Welcome a new ICORN Fellow 17.01.2024
Turkish writer Ersan Pekin will be staying at Villa Decius in Krakow for the next year.
'Freedom of artistic expression has been completely abolished in Turkey,' - says Ersan Pekin, a Turkish writer who has just been given safe shelter by the city of Krakow as part of the ICORN International Network of Cities of Refuge programme.
The Villa Decius Cultural Institute and KBF have welcomed Ersan Pekin, a Turkish writer and publicist, to Krakow. He will be staying on a scholarship at Villa Decius for the next year.
We are delighted to host another scholarship holder of the ICORN international network. Providing support to refugee writers is one of the many statutory tasks of Villa Decius, a cultural institution of the City of Krakow, and an important symbol of the international solidarity of our Krakow community. At Villa Decius, we consider freedom of expression and freedom of creative expression to be key values for democracy, important in the difficult process of cultural dialogue. For 27 years we have been supporting artists seeking refuge, sharing our knowledge and experience with other cities in Poland and the region, promoting Krakow as a literary centre and a city open to the world. I hope that a stay in the city of Miłosz, Lem and Szymborska will provide Ersan Pekin with plenty of inspiration and contacts, says Dominika Kasprowicz, director of Villa Decius.
The Residency Program of the International Cities of Refuge Network (ICORN) aims at securing a place of refuge for writers and human rights defenders who cannot live and create freely in their own countries because of persecutions. Kraków joined ICORN network in 2011 as the first city from Central Europe and now it functions as one of over 70 Cities of Refuge. Villa Decius Institute for Culture, cooperating with Krakow Festival Office and the city council, offers two-year stay opportunities for oppressed artists that include a scholarship and a diverse program of integration with the local literary life, that an artist can engage in, together with actions aiming at promotion of their work in Poland.
The ICORN network was established in Norway in 2005. One of the network’s originators was Salman Rushdie, whose novel, The Satanic Verses, raised violent protests throughout the Islamic world. According to Rushdie’s idea, the aim of ICORN is to promote inalienable values of the freedom of speech and creation by building a network of international solidarity and co-operation. During many years of its activity, ICORN has found temporary places of refuge for several hundred writers, intellectuals, bloggers, and human rights activists.
ICORN forms a dynamic network of more than 80 cities, and its work is one of the world's strongest voices in defence of the right to freedom of opinion and expression and international solidarity. Cities involved include Amsterdam (Netherlands), Barcelona (Spain), Bergen (Norway), Brussels (Belgium), Frankfurt (Germany), Copenhagen (Denmark), Lucerne (Switzerland), Malmö (Sweden), Mexico City (Mexico), Norwich (UK), Oaxaca (Mexico), Oslo (Norway), Paris (France), Pittsburgh (USA) or Reykjavik (Iceland).
Krakow - as the first city in Poland - joined the ICORN International Network of Shelter Cities in 2011. In 2015, the Polish representation in the network expanded to include Wrocław, in 2017 Gdańsk was added to the ICORN network, in 2019 Katowice, and in 2023 Warsaw.
Being a home - even if only a temporary one - for artists seeking refuge from the threats emanating from their homelands is not only a duty but also a privilege for our city. Accepting this role was a clear signal that the citizens of the UNESCO City of Literature in Krakow stand and will always stand on the side of freedom of speech and artistic expression. We are delighted that more Polish cities are joining the network, thus confirming the important work of ICORN, says Robert Piaskowski, Plenipotentiary of the Mayor of the City of Krakow for Cultural Affairs and also a member of the ICORN Governing Board.
Since joining the network, Krakow has hosted eleven writers and writers in residence programmes: Maria Amelie (proper name Madina Salamova - North Ossetia / now in Norway), Kareem Amer (Egypt / now in Norway), Mostafa Zamaniniya (Iran), Lavon Barshchevsky (Belarus), Asli Erdoğan (Turkey), Felix Kaputu (Congo), Monem Mahjoub (Libya), Kholoud Kharaf (Syria / today in Germany), Aaiún Nin (Angola / today in Switzerland), Uladzimir Niaklajeu (Belarus) and Andrei Khadanovich (Belarus).
The Programme of the International Network of Cities of Refuge ICORN in Krakow is organised by the City of Krakow, KBF (the operator of the programme Krakow City of Literature UNESCO) and the Villa Decius Institute for Culture, which runs the scholarship programme and provides space for creative work.
The Villa Decius Cultural Institute and KBF have welcomed Ersan Pekin, a Turkish writer and publicist, to Krakow. He will be staying on a scholarship at Villa Decius for the next year.
We are delighted to host another scholarship holder of the ICORN international network. Providing support to refugee writers is one of the many statutory tasks of Villa Decius, a cultural institution of the City of Krakow, and an important symbol of the international solidarity of our Krakow community. At Villa Decius, we consider freedom of expression and freedom of creative expression to be key values for democracy, important in the difficult process of cultural dialogue. For 27 years we have been supporting artists seeking refuge, sharing our knowledge and experience with other cities in Poland and the region, promoting Krakow as a literary centre and a city open to the world. I hope that a stay in the city of Miłosz, Lem and Szymborska will provide Ersan Pekin with plenty of inspiration and contacts, says Dominika Kasprowicz, director of Villa Decius.
The Residency Program of the International Cities of Refuge Network (ICORN) aims at securing a place of refuge for writers and human rights defenders who cannot live and create freely in their own countries because of persecutions. Kraków joined ICORN network in 2011 as the first city from Central Europe and now it functions as one of over 70 Cities of Refuge. Villa Decius Institute for Culture, cooperating with Krakow Festival Office and the city council, offers two-year stay opportunities for oppressed artists that include a scholarship and a diverse program of integration with the local literary life, that an artist can engage in, together with actions aiming at promotion of their work in Poland.
The ICORN network was established in Norway in 2005. One of the network’s originators was Salman Rushdie, whose novel, The Satanic Verses, raised violent protests throughout the Islamic world. According to Rushdie’s idea, the aim of ICORN is to promote inalienable values of the freedom of speech and creation by building a network of international solidarity and co-operation. During many years of its activity, ICORN has found temporary places of refuge for several hundred writers, intellectuals, bloggers, and human rights activists.
ICORN forms a dynamic network of more than 80 cities, and its work is one of the world's strongest voices in defence of the right to freedom of opinion and expression and international solidarity. Cities involved include Amsterdam (Netherlands), Barcelona (Spain), Bergen (Norway), Brussels (Belgium), Frankfurt (Germany), Copenhagen (Denmark), Lucerne (Switzerland), Malmö (Sweden), Mexico City (Mexico), Norwich (UK), Oaxaca (Mexico), Oslo (Norway), Paris (France), Pittsburgh (USA) or Reykjavik (Iceland).
Krakow - as the first city in Poland - joined the ICORN International Network of Shelter Cities in 2011. In 2015, the Polish representation in the network expanded to include Wrocław, in 2017 Gdańsk was added to the ICORN network, in 2019 Katowice, and in 2023 Warsaw.
Being a home - even if only a temporary one - for artists seeking refuge from the threats emanating from their homelands is not only a duty but also a privilege for our city. Accepting this role was a clear signal that the citizens of the UNESCO City of Literature in Krakow stand and will always stand on the side of freedom of speech and artistic expression. We are delighted that more Polish cities are joining the network, thus confirming the important work of ICORN, says Robert Piaskowski, Plenipotentiary of the Mayor of the City of Krakow for Cultural Affairs and also a member of the ICORN Governing Board.
Since joining the network, Krakow has hosted eleven writers and writers in residence programmes: Maria Amelie (proper name Madina Salamova - North Ossetia / now in Norway), Kareem Amer (Egypt / now in Norway), Mostafa Zamaniniya (Iran), Lavon Barshchevsky (Belarus), Asli Erdoğan (Turkey), Felix Kaputu (Congo), Monem Mahjoub (Libya), Kholoud Kharaf (Syria / today in Germany), Aaiún Nin (Angola / today in Switzerland), Uladzimir Niaklajeu (Belarus) and Andrei Khadanovich (Belarus).
The Programme of the International Network of Cities of Refuge ICORN in Krakow is organised by the City of Krakow, KBF (the operator of the programme Krakow City of Literature UNESCO) and the Villa Decius Institute for Culture, which runs the scholarship programme and provides space for creative work.
Ersan Pekin
The twelfth scholarship holders of the ICORN programme is Ersan Pekin, a Turkish writer and journalist.
He was born in 1979 in Digor (Turkey). He is the author of several novels and short stories. In 2013, he published Kadınlar "Yedi Bitirdi Beni" ('Absorbed by women'), which tells the story of a man suffering from sex addiction. After the publication of his next book ('The Pink Slop of Celebrity and Dreams'), he began to receive numerous threats, as a result of which he and his publisher decided to withdraw the book from the market altogether.
In 2019, following the publication of the first part of the Puzzle trilogy in connection with his first book, he was - six years after its publication - charged with insulting morals, 'obscenity' and spreading pornography. He was sentenced to six months in prison, suspended. For the next three years, he was followed and also received telephone and email death threats.
I was told that if I ever published a book, I would never get out of prison again. I continued to write in secret, but I could not publish. So I contacted PEN Norway, PEN UK, PEN International and the ICORN Network. They helped me a lot. I am very grateful to ICORN, the City of Krakow and Villa Decius for the fact that I can now safely continue my work and plan to publish texts written in Turkey in such a beautiful and free country as Poland. I can finally write freely. After so many years of repression, this is an extraordinary gift from life for me, confessed Ersan Pekin upon his arrival in Krakow for the ICORN scholarship.
In 2021, Ersan Pekin published three novels in English: "Roots", "Pathetic" and "Synthetic Thoughts in a Jar, and Earthscrape". He has published his short stories in various arts and culture magazines, worked as a reporter for several television channels, and was a regular columnist and editor-in-chief of the Ulus newspaper. He held the latter position until 2019, when he was dismissed due to his 'liberal and anti-militarist ideas and publications'.
From an early age I was forbidden to express what I think. In Turkey, it is a matter of state policy. Family, school and the media brainwash children with militaristic ideas of Kemalism and radical Islam. The worldview of most of my compatriots is limited to these two ideological options, and those who shy away from them are considered traitors and terrorists, and subjected to physical and psychological torture. This continues to this day. When the radical Islamists (AKP) gained power in Turkey, taking it away from the Kemalists, no one in our country could speak freely anymore. A partly free country turned into an enslaved country. Nowadays, many journalists, writers, bloggers or Kurdish politicians are put in jail whenever they dare to say something outright. Freedom of artistic expression has been completely abolished, says Ersan Pekin
He was born in 1979 in Digor (Turkey). He is the author of several novels and short stories. In 2013, he published Kadınlar "Yedi Bitirdi Beni" ('Absorbed by women'), which tells the story of a man suffering from sex addiction. After the publication of his next book ('The Pink Slop of Celebrity and Dreams'), he began to receive numerous threats, as a result of which he and his publisher decided to withdraw the book from the market altogether.
In 2019, following the publication of the first part of the Puzzle trilogy in connection with his first book, he was - six years after its publication - charged with insulting morals, 'obscenity' and spreading pornography. He was sentenced to six months in prison, suspended. For the next three years, he was followed and also received telephone and email death threats.
I was told that if I ever published a book, I would never get out of prison again. I continued to write in secret, but I could not publish. So I contacted PEN Norway, PEN UK, PEN International and the ICORN Network. They helped me a lot. I am very grateful to ICORN, the City of Krakow and Villa Decius for the fact that I can now safely continue my work and plan to publish texts written in Turkey in such a beautiful and free country as Poland. I can finally write freely. After so many years of repression, this is an extraordinary gift from life for me, confessed Ersan Pekin upon his arrival in Krakow for the ICORN scholarship.
In 2021, Ersan Pekin published three novels in English: "Roots", "Pathetic" and "Synthetic Thoughts in a Jar, and Earthscrape". He has published his short stories in various arts and culture magazines, worked as a reporter for several television channels, and was a regular columnist and editor-in-chief of the Ulus newspaper. He held the latter position until 2019, when he was dismissed due to his 'liberal and anti-militarist ideas and publications'.
From an early age I was forbidden to express what I think. In Turkey, it is a matter of state policy. Family, school and the media brainwash children with militaristic ideas of Kemalism and radical Islam. The worldview of most of my compatriots is limited to these two ideological options, and those who shy away from them are considered traitors and terrorists, and subjected to physical and psychological torture. This continues to this day. When the radical Islamists (AKP) gained power in Turkey, taking it away from the Kemalists, no one in our country could speak freely anymore. A partly free country turned into an enslaved country. Nowadays, many journalists, writers, bloggers or Kurdish politicians are put in jail whenever they dare to say something outright. Freedom of artistic expression has been completely abolished, says Ersan Pekin