The logo face for this shirt includes a meaningful depiction of a political hostage in Turkey: Selahattin Demirtas. Demirtas is one of many examples of political hostages, journalists and artists behind bars in Turkey today.  Turkey comes a close second on the list for countries imprisoning the most journalists in the world because the President, Recep Tayyid Erdoğan, sees anyone who stands and advocates for peace and social justice in Turkey as a threat. 

This shirt is commanding us to spread awareness, educate, and inform ourselves and the people around us about the injustices and human rights violations happening in Turkey. This shirt urges people to look up the hashtag and also encourages everyone to contribute information and resources to the hashtag on various social media platforms. 

Sometimes the politically charged art we create cannot exist on the walls of galleries alone… it needs to be worn, it needs to confront different people, in different spaces. This shirt is intended to spark conversations about peace, protection, and social justice. 

I have created many tshirts in the past and one thing I have noticed from all of them is that I have had some of the most productive conversations with a simple question  “what or who is that on your shirt?”  while in line at a coffee shop or grocery store. 

“In Western countries, prison is generally thought of as a place where people are punished for their crimes. In Turkey, however, it is a different matter. Behind these walls, there is now, a considerable population of qualified and educated people who could serve the needs of any modern, moderate-sized country. As a human rights lawyer- one who has tirelessly reported rights violations in Turkey’s prisons for a number of years- it is with complete certainty and considerable sorrow that I tell you that, since becoming a lawyer in 1998, I have never known rights to be abused as frequently and consistently as they are now.  Turkey has become a country in which those who stand up to the rising authoritarianism in the government- dissidents who share tweets considered critical of the current regime, university students who wave protest banners, journalists who truthfully report the news, academics who sign petitions calling for peace, and members of parliament acting in the public interest- quickly find themselves incarcerated. The government believes that this policy of collective punishment will suppress the millions of dissidents “on the outside”, who are living in a semi-open prison as it is. And so in the nearly two years that I have been imprisoned, there has never been any question in my mind as to why I am here.  Like many other dissidents held in Turkey’s prisons, I, too, am paying a necessary price in the name of peace and democratization. Yet even if I were forced to spend my entire life behind bars, my belief in the right to defend peace, democracy, and human rights would not waver.” 

-Selahattin Demirtas

Edirne High-Security Prison, Turkey 

August 17, 2018

Learn more about Selahattin Demirtas by clicking the link below with this article by Azad Kurd whom I have collaborated with on this T-shirt
https://kurdistani.org/2019/09/17/a-political-hostage-in-turkey-selahattin-demirtas/ 

“Besides his political characteristics, Demirtas is also a talented artist and author. He has released drawings conducted from his cell via social media and published two books called “Seher” (Dawn), and “Devran” (Era, fate). His “Dawn” book has been published in English by Sarah Jessica Parker’s SJP for Hogarth and is available on Amazon.”