Saturday, March 25, 2017
Turkish Artist Zehra Doğan Sentenced to Prison for Painting of Kurdish Town Attack
Zehra
Doğan. Courtesy the Voice Project.
The Turkish-Kurdish painter and
journalist Zehra Doğan has
been sentenced to 2 years, nine months, and 22 days in prison for creating a
painting which depicted the destruction caused by Turkish security forces in
the Nusaybin district of Mardin province, a Kurdish region in Turkey.
According to Turkish daily Cumhuriyet, the Mardin Second High Criminal
Court in Turkey handed down the sentence because she drew Turkish flags on
buildings destroyed by Turkish forces. However, according to Artforum, the court
expressed that Doğan’s sharing of the image of her work, featuring current
military operations, was the cause for her prison sentence.
Work by Zehra Doğan. Courtesy the
Voice Project.
“I was given two years and 10
months [jail time] only because I painted Turkish flags on destroyed buildings.
However, [the Turkish government] caused this. I only painted it,” Doğan posted
in a now-deleted tweet as reported by online Turkish journalism and human
rights platform Turkey Purge.
According to the Art Newspaper, authorities
arrested Doğan at a cafe late July, claiming that her artworks proved that she
was connected to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is considered a
terrorist organization by the Turkish government.
“Art and paintings
can never be used in such a way,” said Doğan’s lawyer, Asli Pasinli,
according to Voice Project, an international
organization committed to freedom of expression and creative activism. “This is an attack on art and artistic expression.”
