Kurdish books sent to the detainees in Sincan No. 1 High Security Prison were not received. Writer Ozan Alpkaya, who was sentenced to 29 years in prison after he was arrested in Amed in 2008 and has been held in Sincan No. 1 High Security Prison for nearly 2 years, said that 17 Kurdish books sent to him have been confiscated so far.

Translator money wanted

Answering ANF questions about the subject through his family, Alpkaya said: "We have discussed this issue with the prison administration many times. In the past months, we asked them why they don't give us Kurdish books. They didn't answer. When we ask them again, they say that the Prison Education Commission can only examine the Turkish books sent and that, if we wanted Kurdish books sent to us, we should write two petitions, one for a translator of the Kurdish books and the other to confirm that the translator's money will be deducted from our account after the translator reads and approves the Kurdish books sent. They say that they will not give us books if we don’t agree with these two conditions."

Application to the European Court of Human Rights

Noting that he submitted the case to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), Alpkaya said: "I applied to the Constitutional Court (AYM), but it rejected the application. This time we applied to the ECHR. Prisoners in other jails had experienced the same problem before and applied to the ECHR, which saw this situation as a violation of rights."

Alpkaya said: "Today, what happens in all prisons in Turkey is almost the same. We don't need an interpreter. Kurdish is the mother tongue of Kurds and it is a crime to prevent Kurds from reading and writing Kurdish. There is no such thing in any law in the world."