Freedom at last for Ilhan Sami Çomak
For over 30 years, Kurdish poet Ilhan Sami Çomak has been imprisoned in Silivri prison near Istanbul, Turkey. On Tuesday 26 November he was finally released.
Ilhan Çomak was one of Turkey’s longest-serving political prisoners. He was arrested in 1994 whilst a 21 year-old student of geography at Istanbul University, was tried by a military court and was sentenced to life in prison for the alleged charge of separatism.
After his arrest, Çomak was tortured for 19 days before signing a false confession that he had set fires in the forests above Istanbul in the name of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is designated as a terror organisation in Turkey. Çomak was acquitted of this false charge, but was found guilty of the crime of separatism and was sentenced to life imprisonment of 36 years. Despite the European Court of Human Rights ruling for his retrial in 2007, the courts once again found Çomak guilty despite little concrete evidence.
From prison, Çomak published eight collections of poetry in Turkish, a prize-winning play and best-selling autobiography. His poetry books won prestigious prizes in Turkey and he was awarded the Norweigan Writers’ Union’s Freedom of Expression Prize in 2022.
PEN Norway had long supported Ilhan’s case and began to campaign for him in earnest in 2019, to translate him and to invite world poets to write with him. His work was translated to English by PEN Norway, it featured on the London Underground and a new book, an anthology of world poets writing for and with Ilhan entitled ‘Words that Walk Through Walls’ was published in November 2024.
Poetry from his selected works in English ‘Separated from the Sun’ was recently published in Norway by Gyldendal publishing house under the title “Elvene renner ut av kartene” (2024).
Caroline Stockford, PEN Norway’s Turkey Advisor and Ilhan’s translator said of his release:
“PEN Norway fought hard for Ilhan when we heard the terrible news in August 2024 that his parole had been denied. We have combined the literary efforts with legal ones and are glad that our highlighting of his case has made a difference. We are very happy to see him reunited now with his freedom, family and friends. Ilhan is a great poet who suffered an even greater injustice and we are very happy that he can now enjoy his freedom. We are grateful to many other PEN centres who also took up his cause. Together, we made a difference.”
Ilhan Comak has been an honorary member of PEN Norway since 2020. PEN Norway has campaigned for his release for many years in close dialogue with his representatives and family. Ilhan’s case has been one of PEN Norway’s leading Turkey-focused projects since 2019.
Over the past five years, PEN Norway has held annual events for Ilhan’s birthday where we brought together a whole family of poets for him from around the world.
Here is an extract from his letter to PEN Norway in connection with his 50th birthday earlier this year:
“I am leaving behind my 50th year just as I will soon leave behind me 30 years of imprisonment. When I was a free man, my birthday was never celebrated. Thanks to PEN Norway over the last few years, I’ve come to know this new and beautiful thing. These celebrations, both in the way that they uphold tradition and in the way that they allow me to feel a kind of privilege that I have never been familiar with, feel like a huge gift to me. […] Dear friends, I will soon leave behind me 30 years of imprisonment, and it won’t be long until I get out. This will be the last birthday I will experience in prison. Freedom really is very close now; so close that I’ve begun to be able to almost smell it as if it were right next to me.”
Ilhan was freed on the evening of 26 November, 2024. PEN Norway will continue to advocate for Kurdish and Turkish writers, poets, lawyers and journalists in Turkey whose rights to free expression, a fair trial, to liberty, security and the right to assembly and demonstration are being violated.
PEN Norway Director JWF said of Ilhan’s case, “There is still much to do to advocate for the return of the rule of law in Turkey, and there are still tens of thousands of other students in prison, as well as daily arrests of media workers and human rights defenders. Through our Turkey Indictment project and our Kurdish Linguistic Rights work we will continue to support the rights and freedoms of our friends in Turkey, where we perceive violations to have occurred. And we welcome our honorary member, Ilhan Sami Çomak back to the world.”
