Kurdish Publisher Avesta Wins US Freedom-to-Publish Award

The Association of American Publishers announced Wednesday that Istanbul-based Avesta Publishing House won its International Freedom to Publish Award. Founded in 1995 by Abdullah Keskin, Avesta first received the prize in 2005 and has issued hundreds of books—Rudaw cites 900 in 50 series—in Kurdish, Turkish, English and French. AAP President Maria A. Pallante said the house's "brave, decades-long struggle" shows "the battle for free expression is central to freedom more generally but is never truly won." She said threats since 2005 have only strengthened its commitment. Abdullah Keskin said a second award "provides an enormous boost to our mission of encouraging Kurdish literature, research and culture." Avesta faced state lawsuits from 1996 to 2007 and bans on 20 books under Turkey's anti-Terrorism Law from 2018 to 2024. A 2016 fire at its Sur, Diyarbakir warehouse destroyed or damaged more than 3,000 publications; it opened an Amed bookstore that year. AP reported Turkish authorities labeled its website "terrorist propaganda" in 2023. A spokesperson said treatment has not yet changed but hoped for improvement. Avesta won a Turkish Publishers Union Freedom of Thought Award in 2019 and was nominated for the IPA Voltaire Prize in 2020.