English PEN appoints jailed journalist Nedim Türfent as an honorary member

* Photo: PEN International

Click to read the article in Turkish / Kurdish

English PEN has appointed jailed journalist Nedim Türfent as an honorary member, saying, "English PEN is pleased to announce that we have appointed imprisoned Kurdish writer Nedim Türfent as an Honorary Member."

Referring to Türfent as "one of many writers currently imprisoned in Turkey" and noting that he has been sentenced to prison on "trumped-up terrorism charges", the English PEN statement has read:

"To show our ongoing commitment to supporting him as best we can, we are delighted that English PEN's board of trustees have now appointed Turfent as an Honorary Member."

Maureen Freely, Chair of the Board of Trustees of English PEN has also said, "Membership of English PEN means being of a global movement united in a belief in the freedom to read and the freedom to write. We are proud and honoured to have Nedim among our members and will continue to stand with him until he fully regains these freedoms."

'This will open a new window in my cell'

On learning that he had appointed an Honorary Member of English PEN, Nedim Türfent has sent a message from prison. Translated by Caroline Stockford into English, the full message of the journalist is as follows:

"Seven locked doors were opened to me, one after another, and yet still I remained in a dark corridor. This was the scene as I came from my cell to make my permitted telephone call to convey this message. And yet still I walked on air as I came to tell you of my great debt of gratitude.

"No matter that flames from the enormous excitement at this news flicker in my heart and set it burning, still I cannot find the right words to truly thank you. It really is a great honour for me to have been chosen by you as an Honorary Member of English PEN. This honour will open a new window in my cell in this depressing and draining prison.

"I feel as though, if I were to pile up my books, one atop another and stand on them, I will be able to look out of this new window and see much further than I do at present.

"Your recognition alone is sufficient to make a person fall in love all over again with his or her pen; with writing. The role of writers and all who work with words is even more important and their responsibility even greater when we know that some of us are being throttled by the pressure of the state, some flowers of our country's rainbow are being plucked out one by one.

"Whilst authoritarianism in Turkey does not yet show signs of having peaked, it is even more crucial that writers fulfil their responsibility to promote and make space for peace and freedoms in our everyday lives.

"In this knowledge and with this belief I know I too have the debt of my part to play in sowing the seeds of peace and freedom in the very words I write. I thank you all one thousand times again. With the might of the pen."

What happened?

While he was a reporter for the Dicle News Agency (DİHA), which was closed by a Statutory Decree, journalist Nedim Türfent was detained in Yüksekova in Turkey's Kurdish-majority Hakkari province on May 12, 2016.

One day later, he was arrested on charge of "being a member of a terrorist organization." He was indicted 13 months after his arrest. When his first hearing was held on June 14, 2017, he had been behind bars for 399 days.

Of 20 witnesses who previously spoke against him, 19 witnesses later said that they testified under torture and withdrew their statements. However, disregarding this, the court sentenced Nedim Türfent to 8 years, 9 months in prison based on the first witness statements.

This ruling dated May 21, 2019 was upheld by the Court of Cassation on May 21, 2019. His individual application is still awaiting examination by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). (HA/SD)