English PEN and PEN International are gravely concerned for the health of novelist and human rights activist Aslı Erdoğan, following an interview via her legal team in which she stated that she is being denied medication and water.
In an interview given from the detention centre where she is being held, Erdoğan – who suffers from asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and diabetes – said that she is being held in awful conditions and has been denied essential medication for five days, as well as requests for water.
PEN considers the conditions of Erdoğan’s detention wholly unacceptable and calls on the Turkish authorities to immediately provide better conditions, ensure immediate access to medication and to her doctors as a matter of extreme urgency.
More information on Aslı Erdoğan’s detention here.
Take action
- Please share details of Aslı Erdoğan’s detention with friends and colleagues and on social media:
#LetAsliErdoganFree#AslıErdoğanıBırakın
- Read and share Aslı Erdoğan’s writing, including this translation of ‘The Prisoner’, translated by Deniz Perin, published by Words Without Borders.
- Read and share this statement of support for Aslı Erdoğan, signed by more than 100 writer fellow writers in Turkey. Supporters will also be gathering outside the prison where she is being held on a daily basis to hold a ‘Freedom Watch for Aslı‘, while fellow writers will be writing articles in a dedicated column, ‘Aslı’s Friends‘, in new daily Özgürlükçü Demokrasi (Libertarian Democracy).
- Sign the petition for Aslı Erdoğan’s release on change.org
- Write to the Turkish authorities:
– Expressing serious concern for the health of Aslı Erdoğan and urging that she be given full access to water and all necessary medical care as a matter of urgency;
– Urging them to immediately release Aslı Erdoğan who PEN believes is held solely in connection with their peaceful exercise of their right to freedom of expression;
– Calling for all detained writers and journalists to have access to lawyers and to be released if they are not to be charged with a recognizably criminal offence and tried promptly in accordance with international fair trial standards.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
Cumhurbaşkanlığı Külliyesi
06560 Beştepe-Ankara
Tel : (+90 312) 525 55 55
Fax : (+90 312) 525 58 31
E-mail: contact@tccb.gov.tr
Email: receptayyip.erdogan@basbakanlik.gov.tr
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RecepTayyipErdogan
Twitter: @RT_Erdogan
Please copy your appeals to the Embassy of Turkey in your country. A list of embassies can be found here.