ARTS-CULTURE cu-arts
Turkish publisher to face trial before picking up award
VERCİHAN ZİFLİOĞLU | 10/24/2010 12:00:00 AM | ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News
The Geneva-based International Publishing Association, or IPA, will award its 2010 Freedom to Publish Prize - Special Award to İrfan Sancı on Nov. 2. Before he receives the award, however, Sancı must appear in an Istanbul court on allegations that one of the books he has published has inappropriate sexual content. ‘This is potential political censorship,’ says the IPA’s chair
The Turkish owner of a publishing house currently on trial for publishing a book with sexual content has been announced as the winner of the Geneva-based International Publishing Association, or IPA’s, Freedom to Publish Prize - Special Award for 2010.
İrfan Sancı, who is on trial for publishing a book with sexual content by French writer Guillaume Apollinaire, will be in court on Nov. 2 in Sultanahmet before he receives his reward at the Istanbul TÜYAP Book Fair in the evening.
“There is nothing to say about what’s going on. I am being punished in my own country but am also getting an international award. This is tragic,” Sancı, the owner of Sel Publishing House, told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review in a recent interview.
“Everything aside, Apollinaire’s book, which is a part of the world’s cultural heritage, is being tried for hurting the public’s sense of shame,” he said.
“In May 2010, despite expert reports from the Galatasaray and Bahçeşehir Universities concluding that the books were works of literature, an Istanbul court decided to send the three books to the Prime Ministerial Board for the Protection of Children from Harmful Publications for review to determine whether they constitute literature or obscenity,” IPA Freedom to Publish Committee Chair Bjorn Simonsen told the Daily News. “The news hearing is due on Nov. 2. This is potential political censorship. We therefore call for Sel's acquittal.”
Sancı, who is also the owner of two national prizes including one from the Turkish Publishers Association, said another publishing house was tried in the past because of the same reason. “The publishing house applied to the European Court of Human Rights and Turkey was sentenced to pay compensation.”
[HH] Self-censorship on book cover
The publisher said they had planned to present the books of the series with a special cover design but were then forced to select a bland cover because of the trouble they knew they would create.
“The leading name of Turkish painting, Mustafa Horasan, would have become our cover sponsor and made designs but we did not do it. We printed regular covers. Because we did not want to draw much more attention,” he said.
Reading erotic literature required intellectual effort, he said. “This society does not even know about sexuality and foreplay. What about eroticism?”
[HH] Erotic Series
Sel Publishing House, which was established in 1990 and has published selected works from Turkish and the world literature for the past 20 years, recently decided to unveil the books as part of a new line, the Erotic Series.
The series was slated to include selected writers from world literature and to encourage young Turkish female writers to write novels with sexual content. The announcement attracted 17 writers.
Sancı published “Perinin Sarkacı” (The Fairy’s Pendulum) by a young female academic writing under the pen name Ben Mila, as well as Apollinaire’s “Adventures of the Young Don Juan,” P.V.’s “Letters of a Learned and Well-mannered French Bourgeois Lady” and Spanish writer Juan Manuel de Prada’s “The Pussy.”
The books, however, were sued in accordance with the law for protecting minors from harmful publications.
“Fortunately, we did not reveal the real name of Ben Mila, otherwise we would have faced bigger problems. First of all, this woman was not able to write her book with her real name because she would have lost her career,” Sancı said.
[HH] Eroticism through female writer
“I love erotic literature. This is why I started this series,” said Sancı, adding that his main aim was to encourage young women on this issue.
“The half of the world population is made up of women but it is men who are writing about women’s bodies and sexuality. Twelve young women writers applied to our newest announcement through the Internet. They provided their first novels and [the women] were very successful and courageous. I was impressed as a publisher,” he said.
Sancı said he deeply believed literature had such power to present pornography in an aesthetic way. “Pornography loses its effect in literature. It is already necessary at a certain culture level.”
The publishing house aimed to publish two books a month as part of the sexual series but they failed to continue because of financial problems. “We have spent money on lawyers rather than on publishing books.”
When asked if trials would intimidate them, Sancı said: “On the contrary, we plan to focus on this series in the New Year and publish new books. We will publish two books every month.”