Judicial reform package may save banned books

ANKARA - Anatolia News Agency

The ‘Communist Manifesto,’ written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in 1848 and can be found in any bookstore, is one of the books legally banned in Turkey.

A regular bookcase in a regular Turkish home may have long contained illegal publications, according to an informatory list sent by the Ankara Police Department to the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutors’ Office in line with the 3rd Judicial Reform Package. 

The list informs prosecutors about publications that are illegal to publish, sell, or distribute in line with the reform, and includes a total of 453 books and 645 newspapers, magazines, pamphlets and journals. It reveals that many celebrated books that have been freely published and sold for a long time should in fact have been subject to the mentioned ban. Among these books are those written by Nazım Hikmet, Yaşar Kaplan, Vladimir Lenin, Sultan Galiev, İsmail Beşikçi, Karl Marx and Abdurrahim Karakoç.

The list noted that a commission within the police department had been formed to further analyze the mentioned publications. The commission decided that the ban on 67 books and 16 newspapers should remain in place. 

The list was reviewed by Kürşat Kayral, the public prosecutor for investigation of press crimes, before being transferred to the deputy Chief Public Prosecutor. 

If no further decision is made by the prosecutor’s office on a continuation of the ban by Jan. 5 next year, the publications on the list will be permanently freed from legal treatment.