The story goes on: the story of the book, of Syria and of freedom

The 11th Istanbul International Arabic Book Fair, launched in the city especially after the Arab Spring, is being held this year. The fair opened its doors on 15 August at the Yenikapı Eurasia Expo Center and will continue until 23 August. Bringing together more than three hundred publishing houses from over thirty countries, along with hundreds of authors, publishers and cultural figures, the fair has a theme this year that is extremely simple yet just as meaningful: "The Story Continues."

The story in question is, of course, not merely that of the return to their home countries today of a significant part of those refugees or political migrants who, twelve years ago, in the context of the counter-revolution against the Arab Spring, came especially from Syria but also from Egypt, Yemen, Libya, Iraq and many other countries, and who had been pushing the Arab population in Türkiye toward almost five million. Even if it evokes this, the story of the Arabic language, culture and publishing in Istanbul has a far longer context than that.

We are talking about the story that severed the ties between Türkiye and the Arab world after the First World War, thereby beginning the truly great story, or rather opening a long parenthesis within a still greater story.

Since the very beginning of the fair, I have objected to one of the ways in which it is promoted. The description "the largest Arab fair held outside an Arab country" ignores the fact that the Arab population living in Türkiye is larger than the population of many Arab countries. Indeed, until a hundred years ago Istanbul was the capital of this entire Arab geography and of its population. Today, too, the story of this wholeness seems to be continuing from where it left off.

It truly is continuing, and this year the story has a very special guest: Syria.

Syria's participation in the fair as the guest of honor is not an ordinary protocol choice, for, as we have noted, there is a very special bond between the story of this fair and the last ten years of the Syrians.

The years when the fair began were years of great migrations from Syria to Türkiye. People were arriving having left behind their homes, their cities, their libraries, and sometimes their entire lives. They had found safety, but a human being does not live by safety alone. A human being lives by memory, language, culture and books.

In those days, the Arabic book in Istanbul carried, in part, the memory of a lost homeland. The presence of Syrian publishers, authors and readers at this fair was also part of an effort to survive culturally in exile.

Today, the same Syria takes part in the fair from a different place. It is here as guest of honor no longer only with its refugee publishers and authors, but with its state, its Ministry of Culture and its cultural institutions. At the Syrian Ministry of Culture's stand, the country's literature, history, art and cultural heritage are on display.

That books which once fled destruction and took refuge in Istanbul now represent the culture of their own country again fits the theme of "the continuity of the story" so beautifully.

Indeed, rebuilding a country after war is not merely a matter of building buildings, roads and cities. Memory must be rebuilt as well. A society that has lost its memory cannot easily rebuild itself even if it re-erects its buildings. It is therefore hardly surprising in this respect that the first great face Syria presented to the outside world after it was freed was the Damascus International Book Fair, held in Damascus last February. After a 14-year interval, the Damascus fair, without exaggeration, is already a candidate to become the most comprehensive and the freest fair in the Arab world.

The transformation that the Istanbul fair has undergone in eleven years is also striking. It is no longer only a space where books are displayed and sold. Over nine days, panels, author meetings, poetry nights and art events, as well as children's and youth programs, are held in two conference halls. With calligraphy and painting exhibitions, the book meets art.

More importantly, the fair is increasingly working toward building a lasting network of publishing and translation between Türkiye and the Arab world.

At the Copyright Corner, Turkish and Arab publishers talk directly about copyrights and joint publishing projects. At the Translation Corner, translation workshops are held from Arabic into Turkish and from Turkish into Arabic. Through the "Turkish Literature in Arabic" program, ways are being sought for Turkish authors to reach Arab readers more strongly.

These should not be regarded as secondary activities. Because translation is one of the most enduring bridges between civilizations. Although we are so close to one another geographically, we still do not know each other's contemporary literature and thought well enough. We talk a great deal about each other, but we do not read each other enough.

Today's (Wednesday's) program of the fair includes a panel that will give this cultural encounter a very special meaning: "The Intellectual and Political Project of Sheikh Rached al-Ghannouchi."

In the panel, moderated by Tesnim al-Ghannouchi, I will address Ghannouchi's legal and humanitarian situation; Riyad al-Shuaibi will discuss the idea of "Muslim democracy" in his thought; Turan Kışlakçı will discuss his influence on the Turkish experience; and Nabil Bukeiri will discuss the relationship between theory and political practice.

Ghannouchi is 85 years old today and has been in prison for more than three years. Concerns about his health are also growing steadily. That his freedom is being raised at a book fair carries a special meaning.

Because Ghannouchi is not merely a politician; he is a thinker who has written for half a century on Islamic thought, democracy, freedom, pluralism and political reconciliation, and whose more than twenty works have been translated into many languages.

The contradiction of a thinker's books circulating freely while he himself is held behind four walls can be expressed nowhere better than at a Book Fair.

Book fairs are not merely places where printed ideas are displayed. They should also be places where the free expression of ideas and the freedom of the thinker are defended. For this reason, today's panel will also be a call to stand up for Ghannouchi's freedom and human dignity.

The troubles of life and political quarrels build walls between people; the book is a way of opening doors in those walls. Translation makes societies that have drifted apart speak to one another again. And culture can re-establish the ties that politics has severed.

This year, with Syria's return, with new bridges of translation, and with the reminder of Ghannouchi's freedom among the books, the story is acquiring new meanings.

There are stories within the story, and each of the stories continues.