the past and the present of book publishing in kurdish language in ...

6. MAJOR PROBLEMS AND TENDENCIES OFDEVELOPMENT OFKURDISH BOOK PUBLISHING IN TURKEYKurdish book publishing in Turkey has many problems. 12 of the Kurdishbook publishers I have talked to (98), have emphasized the following twoproblems:1. As readers are very few, sales are modest and usually not enough tocover the expenses.2. As there are no Kurdish distributing firms, the existing ones are usedbut they do not pay enough attention to books in Kurdish and thedistribution is not very efficient.I would like to mention a problem which is not realized by manypublishers, and which we may call “fear of the book”. As I have alreadymentionedin the section on libraries, many Kurds have not realized yet thatthe ban on Kurdish books has been lifted because they have lived through orhave witnessed oppression against speaking, reading and writing in thislanguage for many years. Lots of them still carry this fear they haveexperienced in the past. A Kurdish book has not been “normalized” in theminds of many Kurds, it is not seen as something "normal”. As Arif Sevinç,the owner of Deng Publishing House says a book in Kurdish, even a grammarbook, is still looked upon as an “element of political crime” by many people.6.1 New tendencies in Kurdish book publishingAfter the lifting of the ban the number of published books in Kurdishincreased in the 1990s and will probably go on increasing in the future.An important factor influencing book publishing in Kurdish is thestrengthening of the Kurdish national movement. Kurdish organizationsestablish cultural associations, institutions and publishing houses, andpublish books, newspapers and magazines in Kurdish in proportion of theirpower. However, the support political parties give to people writing inKurdish is limited with their members or followers. Parties usually withdrawtheir support whenever writers cross party boundaries or oppose the givenpolitical doctrine. For example, PKK has been known to attack such authorsat times, verbally or physically. Narrow minded views such as enclosingliterature and art within party boundaries are still found among Kurdishpoliticians but it is being gradually overcome these days.The first Kurdish publishing houses were founded by politicalorganizations. In the course of time, people who had left these organizations43