Police Raid Belge Publishing House, Seize 2,000 Books

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According to the report of Hayri Tunç from Direnişteyiz website, police raiding the office of Belge Publishing House in Cağaloğlu district of İstanbul on Sunday (May 7) searched the office and the inventory of the publishing house claiming that they received a complaint about some books without a bandrol.

Police stating that there was an order to pull the books of "Stateless Kurds" and "Decisions tougher than death" off the shelf have seized also other books from 80's and 90's without an order.

Seizing approximately 2,000 books, police also detained Mehmet Ali Varış, an employee of publishing house and later released him.
About Belge Publishing House.

Belge Publishing House was founded by Ragıp Zarakolu and Ayşe Zarakolu in 1977 and published books mostly about politics, economics, philosophy and human rights.

"New Voices", a series of books were published in order to act with solidarity with writers in prison in the 10th year anniversary of the publishing house.

Ayşe Nur Zarakolu, one of the founders of the publishing house having investigations launched into many of its publications received the International Publishers Association (IPA) Freedom Freedom of Thought prize in 1998 and Ragıp Zarakolu received the IPA Freedom to Publish award in 2008.

Ragıp Zarakolu arrested in 2011 as a part of the KCK (Kurdistan Communities Union) operation and was released in April 2012. He was nominated to Nobel Peace Prize in February 2012. (EA/DG)