Discussants of a conference entitled “The Developments in Turkey in 1915-1916,” which was held at Germany’s University of Potsdam, criticized the Turkish authorities’ arrest of Ragip Zarakolu—a well-known human rights defender and director of Belge Publishing House, in Turkey, which has published numerous books on the Armenian Genocide—and decided to sent a letter to Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan and demand Zarakolu’s release.     

Ragip Zarakolu was to be among the conference participants, Firat News Agency reported. 

The discussants underscored that Zarakolu had carried out great efforts toward informing people in Turkey about the Armenian Genocide, and that his Publishing House had printed Franz Werfel’s novel The Forty Days of Musa Dagh.

The conference participants, which included chief editor Rober Koptash of Agos Armenian weekly of Istanbul, attorney Fethiye Cetin of the family of the murdered Istanbul-Armenia journalist and Agos’ founding chief editor Hrant Dink, and others, decided to send—via Turkish Embassy in Berlin—a letter to Turkey’s PM, demanding the release of Ragip Zarakolu.