Poetry Book Dedicated to Turkey’s Disappeared People

Writers Union of Turkey (TYS) and Human Rights Association (IHD) promoted the book entitled “Their Hearts Are A Little Garden” - a poetry book compiled from 59 poets’ works dedicated on the 500^th gathering of Saturday Mothers/People. 

Attended by representatives from IHD, TYS and Saturday People, a promotion was held today in Istanbul’s Yıldız Palace.  

Köz: Aim of this book is to create a memory 

TYS Chairman Mustafa Köz told bianet that the idea came when they headed to Kars province to commemorate Cemil Kırbayır. 

“Three years ago, IHD initiated a project to trace and form a memory of  Cemil Kırbayır. The union wanted to be a part of this for conscious reasons and observe the process. We have assigned some of our friends from the administration and headed to Kars. We had two suggestions: Making a “Road Diary” on that journey and compile poetry dedicated to the disappeared people under police detention. 

“It is a compilation of poetry by Turkey’s poets for the disappeared people of the world. The aim of this book is to create a memory, a writing tradition and to keep it permanent. We live this life by forgetting and letting things go. However, Turkey experienced terrible incidents, great divisions and tragedies, and it is still experiencing new ones. This book is a way to turn this pain into something that resists. Let’s keep the memory alive.”  

Köz also added that they have been working on an anthology of poems dedicated to the forced disappearances written by various poets across the world.  

The foreword of the book is also written by TYS Chairman Mustafa Köz.

You can acquire the book from TYS or IHD headquarters. (EA/BM)

* Click here to read the article in Turkish.