Publisher and Human Rights Defender Ragip Zarakolu Arrested

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Ragip Zarakolu



 Maison du Peuple de Geneve/People’s House of Geneva

Ragip Zarakolu is one of Scottish PEN’s adopted cases

Publisher and Human Rights Defender Ragip Zarakolu ArrestedThe Turkish police detained Ragip Zarakolu, a well-known human rights activist and director of Belge Publishing House, in Turkey. Zarakolu is also the chairman of the Publishers Association Freedom to Publish Committee of Turkey.

Zarakolu was taken into custody on October 28, 2011, during a large-scale manhunt in Istanbul against Kurdish activists.

His son, Deniz Zarakolu, editor of the Belge Publishing House, was arrested on October 4.

Ragip Zarakolu’s Belge Publishing House has published numerous books on the oppression of  national minorities in Turkey as well  as on the Armenian Genocide.

Earlier on the same day, within the same man-hunt, Professor Büsra Ersanli

a constitutional law expert and a member of the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party's (BDP) intra-party constitutional commission, was detained along with dozens of others.

Maison du Peuple de Geneve

Please go to International PEN's website to find out more about Ragip Zarakolu,the present situation, and how you can take action.