Voidly · Verboten · Turkey
Banned and restricted books in Turkey
24 titles have been banned or restricted in Turkey, recorded across 24 dated, source-cited events, most often for political content.
Titles
24
Ban events
24
Top reason
Political content
Decades active
9
Most-restricted titles
| Title | Author | Year | Events |
|---|---|---|---|
| My Name Is Red | Orhan Pamuk | 1998 | 1 |
| Endgame | Ahmet Altan | 2015 | 1 |
| The Bastard of Istanbul | Elif Şafak | 2006 | 1 |
| We Are Arrested | Can Dündar | 2016 | 1 |
| Kurdistan: An Interstate Colony | İsmail Beşikçi | 1990 | 1 |
| A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish Responsibility | Taner Akçam | 2006 | 1 |
| The Forty Rules of Love | Elif Şafak | 2010 | 1 |
| Human Landscapes from My Country | Nâzım Hikmet | 1966 | 1 |
| The Epic of Sheikh Bedreddin | Nâzım Hikmet | 1936 | 1 |
| Memed, My Hawk | Yaşar Kemal | 1955 | 1 |
| They Burn the Thistles | Yaşar Kemal | 1969 | 1 |
| Heartstopper | Alice Oseman | 2018 | 1 |
| The Imam's Army | Ahmet Şık | 2011 | 1 |
| Dream Divided | Yavuz Ekinci | 2014 | 1 |
| Veda | Murat Kahraman | — | 1 |
| Çığlık | Murat Kahraman | — | 1 |
| The Forty Days of Musa Dagh | Franz Werfel | 1933 | 1 |
| The Order of Eastern Anatolia | İsmail Beşikçi | 1969 | 1 |
| Temple Prostitutes | Ahmet Ümit | — | 1 |
| Sexing the Cherry | Jeanette Winterson | 1989 | 1 |
| The Satanic Verses | Salman Rushdie | 1988 | 1 |
| The Grapes of Wrath | John Steinbeck | 1939 | 1 |
| For Whom the Bell Tolls | Ernest Hemingway | 1940 | 1 |
| Les Onze Mille Verges | Guillaume Apollinaire | 1907 | 1 |
Stated reasons
- Political content
- 17
- Race / colonialism
- 3
- Religious / blasphemy
- 2
- Obscenity
- 2
- Immorality
- 1
By decade
1930s3
1950s1
1960s1
1970s3
1980s1
1990s1
2000s4
2010s4
2020s6
Documented bans
All 28 recorded events, most severe and most recent first.
Dream Divided2023
Veda2023
Çığlık2023
Endgame2016
We Are Arrested2016
The Imam's Army2011
The Forty Rules of Love2010
The Bastard of Istanbul2006
A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish Responsibility2006
My Name Is Red2005
Les Onze Mille Verges2000
Kurdistan: An Interstate Colony1990
The Satanic Verses1989
The Grapes of Wrath1973
For Whom the Bell Tolls1973
The Order of Eastern Anatolia1971
They Burn the Thistles1969
Memed, My Hawk1950
Human Landscapes from My Country1938
The Epic of Sheikh Bedreddin1938
The Forty Days of Musa Dagh1935
Temple Prostitutes2023
Sexing the Cherry2023
Heartstopper2021
The Soft Machine2011
Snuff2011
Snow2005
Tropic of Capricorn1986
Source: Verboten, built on the banned-books.org Open Censorship Core (CC BY 4.0). Verboten compilation CC BY 4.0.