Book fair to open in Kocaeli

KOCAELİ - Anatolia News Agency

The fifth Kocaeli Book Fair will be organized between May 11 and 19 with 350 publishing houses and 20 bibliophiles from Istanbul and Kocaeli.

The fifth Kocaeli Book Fair will be organized from May 11 to 19 in the northwestern province with the participation of 350 publishing houses, 30 nongovernmental organizations and 20 bibliopoles from Istanbul and Kocaeli.

At a press conference held yesterday at a restaurant, Kocaeli Mayor Secretary General Ersin Yazıcı that the slogan of the fair would be the “discovery of paper worlds.”

Campaign for visually impaired people

Last year, 450 events were organized as part of the fair, he said, adding that it had been visited by a total of 790,000 people in four years.

Yazıcı said this year that their goal was to organize Turkey’s biggest book fair, adding that they would organize a campaign for visually impaired people.

“The goal of this project is to raise awareness for visually impaired people. Books will be connected for them and we will show a good example of social solidarity. The books will be donated to the Abdurrahman Gazi Hearing Impaired Primary School. A stand will also be opened for journalist Mehmet Ali Birand, who died in January. His books, documentaries and colorful watches will be exhibited at the stand. Also, journalist-writer Can Dündar will sign his book on Birand,” Yazıcı said.

Yazıcı said they would also hang books and e-book reading tools on trees in the city center and that writers would sign their books.

“Some 5,000 people will read book simultaneously for the finale of a project,” he said, adding that second-hand books would also be gathered in the campaign to open libraries in 41 village schools.

In addition to Dündar, writers such as İskender Pala, Ayşe Kulin, İsmet Özel, Hüseyin Gülerce, İlber Ortaylı, Esra Erol, Ahmet Ümit, Fatih Portakal, Nihat Genç, Ferhan Şensoy, Uğur Dündar, Sunay Akın, Ece Temelkuran and Kahraman Tazeoğlu will all attend the fair. Legendary Turkish actor Kadir İnanır and actress Türkan Şoray will also make an appearance at the event.