Banned book goes on sale in Istanbul book fair

A book penned by arrested journalist Ahmet Sik, whose manuscripts were seized by police in March, has been published and will be released on the market at the TUYAP Book Fair in Istanbul today under the title 000Kitap (000Book).

“000Kitap is the product of collective efforts by those who insist on freedom of expression and freedom of information rights, despite all oppression, obstructions and bullying,” Hurriyet Daily News quoted a press statement issued by the book’s contributors.

Some 125 journalists, activists and academics worked together to write the book which is based on Ahmet Sik’s seized book “Imamın Ordusu” (The Imam’s Army). 000Kitap, however, also includes editing work by 125 volunteers.

“000Kitap’ was written by one person, typo mistakes were corrected by another, grammar was edited by someone else, punctuation was proofread by another and the final reading was done by someone else. In fact, every writer, thinker and journalist who is or feels behind iron bars, paying the price for defending free speech, has a mark in this book,” the statement said.

The first promotion of the book, which is published by the Postaci Publishing House, was expected to be held at Istanbul’s TUYAP Book Fair at 3 pm on Wednesday.

Sik was arrested within the scope of the Ergenekon trials, while copies of his book were seized by means of a court order on the grounds that it constituted a “terror organization document.”

The Ergenekon group is an alleged ultranationalist, shadowy gang accused of planning to topple the government by staging a coup, initially by spreading chaos and mayhem throughout society.