Journalist Şık's "Unpublished" Book Launched on Book Fair
The book originally planned to be entitled "The Imam's Army" written by journalist Ahmet Şık was finally introduced to the public under its new title "000Book" at the TÜYAP Book Fair in Istanbul on Wednesday (16 November). Writer Şık has been detained for 260 days now after he was arrested on 6 March 2011 in the scope of the Ergenekon investigation.
The book was presented at press conference held at the booth of the PEN Writers Association. The event was attended by some of the 125 writers who signed the book that had previously been seized by the authorities before it could go to print but leaked to the internet later on.
The book deals with the impact of an alleged organization established within the police by the Fetullah Gülen religious community over the past 25 years. On 23 March this year, the digital copy of the then yet unpublished book was confiscated in a raid on the İthaki Publishing Company.
Thereupon, a group of 125 people came together to work on the draft of Şık's book. Some corrected typographical errors, others checked the punctuation and after all the book went to print at the Postacı Publishing House seven and a half months later.
The press conference at the PEN exhibition stand was attended by members of the civic initiative ANGA, i.e. "the journalist friends of Ahmet and Nedim [Şener]", among them Prof İhbrahim Kaboğlu, politician Ercan Karakaş and Fadime Göktepe, mother of journalist Metin Göktepe who was killed in police custody.
The attendees of the press conference declared, "We, the ANGA in short, are the Journalist Friends of Ahmet and Nedim. Our colleagues Ahmet Şık and Nedim Şener were arrested only and genuinely because they made journalism. For us, these arrests were an attack on press freedom, freedom of thought and against democracy so we came together".
"Today is an important day for us. A book was brought to light that is the joint product of 125 writers, mainly journalists but also friends of Ahmet Şık among them. Its title is "000Book". Its subtitle: "The one who touches gets burned", they announced.
"The book we hold in hand right now was written by one person and corrected, proofread and spell-checked by many. Some did the pre-reading, others made the final check and the entire group of 125 writers claim responsibility for the book".
"We fight for a Turkey where journalists are not being arrested because they do their job, where the news they make are not being obstructed and where the books they write are not being prohibited", the ANGA members concluded and added:
"Let us cut a long story short: We will touch even if we get burned".
The writers of the book
This is the list of people who signed the book as writers:
Ahmet Büke, Ahmet Meriç Şenyüz, Ahmet Şık, Ahmet Tulgar, Ahmet Ümit, Akın Tek, Ali Murat Hamarat, Ali Ömer Türkeş, Alper Kırklar, Alper Turgut, Arat Dink, Aslı Erdoğan, Aslı Tunç, Ayça Söylemez, Aydın Engin, Ayfer Tunç, Ayşe Düzkan, Ayşegül Devecioğlu, Ayşenur Arslan, Bağış Erten, Banu Güven, Berat Günçıkan, Burak Cop, Can Dündar, Candan Yıldız, Cem Özdemir, Çiğdem Mater, Çiğdem Öztürk, Claudia Roth, Deniz Gökçe, Didem Danış, Dinç Çoban, Ece Temelkuran, Ekin Karaca, Elif Ilgaz, Elif Yılmaz, Emine Ocak, Ercan İpekçi, Erdinç Ergenç, Eren Eğilmez, Erol Önderoğlu, Erkan Çapraz, Ertan Önsel, Ertuğrul Mavioğlu, Esra Arsan, Ezgi Başaran, F. Cengiz Erdinç, Fahri Alakent, Fatma Göktepe, Foti Benlisoy, Franziska Keller, Gaye Boralıoğlu, Gökçer Tahincioğlu, Gökhan Tan, Gülşah Karadağ, Gülşin Ketenci, Gün Zileli, Gürhan Ertür, Güventürk Görgülü, H. Hüseyin Tahmaz, Hakan Güneş, Hakan Lokanoglu, Halil Nalçaoğlu, Hazal Özvarış, Hilmi Hacaloğlu, İbrahim Aydın, İbrahim Kaboğlu, İrfan Aktan, İsmail Beşikçi, İsmail Saymaz, Jaklin Çelik, Jean-Francois Julliard, Johann Bihr, Kemal Göktaş, Kumru Başer, Mahmut Hamsici, Maside Ocak, Mebuse Tekay, Mehmet Demir, Mehmet Güç, Mehmet Kaçmaz, Mehmet Kuyurtar, Melek Göregenli, Mirgün Cabas, Murat Hamarat, Murat İnceoğlu, Murat Sabuncu, Murat Uyurkulak, Murathan Mungan, Mustafa Alp Dağıstanlı, Nazım Alpman, Nevin Sungur, Nilgün Toker, Niyazi Dalyancı, Osman Kavala, Osman Şenkul, Özgür Gürbüz, Özgür Mumcu, Pınar Öğünç, Ragıp Duran, Rengin Arslan, Reyda Ergun, Rıdvan Akar, Serdar M. Değirmencioğlu, Serkan Seymen, Serra Akcan, Siren İdemen, Süleyman Arıoğlu, Şanar Yurdatapan, Şebnem İşigüzel, Şükrü Argın, Tuğrul Eryılmaz, Uğur Vardan, Ümit Alan, Ümit Kıvanç, Vecdi Erbay, Vedat Türkali, Yahya Şafak Eser Koçoğlu, Yaşar Kemal, Yıldırım Türker, Yücel Göktürk, Yücel Tunca, Zehra Kafkaslı, Zerrin Kurtoğlu, Zeynep Altıok, Zeynep Erdim (IC/EKN)