A rchive Date
[ 27-04-2003 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Turkey ]
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[http://www.rnw.nl/development/html/lale020822.html
Publish And Be Damned
By Jim Dempsey, 22 August 2002
Earlier this month Turkey adopted several wide-ranging human rights reforms in its effort to become part of the European Union. The death penalty has now been abolished and restrictions on teaching the Kurdish language have been lifted. The Turkish government hope the reforms will be enough to meet the strict criteria for joining the European Union.
The news has come as a great relief to Turkey's human rights activists, many of who are serving long prison sentences. The reforms have also been welcomed by the Initiative for Freedom of Thought, a Turkish organisation which campaigns for free speech. Several of its members were recently sentenced to 15 years in prison by a Turkish court, including Lale Mansur, an award winning movie actress and former prima ballerina with Istanbul's State Opera and Ballet.
Expression
"We are a group of artists, musicians, painters, writers, journalists, who gather together to publish books of essays," explains Lale. "We include any subject, from left wing to right wing to Islamic Fundamentalism, anything. Many of the writers and publishers were in jail when they wrote their essays and we published them, it doesn't matter what they are about."
Lale and her colleagues don't always agree with the sentiments of the essays – in fact they're very often strongly opposed to the ideas – but the point of their initiative is to provide everyone with an opportunity to express themselves. No one, they say, should go to jail for voicing their opinion.
"We need freedom to discuss things," says Lale. "I'm not a separatist. I'm not a terrorist and everybody knows that. If I publish a book like this and the government puts me in jail, they could never explain it to the public because they know who I am."
Provocation
Lale uses her celebrity status to draw attention to Turkey's strict censorship laws. Along with the others in the Initiative for Freedom of Thought, Lale was sentenced to five years in prison but told she would only spend time behind bars if she published any more banned material. "So we did the next day," says Lale with a giggle, "we published another book so there was another court case. That took two years because they don't want to put us in jail."
This second trial took place while Lale was out of the country but nevertheless, she was sentenced to 15 years in prison, with a five-year suspension. As long as the Initiative didn't publish controversial material in that time, none of the members would have to go to jail. But, in a deliberately provocative move, the group published yet more essays, daring the government to send them to jail. "We were not asking for forgiveness," says Lale, "we were asking them to change the laws. We were just trying to help them, to push them so that they had to change the laws. They need to turn the corner. We were pushing them a little bit more and more, by publishing more books."
Fear
Lale admits that the prospect of going to jail "scares her to death" but she still intends to carry on her work. She says the government wouldn't dare imprison her and the other prominent public figures in the group. "I don't believe them. They can't do it. They have to change the laws. They can put me in jail for a year or two, that's right, and that's a huge thing for me, but I can't stop myself doing it. I'm living in Turkey, in Istanbul. I can't close my eyes and live my private life in luxury and happiness when so many people are in misery. You can't live your life like that. You shouldn't."
Lale intends to return to Turkey in September 2002 to make a new film and, no doubt, to continue her fight for free speech in her home country.
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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