Devran is a book authored by the Kurdish politician Selahattin Demirtaş while he was in prison in Edirne, Turkey. In the book are included fourteen short stories,[1] which focus on human rights of Kurds in Turkey.[2] After Dawn, it is the second book of Demirtaş[2] and was published in 2019 by İletişim Yayınları.[1] It has a dedication to his parents who stood by their children for seventeen years while they were prosecuted or in prison.[2]
Impact
In January 2020, the book was included into a play by Шаблон:Interlanguage link during which artists read out stories included in the book.[3] Opposition politicians like the mayor of Istanbul Ekrem Imamoğlu or the Party chair of the Republican Peoples Party (CHP), Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu also attended the play.[4] In 2019, Turkish prosecutors classified the possession of the book as an evidence of being a member a terrorist organization claiming it was written to praise the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).[5] Despite the classification by the prosecution, the book is legally available in Turkey and can also be bought over Amazon.[6] The book caused further turmoils in 2020, as Bülent Arınç, a prominent politician of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) advised the public society to read the book, which caused a condemning response by the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan calling Demirtaş a terrorist.[7] From politicians of the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), Arınç was also criticized and asked if he receives a commission for his promotion of a PKK book.[8] After a police investigation on HDP politicians in November 2021, Devran was displayed as a terrorism document together with other books of Demirtaş.[9]
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