The Bitlis Youth Festival and Book Fair, which was held in Bitlis between May 19-24, is on the agenda with allegations that authors were censored based on their identity information. DEM Party Bitlis MPs Semra Çağlar Gökalp and Hüseyin Olan brought to the Grand National Assembly of Turkey the unjustified ban on the participation of five authors by the Governorate.
According to Gökalp and Olan’s parliamentary question, the participation of Bedirhan Epözdemir, Raci Uğurlu, Uğur Yılmaz, Yasemin Elban and Hamza Özkan in the fair was vetoed by the Governorate on the grounds of their identity information. The authors were not informed of the reason for the decision.
The MPs stated that the fair was initially organized by the voluntary efforts of writers from Bitlis, but in recent years it has been shaped by political motives with the intervention of the Governorate. Among the questions addressed to Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya are the legal basis for the censorship, the reason for collecting the identity information of the authors and whether there is political discrimination in cultural events.
DEM Party argued that these practices of the Governorate violate the freedom of democratic participation and freedom of expression and stated that the public is waiting for a response.
20.05.2025
dokuz8haber