Turkish human rights activist, writer and publisher Ragip Zarkolu condemns serious freedom of speech violations in Turkey in this revealing letter that the he sent from the Selimiye Prison where he was held prisoner until last week:
"A friend of mine, who worked at the same publishing house as I did, had told me about the prison long before I was sent to it. Her husband had spent almost ten years there. This kind of prison establishments are called F. Tipi (Type F), in other words, they are prisons for criminals suspected of terrorism. In Turkey the notion of terrorism is fairly arbitrary; the existing political will and thus the state decides what is meant by terrorism. Merely to have once met somebody involved in so-called illegal political activity can be enough to make one suspect of similar ‘terrorist’ activities."
For the complete letter please refer to the The Dissident Blog, Turkey's freedom of speech is crumbling (Raqip Zarakolu Translation from Swedish: Jan Henrik Swahn)
