Eşber Yağmurdereli

Eşber Yağmurdereli was born in Erzurum, Tortum in 1945. He went to a primary school in Ankara. In 1955 he lost his sight in a pool accident. He went to the Ankara School for the Blind in 1958. When he was a high school student, he published a journal Aydınlığa Doğru with his friends. Yağmurdereli graduated from the School of Law and Philosophy at Ankara University. He published a journal Yeni Eylem with his friends such as Hüseyin Cevahir, Zekai Özger, Prof. Ahmet İnan, Haluk Şahin, Metin Güven, Gürsen Topses and Gün Zileli. Yağmurdereli undertook responsibility of the journal and worked as an editor and publisher. He became famous as a poet and short-story writer. In 1986 he won the first award for his story Pek Firaklı Bir Dağ Masalı in a competition.

Yağmurdereli was arrested several times. He was in jail 1978-1991 and 1998-2001, because he made a speech criticizing the Turkish government′s treatment of the Kurdish minority in the Southeast provinces.

Yağmurdereli is a member of the European Lawyers Union and the Human Rights Laureate for the year 2000. He was awarded the sixth Ludovic-Trarieux International Human Rights Prize. Yağmurdereli has written short stories and plays in jail. His poetry Cezaevi Şiirleri Antolokisi (The anthology of prison poems) was published in London. He is an honorary member of the Canadian, Czech, San Miguel, Slovak and Swedish PEN (Writers in Prison) Centres. His play about censorship in Turkey was performed in Istanbul and Ankara theaters.
 
Reference: sgdf.biz/biyografi; universalrights.net