these prosecuted Turkish writers (and other persons), excluding cases listed at Article 301: *

Ömer Asan Ömer Şükrü Asan (born May 28, 1961) is a Turkish folklorist, photographer and writer. In 2002, he was charged with allegations that he violated Article 8 of Turkey's Anti-Terror Law by "propagandating separatism" for his book '' Pontos Kül ...

, charged in 2002 with allegations of the breach of Article 8 of the Anti-Terror Law by "propagandating separatism" for his book ''

Pontos Kültürü ''Pontos Kültürü'' or ''Pontos Culture'' is a 1996 book by Turkish author Ömer Asan about the pontic Greek Muslims of Trabzon Province. ''Pontos Kültürü'' documents Asan's ethnographic fieldwork in his native village Çoruk (Τσορούκ ...

''. In 2003 Article 8 was abolished, and he was acquitted as a result. *

İsmail Beşikçi İsmail Beşikçi (born 1939 in İskilip, Turkey) is a Turkish sociologist, philosopher, revolutionary, and writer. He is a PEN Honorary Member. He has served 17 years in prison on propaganda charges stemming from his writings about the Kurdish popu ...

, scholar sentenced several times to imprisonment on propaganda charges for his writings on

Turkish Kurds The Kurds are the largest ethnic minority in Turkey. According to various estimates, they compose between 15% and 20% of the population of Turkey.; ; Sandra Mackey , “The reckoning: Iraq and the legacy of Saddam”, W.W. Norton and Company, ...

. Until the 2000s 36 of his 42 books were banned. * İpek Çalışlar, charged in August 2006 for insulting Atatürk. In December 2006 she was acquitted. * Gökhan Gençay, writing for the ''

BirGün ''BirGün'' (''One Day'') is an Istanbul-based Turkish left-wing daily. The paper was founded in 2004 by a group of Turkish intellectuals. The most important point of the newspaper is that it is not owned by any parent company or conglomerate. ...

'' newspaper, prosecuted for his reporting on conscientious objectors. *

Erol Önderoğlu Erol Önderoğlu (born 1969) is a Turkish-French journalist, and a representative of Reporters Without Borders (''Reporters Sans Frontières'', RSF). In 2016, he was arrested by the Turkish government for his work supporting '' Ozgur Gundem'', a ...

, journalist and representative of

Reporters Without Borders Reporters Without Borders (RWB; french: Reporters sans frontières; RSF) is an international non-profit and non-governmental organization with the stated aim of safeguarding the right to freedom of information. It describes its advocacy as found ...

. Arrested in 2016 for supporting '' Ozgur Gundem'', a

Kurdish Kurdish may refer to: *Kurds or Kurdish people *Kurdish languages *Kurdish alphabets *Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes: **Southern Kurdistan **Eastern Kurdistan **Northern Kurdistan **Western Kurdistan See also * Kurd (dis ...

newspaper, and accused of supporting terrorists. *

Baskin Oran Baskin may refer to: Film * ''Baskin'' (film), a 2015 Turkish surreal horror film by director Can Evrenol People * Bibi Baskin (born 1952), Irish radio & TV presenter, hotelier, and author * Burt Baskin (1913–1967), American founder of an ice c ...

, former member of the Human Rights Advisory Board (HRAB) for the

Turkish Prime Minister The prime minister of the Republic of Turkey ( Turkish: ''Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Başbakanı'') was the head of government of the Republic of Turkey from 1920 to 2018, who led a political coalition in the Turkish Parliament and presided over the cab ...

's office, charged in May 2006 with "public humiliation of the courts authority" and "dangerous incitement of public hatred and enmity". Oran stated: "My freedom of expression is being ambushed for strategic reasons." In November 2006 he was acquitted. *

Pınar Selek Pınar Selek (born October 8, 1971) is a Turkish sociologist, feminist, and author. She is known for her work on the rights of vulnerable communities in Turkey, including women, the poor, street children, sexual minorities, and Kurdish communit ...

, convicted to life imprisonment in January 2013 in connection to a 1998 explosion that occurred at the

Spice Bazaar, Istanbul The Spice Bazaar ( tr, Mısır Çarşısı, meaning "Egyptian Bazaar") in Istanbul, Turkey is one of the largest bazaars in the city. Located in the Eminönü quarter of the Fatih district, it is the most famous covered shopping complex after t ...

, the 15-year-long 'judicial harassment' against Selek is widely considered to have been motivated by her contact with Kurdish separatists as part of her sociological research. *

Öget Öktem Tanör Öget Öktem Tanör (born 1934 or 1935) is the first neuropsychologist from Turkey. In 2017, she was charged with "terrorism propaganda" by the Turkish government for signing a petition calling on the government to halt its military operations in th ...

, Turkish

neuropsychologist Neuropsychology is a branch of psychology concerned with how a person's cognition and behavior are related to the brain and the rest of the nervous system. Professionals in this branch of psychology often focus on how injuries or illnesses of t ...

, charged with "terrorism propaganda" by the government of

Recep Tayyip Erdogan Recep may refer to: People Surname * Aziz Recep (born 1992), German-Greek footballer * Sibel Recep (born 1987), Swedish pop singer Given name * Recep Adanır (born 1929), Turkish footballer * Recep Akdağ (born 1960), Turkish physician and poli ...

, as a result of signing a petition asking the government to cease military operations in the

part of Turkey. * Sehmus Ülek, vice-president of the human rights organization Mazlum-Der. * Atilla Yayla, a political theorist, was convicted in January 2008 and sentenced to a suspended 15-month jail sentence for insulting Atatürk by claiming in a 2006 speech that the early Turkish Republic was not entirely democratic and that the

cult of personality A cult of personality, or a cult of the leader, Mudde, Cas and Kaltwasser, Cristóbal Rovira (2017) ''Populism: A Very Short Introduction''. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 63. is the result of an effort which is made to create an id ...

surrounding him was illogical. He is now living in self-imposed exile in England. * Murat Yetkin, writer for the ''

Radikal ''Radikal'' () was a daily liberal Turkish language newspaper, published in Istanbul. From 1996 it was published by Aydın Doğan's Doğan Media Group. Although Radikal did not endorse a particular political alignment, it was generally considered ...

'' newspaper, charged in June 2006 with attempting to influence a fair trial for having criticised the prosecution of

Orhan Pamuk Ferit Orhan Pamuk (born 7 June 1952) is a Turkish novelist, screenwriter, academic, and recipient of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature. One of Turkey's most prominent novelists, his work has sold over thirteen million books in sixty-three lan ...

. In November 2006 the charges were dropped.Erol Önderoğlu
BIA² Media Report: Army Shadow on Press
, BIAnet, 20 November 2006. Retrieved on 22 December 2006. * Ragip Zarakolu, a Turkish human rights activist and publisher who has long faced legal harassment for publishing books on controversial subjects in Turkey, especially on minority and human rights in Turkey.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:List of Prosecuted Turkish Writers Freedom of expression in Turkey Turkish writers

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...