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Turhan Günay and Evrensel Publishing House have been granted International Publishers House (IPA) Voltaire prize.
The IPA announced that the prize would be given to journalist and publisher Turhan Günay, who was released after detained on remand for 268 days, and Evrensel Publishing House, which is the 30th publishing house closed through statutory decree, to draw attention to issues in freedom of expression in Turkey.
The prize is awarded to publishers who come to the fore with their brave attitudes.
IPA’s Freedom to Publish Committee that determines the nominees and prize winners stated that this prize was given to two people for the first time of its 11-year history. It was also emphasized that this was IPA’s reaction to Turkish government’s crackdowns on media, academy and cultural life.
Turhan Günay
Günay has been working at Cumhuriyet for over 30 years. He serves as editor-in-chief at Cumhuriyet Supplementary Book, which started the book supplementary tradition in Turkey, and as manager of Cumhuriyet Books.
He was arrested on charge of “aiding a terror organization as a non-member” along with his 10 coworkers on November 5, 2016. He was released on July 28 through the interim verdict. The charges pressed against him continue.
Evrensel Publishing House
Evrensel Publishing House was founded in 1988.
As a publishing house publishing hundreds of works in Turkish, Kurdish, Armenian, Assyrian and Arabic, it has contributed to enrichment of literature and culture.
It was forced to be closed by being halted through statutory decree No. 675 dated October 29, 2016, and became the 30th closed publishing house of Turkey. (YY/TK)
