Gurbet’s diary exhibited in Lausanne

Visual Artist Banu Cennetoğlu’s book “Gurbet’s Diary: I Engraved My Heart into the Mountains”, engraved on 145 lithographic slabs, is exhibited at the Lausanne Art Museum. The exhibition will be open to visitors until May.

Gurbetelli Ersöz (1965–1997) was a Kurdish journalist and freedom fighter. In 1993, she became the first female editor-in-chief of the Özgür Gündem newspaper, which has since focused on Kurdish issues.

Gurbet’s Diary is the name of Gurbetelli Ersöz’ diary, kept by her between July 27, 1995 and October 8, 1997, while she was in the ranks of struggle in the mountains. The Kurdish journalist was martyred in 1997.

The exhibition was first exhibited in Athens, then in Stuttgart.

Opened for the third time at the Lausanne Art Museum, the exhibition attracted a great deal of attention on its first day.

145 lithographic slabs give information on Ersöz’s years as a journalist, the prison term she faced, and the bans imposed on her profession.

Located at Plateforme 10, Musee cantonal des Beaux-Arts Place de Gare 16, 1003 Lausanne, the exhibition will be open to art-lovers and visitors until the end of April.

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BACKGROUND

Gurbetelli Ersöz was born in the Akbulut village of Elazığ’s Palu district. When she was born, her father was a worker in Germany and that’s why she was named Gurbetelli (foreign place). When she was a third-grade student at primary school, her difference with her friends and teachers was her language. She began to ask why, how at that time. She studied chemistry at Çukurova University. Later, she worked as an assistant at Çukurova University. She began to get involved actively in politics.

Gurbetelli Ersöz then became a journalist and she was detained on December 10, 1990. She was kept in detention for 15 days and tortured. After being kept in detention for 15 days, she was sent to Malatya Prison and held in prison for two years. After being released, she kept doing journalism. On April 23, 1993, she began to work for Özgür Gündem Newspaper. Then, she became the editor-in-chief of the newspaper and became Turkey’s first female editor-in-chief.

On December 10, 1993, the building of the newspaper was raided by hundreds of police. Gurbetelli Ersöz was one of the detained journalists. After being kept in detention for 13 days, she was sent to Sağmalcılar Prison. She was released from the prison when the first hearing of the trial opened against her was held in June 1994. She kept working as a journalist for a while but then she decided to wage her struggle in another field. She joined the armed struggle. On October 8, 1997, she fell as a martyr in a clash with the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP).

With her stance against male language and mentality, she wrote a path for today’s female journalists.