The 16th annual Book Fair, held at the ATO (Ankara Trade Association) Congresium Congress and Exhibition Centre, ends tomorrow, 31 October. This year, 174 publishing houses and 350 writers are involved in the well-attended book fair, but there are considerably fewer Kurdish books than in previous years. Aziz Tekin, who runs the stall of Nûbihar, the only Kurdish publishing house there, talked to MA about the fair.
“We aim to reach the readers”
Tekin explained that the mission of the publishing house is not so much to sell books as to reach the readers. “Although Kurdish readers and readers of Kurdish don’t really expect us in a place like Ankara, they come to the stall. It is a good opportunity for us to reach readers who have difficulty in obtaining books in Kurdish, and this makes our readers happy.”
“We go where there are no Kurdish books”
He notes that the cost of paper has increased: “We do our utmost to reach places where books do not go or where there are no Kurdish publications. We did not have many problems with our readers in the pandemic. We managed somehow to reach our readers through internet orders. But there was an economic effect – the cost of paper increased, printing costs increased. As a result the whole thing affected book sales.”
Tekin says that they would like more Kurdish publishing houses to take part in book fairs, adding, “It would make the Kurdish language more visible. We can bring more readers together with more Kurdish books at the fairs.”
