Last November, we received the news that İlhan Sami Çomak had finally been granted his freedom—a moment that took many of us by surprise. After 30 years of wrongful imprisonment, İlhan’s release marked the end of a long and arduous journey for justice. His case, which the European Court of Human Rights declared illegal, still required more than six years of relentless effort to secure his parole.
From behind bars, İlhan managed to write eight books of poetry, a feat by itself given the strict restrictions he faced. Every manuscript had to be reviewed by prison authorities both before and after being sent to editors. Basic writing tools like pens and paper were scarce, making each word he wrote a testament to his resilience and determination. Yet, what is even more admirable is how İlhan’s poetry transcends bitterness and resentment. He never dwelled on the reasons for his imprisonment or the injustices of his trial. Instead, his work focuses on memories of his childhood, as if the act of remembering could liberate him from his cell.
Pressenza has been involved in the campaign for İlhan’s freedom since 2018, helping to bring public attention to his case. Now, we are thrilled to celebrate his release with a special event:
An Evening Honoring İlhan Sami Çomak
Wednesday, March 26, 2025 | 6:00–8:30 PM
Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung
275 Madison Avenue, Suite 2114, New York, NY 10016
Please RSVP
The event will feature İlhan himself via Zoom, along with his translator, Caroline Stockford. We are also honored to have Thaddeus Rutkowski, one of the poets paying tribute to İlhan, joining us for the evening. In anticipation of the event, we sat down with Thaddeus to discuss İlhan’s legacy and the significance of this celebration.
Join us as we honor İlhan’s courage, creativity, and unwavering spirit. Let’s come together to celebrate his freedom and the power of poetry to transcend even the darkest of circumstances.
Can you tell us a bit about your background and how you first learned about the campaign to free İlham Sami Çomak?
I met John Casquarelli in the downtown New York reading scene. We read with a group of writers called The Unbearables. John invited me to contribute a poem to the campaign.
How did you become involved in the anthology Words That Walk Through Walls, and how would you describe the book’s significance?
Is this the anthology of the poems written for Ilham Sami Comack? John Casquarelli invited me to become involved.
What does İlham’s release mean to you personally, and how do you think it impacts the broader struggle for justice and freedom of expression?
Ilham’s release means to me that sometimes, not often enough, justice is served. I was surprised at this good news.
Since İlham’s release, have you had any correspondence with him? If so, what would you like to say to him now? If not, what message would you want to share with him?
I haven’t had any correspondence with him, but I received a poem he wrote to all of the contributors to the campaign to free him. I was glad to receive that poem.
Why do you think it’s important for poets to engage in campaigns like this one, advocating for freedom of expression and justice?
It’s important to advocate for anything one believes in. I believed that Ilhan was wrongly imprisoned, as are many people around the world. So I felt I needed put in a word for him.
Do you believe poetry should address political issues, such as those faced by İlham and others around the world? Or do you think these topics belong on the margins of poetic expression?
I believe poetry should address political issues. However, most of my poetry does not. I haven’t been much of an activist since I marched on Washington in 1969 to protest the Vietnam War. Since then, I protested outside Danbury Prison, where Daniel Berrigan was being held, and I walked through Manhattan with my wife and child when George W. Bush started the Iraq War. I have written about these activities.
How do you see the role of poetry in creating solidarity across borders, especially in cases like İlham’s?
I haven’t actually “seen” this solidarity mentioned here, but I hope it exists.
If you could speak with another imprisoned writer today, who would it be and why?
The only recent imprisoned writer I’m at all familiar with was Liu Xiaobo, who passed in 2017. I was also aware that artist Ai Weiwei was imprisoned in 2011 in China. I was concerned because I’m connected to China through my mother, Chia In Wang. If I could speak to people like these now, I would ask what I could do to help.
Thaddeus Rutkowski is the author of eight books of prose and poetry, most recently Safe Colors, a novel in short fictions. His novel Haywire won the members’ choice award from the Asian American Writers’ Workshop. He teaches at Medgar Evers College, Columbia University, and a YMCA and received a fiction writing fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts.
İlhan Sami Çomak (born 1973) is a Kurdish poet from Karlıova in Bingöl Province in Turkey. He was arrested in 1994. In jail, Çomak has released eight books of poetry and become one of Turkey’s longest serving political prisoners. In 2018, Çomak won the Sennur Sezer poetry prize, for his 8th book of poems, Geldim Sana (I Came to You).
