Mehmet DICLE

Image Credit: Mehmet Dicle/WikkiCommons

In April 2025, Mehmet Dicle’s lawyer informed him that an investigation had been launched against him and ZİZ Publishing House in relation to Dicle’s book Berfa Sor. They stood accused of ‘making terrorist propaganda’ for the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a charge that carries a lengthy prison term. The investigation was reportedly dropped by the end of the year, following PEN’s campaign.  

According to the investigation file, in January 2025, prison authorities in Yozgat, central Türkiye, seized a range of books from detainees, including Berfa Sor. Published in 2023, Berfa Sor is set in the fictional town of Asûs, and recalls the anguish and longing of the parents of a guerilla fighter. Excerpts from the book were translated from Kurdish to Turkish by unofficial translators, with the Prosecutor’s Office concluding they amounted to ‘terror propaganda’. The investigation file was sent to the Diyarbakır Prosecutor’s Office, where Dicle is based. Dicle’s lawyer subsequently informed him that the investigation had been closed, though no official documentation had been shared by the end of the year.  

Mehmet Dicle, born in 1977, is a Kurdish writer, editor and translator, co-founder and director of LiteraKurd Literary House in Diyarbakır, southeastern Türkiye. He is a member of Kurdish PEN. Dicle has published three short story collections written in Kurdish: Asûs (2005), Nara (2010) and Ta (2014). He also works as a translator and notably edited Kürt Dili ve Edebiyati (Kurdish Language and Literature, 2010), a textbook in Turkish. Since 2020, Dicle has been acting as editor of the short story magazine Kurdeçîrok. ZİZ Publishing House was founded in 2023 in Diyarbakır and specialises in Kurdish literary works, including poetry, novels, short stories, and translated books.