The 8th Amed Book Fair has begun in cooperation with the Amed Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DTSO) and TÜYAP Fair Organization.

A total of 216 publishing houses, 26 of which are Kurdish publishing houses, participated in the fair, which will be open until 8 December.

The fair, which takes place at the Mesopotamia International Fair and Congress Center, hosts many talks, panels and book signing sessions, and will see the participation of many authors.

Police confiscated Hatip Dicle’s book "Afrin Resistance Diary"

A number of books were confiscated by the police. All from Aram Publishing House’s stand. On Wednesday, police confiscated Hatip Dicle’s book "Afrin Resistance Diary". The book chronicles the invasion attacks on Afrin between 20 January 2018 and 20 January 2019.

The police searched the stand, citing the prosecutor’s decision as the basis for the seizure decision.

A total of 4 books confiscated

The police have confiscated 4 books from Aram Publishing House since the fair’s opening. On 2 December, Mahmut Aba’s book "Dildarê Serkeftinê" was confiscated, while in yesterday’s raid by the police, the book "Long Road to Freedom", which includes a translation of Nelson Mandela’s autobiography and a foreword by PKK Leader Abdullah Öcalan, as well as a book that compiles Mehmet Hayri Durmuş’s letters, were seized.

Publishers: We are working for the development of Kurdish literature

Publishing houses that participated in the Book Fair held in Amed made an assessment to ANF.

Delîl Zengar (Aram Publishing House): We participated in the fair with over 100 authors and over 200 books. We have books written in many areas.

The books of Kemal Pir and Hayri Durmuş, which are our new books, are very popular. The participation is quite good. Amed has good readers, and we expect it to be better.

Jêhat Rojhilat (Payîz Publishing House): As a publishing house, we participated in the fair with 35 of our new books. We will have book signing sessions with our authors. We mostly publish in Kurdish.

We are working for the development of Kurdish literature. We want to convey our literature to the younger generation. Therefore, we need to protect the Kurdish language and literature. This is why we attach importance to such fairs.

There are new books in Kirmanckî

Deniz Gündüz (Vete Publications): As the only publishing house in the Zazaki (Kirmanckî) dialect, we participated in the fair with our authors. We have new books. We encountered great interest from book lovers. These fairs are very important for us because we come together with readers.

Book Fairs allow readers to meet authors

Halil Samed (Pola Publications Group): There is a nice crowd and great interest from readers. The reader has the chance to find the books they love and meet the author they love. This is why book fairs have such importance.