Turkish writers to visit border towns across from Kobane

ISTANBUL

The group will also visit camps along the Syrian border sheltering Syrian refugees. AFP Photo

A group of prominent Turkish writers has announced that it will visit towns, villages and refugee camps across the border from the Syrian town of Kobane, where heavy fighting between Islamist militants and Kurdish fighters has been ongoing for more than a month.

The writers, including well-known names such as Murathan Mungan, Aslı Erdoğan, Vivet Kanetti and Şeyhmus Diken, announced that they would visit villages and camps near Şanlıurfa’s border district of Suruç on Oct. 25 to show their solidarity with Kobane and contribute to raising sensitivity on a subject that has proved thorny in Turkey.

Their visit comes a week after they launched a social media campaign under the slogans “make a sentence for Kobane” and “make a sentence for peace.”

“We are going to Kobane for a peace chain and a vigil for humanity. It is now time to join the sentences that we made for Kobane last week at the border,” Ayşegül Sözeren told news website Bianet.

“Literature is formed at the point where life resists against death. That’s why we feel that we have a responsibility to say something on this matter,” Sözeren added.

She also said they were demanding the opening of a corridor “unconditionally.”

“We also express our opposition against the lynch culture that became manifest during the Kobane protests in Turkey. We are making a call for solidarity and peace and this is above any ideology. We invite everyone who could not join our call physically to support us in spirit,” Sözeren said.

On its visit, the group also aims to research the needs of refugees who have fled to Turkey amid the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant’s (ISIL) advances in northern Syria.