Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris

.Professor B~kaya reflects on 20 months
In
•
prIson
•
Ba~kaya~whom we
interviewed at his
apartment, said, 'If
their aim had been to
stop the 'people.from
learning'myopinions,
my punishment has
been a'complete fiasco'
Sinan Yllmaz
Turkish Daily News I
ANKARA- Professor Fikret Ba~kaya
.was not a very well-known man: Those
who knew him were mostly the students
:of tzzet Baysal University, where
B~kaya is alecturer, and those who read
his books.
. B~kaya frrst attfclctedattention after he
started writing in Öz~ Gündem newspaper.
Later, his book 'The Collapse of the
Paradigm" was published. The book, in
w~1ichBa~kaya argued that the official
line which had been put forward until
today had no validity, attracted the attention
of book lovers. However, it must
have attracted the attention of somebody
else as well because a letter was sent to
B~kaya by the Prosecutor's Office, saying
" since we will ask for your state.
ment we eX{lectyou to be present at the
Prosecutors's Office ..."
B~kaya did not turn down the invitation
and went tothe.prosecutor's 9ffice. A
tile had been opened against him on
charges of disseniin~ting separatist prop~-
. ganda under ArtIcle' 8 of the AntI-
. Terrorism Law. In other words, he had
supported "separatism" as many other
"CrIminals of thought" have done.
B~kaya was fRed, found guilty and sentenced
to 20 months in pnson and fined
TL 41 million. He began his jail sentence
on March 17, 1994, In Haymana Prison.
At the same time Ba~kaya's book was
being sold everywhere. He was, in fact, in
prison because of a -book which was not
banned. As he exrressed it, "They sent
the criminal to jai but did not touch the
source 'of the crime." '.
Five editions of the book were pub-
. lished while B~kaya was in prison. There
. were also an unknown number of illegal
publications. Consequently, Ba~kaya .
nghtly said, "If their aIm was to stop the
JX:Oplef!'Omlearmng my ideas, my pun-
Ishment ISa complete fiasco." . .
Ba~kaya,whom we visited at his apartment
after his release from pris0'l1 on~e
a8~n failed to keep, silent and express~d
his Ideas bravely. His remarks follow: ..
TDN. I must first say welcome back.
How was your life in prison? Could you
tell us about it?
. BA~KAYA. I didn't havemuch trou- .
ble. I continued to do what I used to do'
before. I was involved in translating,.",:riting
and reading when I was out of JaIl. I
continued to do so in jail. I did not suffer
any material" orpnysiCilI problems.
NeIther did I suffer from loneliness. On
,the contrary, I found the opportunity to
see many people whom I haven't seen for
a long time. Thus, my life was not interrupted
at aiL I can say that they failed to
achieve their objectives by putting me in
jail. They wanted 10 isolate me. r was not
Isolated. They wanted to prevent me from
writing, readIng and producing opinions.
They failed to do so.
TDN- What did you do throughout the
day? . ,
BA~KA YA- For some time I was
inv~l~ed in sp,orts. Later; wc quit .sports, .
claImIng that It was too hot. We listened'
.to news bulletins. I used to write and
translate. I translated two books into
. Turkish. But I hit trouble at the publishing
stage. The printing rights belonged to
a foundation in the United States and they
4sked for a' great deal of money. So I
could not get It published.
TDN- What does the outside world
.look like when you view it fromjail?
BASKA y A- It is important where
look. Éut it is more important from where
you look at it. When you look from jail,
Turkey. 's socioeconomic and politIca. I
geography does not create ahopef~)
u.1
5 .....,
.ProCessor Fikret B~kàya (L) with TDN's Sinan ytlmaz . TJ?N-Cengiz Uysa!
164