İmamoğlu Shares Video for Banned Book: ‘As Long as the People Exist, My Voice Cannot Be Silenced’

Ekrem İmamoğlu promoted a book that authorities banned before it reached readers. The imprisoned presidential candidate and Istanbul mayor’s “Millet Şahidimdir,” a collection of his courtroom defenses, had been due on bookshelves on Aug. 30.

The Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office sought the ban on distributing and selling the book while it was still in the printing stage. In response, İmamoğlu’s Presidential Candidate Office account on X shared a promotional video and a passage from the book.

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I could not fully explain what I wanted to say. My words were interrupted many times, postponed, and left to be forgotten. When the time came, it was claimed that I had exercised my right to remain silent, and this was entered into the record. But can a person’s words be stopped between four walls?

The excerpt described his claim that his words had repeatedly been interrupted, postponed or left to be forgotten. It also said authorities recorded an allegation that he had exercised his right to remain silent. The post asked, “But can a person’s words be stopped between four walls?”

The message ended with a declaration that the book would have been introduced with those words and released on Aug. 30: “Millet Şahidimdir. As long as the people exist, my voice cannot be silenced.”

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I was going to announce it with these words, and it was going to be on the shelves on August 30: Millet Şahidimdir. As long as the people exist, my voice cannot be silenced.