Book ban lifted with new judicial package in Turkey

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

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A ban on 453 books by various authors, including Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, Nazım Hikmet, Aziz Nesin, Said-i Nursi and Mahir Çayan have been lifted after 63 years by works in the Third Judicial Package.

An examination on Turkey’s banned publications list was completed by Ankara’s Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office and sent by the Security General Directorate for a review as part of the Third Judicial Package.

After the examination, Chief Public Prosecutor Kürşat Kayral decided to lift bans placed on 453 books and 645 newspapers, periodicals, brochures and banners, daily Habertürk reported yesterday. Kayral justified this decision as meeting standards of freedom of thought and expression as stated in the package.

“Lifting the bans will make a clean break in society. If we cannot explain to anyone that freedom of expression is a complete body comprised of many different liberties, it won’t matter if we know if the king is naked,” Kayral said.

With the decision, bans brought 63 years ago against books such as Nursi’s “Tarihçe-i Hayat” (History of Life), Marx’s “The Communist Manifesto,” Lenin’s “State and Revolution,” Çayan’s “Collected Articles,” Nesin’s “Azizname,” Hikmet’s “Complete Works” and the comic book series “Tommiks,” were lifted