Join the campaign for Ilhan Comak
Read more about Ilhan Comak →
Çomak was due for release on parole on 21 August 2024.
In 1994, while Ilhan Çomak was studying geography at Istanbul University, he was arrested and accused of being responsible for several forest fires in Istanbul, as a representative of Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). After 19 days of torture, he confessed.
In 2007, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled that his trial was not fair. He was imprisoned for several years, before a new round of trials started in 2014. Despite insufficient evidence, he was again sentenced to life in prison, which in Turkey is 36 years. In 2020, Çomak was appointed an honorary member of PEN Norway.
Just one day before he was to be released, on August 20th 2024, his parole was postponed on the grounds that he did not show enough remorse for the crime of separatism.
İlhan Sami Çomak is a prize-winning poet, recipient of the Sennur Sezer poetry prize (1999), the Metin Altıok prize (2022) and the Norwegian Authors’ Union Freedom of Expression award (2022) member of the Writers’ Union of Turkey, prize-winning playwright and honorary member of the following PEN Centres: PEN Norway, Wales PEN Cymru, Irish PEN Na H’Eireann, PEN Sydney and PEN Austria. He has been in poetic conversation by letter with over 80 world-renowned poets and has a huge poetic family extending all over the globe.
Write a letter to Ilhan Çomak
PEN, the global network of more than 130 Centres in over 90 countries, has been campaigning for freedom of expression and for the release of writers in prison for over 100 years. We invite you to write to İlhan, sending a non-political message of solidarity, in Turkish by postcard to the following address:
İlhan Sami Çomak
Silivri 5 No.lu L Tipi Kapalı Cezaevi
C12 Silivri
İstanbul
Turkey
An example:
Dear Ilhan,
We hope that, soon, you will be reunited with your freedom and that it will be a new start for you and your poetry. We send you our respect and the love of friendship. Stay strong, we send you greetings from your PEN family. You are never alone.
With solidarity,
Sevgili İlhan,
Çok yakında özgürlüğünüze kavuşacağınız, siz ve şiiriniz için yeni bir başlangıcın olmasını ümit ediyoruz. Size, sonsuz saygılarımızı ve dostça sevgilerimizi ileriyoruz. Güçlü kalın, PEN’deki aileniz olarak size selamlıyoruz! Asla yalnız değilsiniz.
Dayanışmayla,
