ISTANBUL, Turkey—Turkish police have arrested Ragip Zarakolu, a well-known human rights activist and director of the Belge Publishing House, and chair of the Publishers Association “Freedom to Publish” Committee of Turkey.
Zarakolu was taken into custody on Oct. 28, during a large-scale manhunt in Istanbul against Kurdish and human rights activists.
His son, Deniz Zarakolu, the editor of the Belge Publishing House, was arrested on Oct. 4.
Belge has published numerous books on the oppression of the national minorities in Turkey and the Armenian Genocide.
Counter-terrorism units launched simultaneous operations against suspected KCK members early on Friday and detained 41 people. Police also raided various offices of the BDP, the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party, in Istanbul, including the BDP Istanbul Politics Academy and several BDP branches.
BDP co-chairman Selahattin Demirtas strongly criticized the new wave of detentions on Friday. “We will not be able to talk about a healthy constitution-making process if we go ahead like this. We will have no party member who can join efforts for [drafting] a new constitution,” he said.
And this country claims to be a democracy?
We should ask the State Department, PEN and Amnesty International to assist, as well as world media. We owe this man and his family an effort to make sure the Turkish government knows the world is watching.
Thanks Jda
We should act and soon without delay…
Every Armenian should contribute on his/Her way
And without delay
I will write to many sites that my e mail is there…
Mr. Zarakolo
He is facing them
He never escaped
He is brave by all standards
No one can face them
They have hidden scimitars
No humanity…
No shame…
Such unfair men
Could exist in any place…?
and pretend they are innocent race…!
Protecting their blood…destroying others
Every day by many ways…
Who called Turks… are composed of many ethnicities
Lost their names…
Armenians…Greek …Assyrian …Kurds…
Don’t forget Alvis (Alawees)
Who don’t pray in Mosques because Imam Ali was killed there…
Turks are calling their god …
Who advises them to get rid of all ethnicities of any religion
Who has none of theirs’…
Geghis Khan blood…
Sylva-MD-Poetry
JDA is right!!!
It might bode well for all of you to keep your noses out of Turkey’s internal affairs, especially when you don’t know the entire story! How would you like it if we did the same things for events in Armenia, and then whine about it (like JDA) by suggesting that the State Department look into it? Whom do you all think you are anyway, that the State Department would bother listening to a bunch of historical liars AND whiners, originating from a corrupt (financially AND morally) backwater terrorist nation, boasting a 98% purity rate via ethnic cleansing, with an oppresive church dogma!!
Robert, slave, opposes human rights for Turks.
JDA,
Kindly tell us about Armenia and it’s situation right now. You seem to have an endless amount of trash talk when it comes to Turkey or Turks, but as has been well evidenced (remember how many times I and others have chased you all over the net [e.g. Armenian Highlands, Turkish forums, etc.], with you always dissapearing because you can’t answer questions posed to you), when it comes to Armenian short-commings and the reality of truth, you and the others just clam up (or in your case, dissapear)! And stop reffering to me as Ergun, unless I really am!!
you Turks have been sticking your invading noses in the internal affairs of Armenia and Armenians for 1,000 years Robert-oglu
Since the day your Seljuk Turk nomadic warrior tribe ancestors invaded our Armenian Highlands.
The apex of interference in our Armenian internal affairs was when the Turk invaders exterminated the last remaining multitudes of indigenous Armenians.
The Turk hatred for anyone other than a Turk has reached such unnatural intensity that they refused help from outside and allowed possibly hundreds more Kurds to die unnecessarily after the Van earthquake. The insanity and self-delusion has reached such absurd levels that Deputy the Prime Minister Beşir Atalay said this today “Turkey rejected foreign rescue teams to test its own capacity” (TodaysZaman). That’s a good one Minister: I guess it’s OK to conduct tests on live subjects as long as they are Kurds.
And Robert-oglu: you think Armenians are interfering in the internal affairs of the backwater fascist country of Turkey? A country that was 25% Christian around 1915 and is now 99.8% Muslim and just 0.2% Christian & Jew ? You ain’t seen nothing yet.
You think your ancestors can exterminate 2 million of my people and we will not make Turkey pay for the crime one way or another ?
Massive interference from all sides is just starting. Everyone is going to interfere in the internal affairs of the sclerotic cancer ridden state of Türkiye.
Robert,
Human rights in Armenia are subject to abuse. However, the issue of this string is protecting Regip Zarakolu and other brave Turks who risk their lives for human rights from oppression and harm. You cannot defend the arrest of this man and others by referencing political arrests in Armenia, Uruguay or China.
What question do you think i can’t answer?
Do you think the Turks DNA are pure…?
Their men raped females from every nation
From west to the East
Till new cohort of Turks appeared
They call them selves Roberts
John the Turk
If their prophet hears
Will say,
How Robert can be Turk
How John can be Turk
So their prophet is new
Pretending of Christian sect
Created by them
To insult and kill…
Many ethnicities…
Entering Internets
Thinking they are writers
Knowing few words of English
They can publish…
And every literate should read…
Their created phrases…
Which all are r****h
SP
The Fascism is still there, who is the AKP trying to fool? It is the same old decapitation, the pulling things down to one’s own level. Zarakolu’s peace of mind had to be sacrificed on the altar of an authority that treats the Van earthquake as a readiness exercise. My heartfelt sympathy goes out to him.
PEN is taking action. The Swedish and Norwegian delegates are meeting with the Turkish embassy in Stockholm.
Go to ipetitions.com and sign there against arbitrary detentions in Turkey.
More later.
These are the people who risk their lives for us and for freedom in Turkey. We must be vigilant to help them
I will call the State Department and provide the contact info.
Please do something.
PEN press release
http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/6219/prmID/172
I appeal to every reader of this publication to spend one hour to spread the word about taking action on behalf of Regip Zarakolu, Professor Ersanli, and Deniz Zarakolu as well as Muharrem Erbey.
Send letters to Mr. Saluddin Ergin, Minister of Justice, 06669 Kizilay, Ankara, Turkey
Fax 00 90 312 419 3370.
Please scan the PEN releases and other internet sources concerning the arrests.
We all know of brave Turkish and Kurdish liberals, like Zarakolu, who risked their lives and freedom to speak truthfully and in public about the Armenian, Greek, Pontian and Assyrian-Chaldean Genocides. Let’s show loyalty to our brave friends.
hey Robert.. who are you calling whiners and terrorists???.. you lying genocidal denialist….you should not talk .. someone who keeps changing his avatar (has two different colors on this same page alone).. someone who is hiding behind a Westernized name.. someone who whines about his posts being deleted by AW… please look in the mirror and then call those who will make you and your govt admit the crime against my people one way or the other.. one other thing you notorious dillusional individual…. NO CRIME GOES UNPUNISHED…. let this ring in your ears…
thank you JDA jan..
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/detentionsinturkey/
here is the link to the petition….
I have signed it myself….
Dear Gayane
Thanks for sending the Petition…I signed and forwarded to many…
I am sure they will respond
I loved this poem…
I think Kurds and Armenian are facing the same
from the White House…
They Respect the criminals…
ignoring the honest
who are suffering
they call it politics
I call it crime…
Sylva-MD-Poetry
The White House
by Claude McKay
Your door is shut against my tightened face,
And I am sharp as steel with discontent;
But I possess the courage and the grace
To bear my anger proudly and unbent.
The pavement slabs burn loose beneath my feet,
A chafing savage, down the decent street;
And passion rends my vitals as I pass,
Where boldly shines your shuttered door of glass.
Oh, I must search for wisdom every hour,
Deep in my wrathful bosom sore and raw,
And find in it the superhuman power
To hold me to the letter of your law!
Oh, I must keep my heart inviolate
Against the potent poison of your hate.
Claude Mckays poem affected me so much
Not any English poem affected me like it…
I will say my words on his tone…
The same White House
Your door is shut against my injured lips
As i couldn’t decline shouting on the criminals face
I posssess the courage and the grace
To stand healthy and face killing from your savage friends.
A race were there before the White House had shades
But you ignore their decent genes …artfulness…
An hour will arrive
And you will honestly regret How can you betray
Such hearty pure knowledgable populace…
Calling ancient Kurds rebels criminals
Sending latest helicopters full of bombs
Killing youth who hav’t entered your base…
I can’t be like McKay* smiling to your face
Hence slayery is worse than slavery
Has no chance to love…live and raise…
Sylva-MD-Poetry