İsmail Beşikçi

İsmail Beşikçi (born 1939 in İskilip, Turkey) is a Turkish sociologist, philosopher, revolutionist, and writer. He is a PEN Honorary Member.[1] He has served 17 years in prison[2] on propaganda charges stemming from his writings about the Kurdish population in Middle East.

Ismail Beşikçi
A photograph of İsmail Beşikçi in a green sweater
Born1939
İskilip, Turkey
NationalityTurkish
Occupation(s)Sociologist, writer
Known forKurdology
Honours

Early life and education

Beşikçi studied at the Faculty of Political Sciences of Ankara University, and graduated in 1962. After his military duty he became an assistant professor at Atatürk University in Erzurum. He prepared his first anthropological study, an investigation of one of the last nomadic Kurdish tribes, the Alikan, here, which he submitted in 1967 to the Ankara Faculty of Political Sciences. His second encounter with the Kurds was during his military service when he served in Bitlis and Hakkâri where he first saw the nomadic Alikan tribe pass through Bitlis on their migrations from winter to summer meadows and back.[3]

Professional career

His book "The order of East Anatolia", first published in 1969, in which he sought to adapt and apply Marxist concepts to the analysis of Kurdish society and to the processes of socio-economic and political change taking place, made him a public enemy. While the book did not cause much debate either in academic or left intellectual circles, the university took disciplinary measures against him which would lead to a trial after the 1971 coup. He was detained and put on trial for communist and anti-national propaganda where he was sentenced to 13 years imprisonment for violating the indivisibility of the Turkish nation. Beşikçi did not have to serve his full 13 years and benefited amnesty in late 1974.[4] He unsuccessfully applied for a position at the Faculty of Political Sciences in Ankara, which in 1970 had appeared willing to employ him. He never found academic employment again and was henceforth working to do his research as an independent scholar in economically precarious circumstances.

On Kurds

For many years, Ismail Beşikçi was the only non-Kurdish person in Turkey to speak out loud and clearly in defense of the rights of the Kurds. Continuing to write and speak in spite of all attempts to silence him, Beşikçi has become a powerful and important symbol for the Kurds and for the human rights movement of Turkey. He has been described as "modern Turkey's pioneer of Kurdish studies".[3]

Ismail Besikci has authored several important works on Kurdish social organization and the continuing plight of Kurds today. His most famous work is International Colony Kurdistan. Besikci argues that the Turkish state has been practicing a policy of genocide against Kurds over the past 80 years. International Colony Kurdistan is probably Besikci's most open critique of the present division of Kurdistan, an ethnically contagious area (mainly) between Turkey, Iran and Iraq - with a Kurdish population of several million people. Besikci argues that, for all their political differences, there is a longstanding understanding between these regional states to deny Kurds the right of self-determination and nationhood. Ismail Besikci's International Colony Kurdistan was originally published in 1991 and led to the imprisonment of the author in Turkey. The book remains a roadmap for our understanding of Kurdistan today.

On the Kurdistan Workers' Party

He is a prominent criticizer of Abdullah Öcalan, the leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), who doesn't support the creation of an independent Kurdistan.[5] In 2010 he was again prosecuted, this time by the attorney general of Istanbul for “PKK propaganda” on account of an article on "The rights of the nations to self-determination and the Kurds" that he wrote for the "Association of Contemporary Lawyers".[6]

Imprisonment

He was charged for over 100 years[1][7] but released from jail in 1999.[8] After writing an article for the Contemporary Lawyer's Association, he was accused in June 2010 of "making propaganda for the PKK" using the Anti-Terror Law of Turkey.[9] In March 2011 he was sentenced to 15 months in prison.[10] He was also convicted under the Anti-Terrorism law for his book Işlevsizleşen Yasaklar- Non functioning Bans.[11]

His publisher, Unsal Ozturk, was persecuted with him under the Terror Law for the book Nation that Discovered Itself, the Kurds, and at least 18 more of Beşikçi's books.[12]

Recognition

Publications

32 of the 36 books that he has published have been banned in Turkey.[15] Here a selection of his books

  • Nation that Discovered Itself, the Kurds
  • Kürdler ve Gelecegini Belirleme Hakki
  • Dewlet Û Kurd
  • Bilim Yöntemi Türkiye'deki Uygulama-IV - Tunceli Kanunu (1935) ve Dersim Jenosidi
  • Beşikçi, İsmail (2015). International Colony Kurdistan. London: Gomidas Institute. ISBN 978-1-909382-20-6.

References
  1. International PEN. "Newsletter of the Writers in Prison Committee of International PEN" (PDF). Retrieved August 2, 2006.
  2. Derya Sazak on Milliyet. "İmralı'daki değil dışarıdakiler konuşsun (not the one in İmralı but others should speak)" (in Turkish). Retrieved March 25, 2007.
  3. van Bruinessen, Martin (2005). "Ismail Beşikçi: Turkish sociologist, critic of Kemalism, and kurdologist". Journal of Kurdish Studies. Retrieved 2010-08-29.
  4. Nell, Edward J.; Heilbroner, Robert L.; Falk, Richard A.; Diamond, Stanley (1982-08-12). "The Case of Dr. Besikci". New York Review of Books. ISSN 0028-7504. Retrieved 2020-04-05.
  5. Gürbüz, Mustafa (2016). Rival Kurdish Movements in Turkey. Amsterdam: University of Amsterdam. p. 54. ISBN 9789089648785.
  6. "Ismail Besikci Is Being Tried Once More". Armenian Weekly. 2010-07-04. Retrieved 2010-08-29.
  7. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2008-12-03. Retrieved 2007-03-25.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  8. "BBC News - Europe - Turkish writer released from jail". news.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 16 June 2017.
  9. "Writers in Prison Committee Case List – January to June 2011" (PDF). PEN INTERNATIONAL. Archived (PDF) from the original on 27 Nov 2020.
  10. "EU warns over detention of Turkish journalists". Reuters. 2011-03-04. Retrieved 2011-03-06.
  11. Juillet-Août (1995). "Human Rights Diary" (PDF). Bulletin de liaison et d'information. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 Mar 2022.
  12. Juillet-Août (1995). "Action File: Unsal Ozturk, Turkey" (PDF). Bulletin de liaison et d'information. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 Mar 2022.
  13. "Dr Ismail Besikci". CENTRE for TURKEY STUDIES. 19 July 2014. Retrieved 2020-03-19.
  14. "İsmail Beşikçi receives Dink Award - Turkey News". Hürriyet Daily News. 16 September 2012. Retrieved 2021-12-11.
  15. "Rudaw's 2014 Person of the Year". Rudaw. Retrieved 16 June 2017.
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