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What was their reaction at the sight of the first book in Kurdish? Most ofthem answered as: “I was very happy”. Some of them revealed that they weresurprised. They had not believed in the existence of books in Kurdish beforethat. The humiliating state policy caused many Kurds to lose their selfconfidenceand let them believe that their language had no value (22):The statistics below reflect the current situation in Turkey of the Kurdishpublishers that I have interviewed:Publishers' age when they first saw abook in KurdishNumber of the publishers0-10 110-15 116-20 421-30 2Do not remember 4Altogether 12Most of the Kurdish writers have stayed in prison because of theirpolitical activities or of their writings. Some were tortured (23). As one says(24), “writers have experienced prison, politics or the mountain” (25).The reasons for some of the writers’ arrests were quite different. Forexample, one writer was arrested because he was distributing the Kurdishalphabet. Another one was arrested because he was found to be inpossession of Kurdish songs, and two other writers – because they soldbooks in Kurdish. Most of them were beaten by their teachers in theirchildhood because they spoke Kurdish at school (26). There are also quite afew writers whose brothers or other relatives had been killed by the securityservices.The most severe oppressions started after the military intervention in1980. For example, young men thrown in military jails were tortured bybeing forced to memorise Turkish marches and to sing them every day.During prison visits, the prisoners at military prisons were not allowed tospeak Kurdish to their relatives who could not speak any language butKurdish.Harold Pinter was sent by the international PEN club to Turkey in 1985 tomeet the writers in prison, and he wrote the play Mountain Languageinspired by the situation there. Staged in various countries around theworld, the play is about Kurdish prisoners who could not speak Kurdish totheir mothers during prison visits (27).10
The Turkish state reacted more severely to Kurdish publications than toweapons. A Kurdish writer says:“The police found a photograph and a gun when they searched me. I hada photo taken in front of the Kurdish newspaper named “Roja Welat”. I wasnot accused of being in possession of a weapon but I was taken to courtbecause of the photo taken in front of a Kurdish newspaper’s poster ” (28).A young man who was a student at the time has told me the following:“In 1978 the police arrested me because they found Kurdish books at myhome. They tortured me. When they arrested me again in 1981, duringinterrogation a friend said that I knew Kurdish better and I was tortured againwhile loud music was playing.” (The police was playing loud music to silencethe screams of the people being tortured) (29)So, people were tortured not only because they wrote in Kurdish but alsowhen they read, distributed, kept Kurdish publications at home and evenwhen they “knew Kurdish better”. The results of the questionnaire withKurdish writers (30) and my conversations with authors, publishers andowners of publishing houses have made it clear that most of them, especiallyduring the period of the military junta, had to hide their books, for exampleby digging them underground, not to be found by the security services. Outof fear of being caught, the books were sometimes burned by the writersthemselves or their families when they (the writers) were away.Many of today’s writers who used to be teachers at the time of the militaryinterventions in 1971 and in 1980 got fired, were sent to exile or bannedfrom teaching in Kurdistan.These clarifications will help illustrate the difficulties writers faced in thepast.With the exception of a few people who studied in Stockholm and Paris,Kurdish writers from Northern Kurdistan did not study their mother tongueat school but learned it on their own. Their answers to the questions in thequestionnaire have made it clear that 20 out of 37 writers learned to write inKurdish after the age of 18 (31).Age when they learnt towrite in KurdishNumber8-10 411-18 1319-35 20Total 3711
Page 1 and 2: THE PAST AND THE PRESENTOF BOOK PUB
Page 3 and 4: 3.4.2.1 Book distribution abroad...
Page 6 and 7: the organization reached the conclu
Page 8 and 9: Publishing in Kurdish was interrupt
Page 12 and 13: Almost none of these writers spoke
Page 14 and 15: As far as I have managed to find ou
Page 16: engages with Kurdish writers' probl
Page 19 and 20: As the Arabic alphabet was used in
Page 21 and 22: under certain conditions was approv
Page 23 and 24: Topic or genreNumber of pulished bo
Page 25 and 26: life-span. Of the periodicals which
Page 27 and 28: Komal (1974), Deng (1989), Doz (199
Page 29 and 30: 3.3 Print runPrint-run of books pub
Page 31 and 32: neighbourhoods such as Gazi and Ba
Page 33 and 34: Many of the owners of publishing ho
Page 35 and 36: is necessary, which must have a pos
Page 37 and 38: Percent of thepopulation speakingKu
Page 39 and 40: Van 23Şırnak 22Şanlıurfa 22Ağr
Page 41 and 42: are registered in the Turkish Natio
Page 43 and 44: 6. MAJOR PROBLEMS AND TENDENCIES OF
Page 45 and 46: of the publishers say they are pass
Page 47 and 48: Recommendations:• Poetry days, st
Page 49 and 50: 80090 Beyoğlu/İstanbul TURKEYTel:
Page 51 and 52: NOTES(1)Reichmann, Hannes, Foggenst
Page 53 and 54: 53(50)Malmisanlı, Mehmet, “Osman
Page 55 and 56: SOURCESPublished sourcesA) Monograp
Page 57: C) People whom I have met or talked

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