Ban on Kurdish language books in prison 

2023-07-07 13:14:46


	 

	ANKARA - Ozan Alpkaya, who is being held in Sincan High Security Prison No. 1, stated that 17 Kurdish books were not given to him and he applied to the ECtHR against it.

	 

	It was stated that the Kurdish books sent to the prisoners in Sincan No. 1 High Security Prison were not received. Writer Ozan Alpkaya, who was sentenced to 29 years in prison after he was arrested in Amed in 2008 and has been held in Sincan No. 1 High Security Prison for nearly 2 years, stated that 17 Kurdish books sent to him have been confiscated so far.

	 

	TRANSLATOR MONEY WAS WANTED

	 

	Answering our questions about the subject through his family, Alpkaya said: “We have discussed this issue with the prison administration many times. In the past months, 'Why don't you give Kurdish books?' They couldn't answer us when we asked. When we ask them again in these last days, they say: 'Prison Education Commission can only examine the Turkish books sent. If you want the Kurdish books sent to you to reach you, you will write two petitions; I want a translator for my Kurdish books for the first petition. In the second petition, I demand that the translator's money be deducted from my account after the translator reads and approves the Kurdish books sent to me.' They say that they will not give us books outside of this application.”

	 

	ALPKAYA APPLIED TO THE ECtHR

	 

	Noting that he brought the situation to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), Alpkaya said: “I applied to the Constitutional Court (AYM) due to this unlawfulness we experienced. The AYM rejected it. This time we applied to the ECtHR. Prisoners in other prisons had experienced the same problem before and applied to the ECtHR. The ECHR saw this situation as a violation of rights.”

	 

	Expressing that the prison administration is trying to prevent the Kurdish language with the said practice, Alpkaya said: “They completely paid for it. They are calculating 'where and how we can make money'. It is a crime to prevent Kurds from reading books in their mother tongue. Today, what happens in all prisons in Turkey is almost the same. We don't need an interpreter. Kurdish is the mother tongue of Kurds and it is a crime to prevent Kurds from reading and writing Kurdish. There is no such thing in any law in the world. Let them give my books, we will translate them. We will use all our legal rights in this matter."

	 

	PRISON: PRISONERS CAN FILE A CRIMINAL COMPLAINT

	 

	Prison officials we called on the subject said, “The Prison Administrative Board must be approved in order for the books sent to the prisoners to be given to the prisoners. We do not do business based on arbitrariness. The prisoners can file a criminal complaint regarding this situation.” 

	 

	MA / Hakan Yalçın

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