Publisher and human rights activist Ragıp Zarakolu, recently arrested in Turkey on terrorism-related charges, has sent his first letter from the Metris prison where he is being held.

Zarakolu writes that, "My arrest and the accusation of membership of an illegal organization are parts of a campaign aiming to intimidate all intellectuals and democrats of Turkey and particularly to deprive the Kurds of any support."

He says that when the police raided his house only a few books were confiscated as “evidence” linking him to any outlawed organization. A few of the books dealt with Armenian history and the 1915 Genocide.

"During my interrogation, they did not ask any question about the organization of which I was accused of being a member. They questioned me only about the books that I wrote or edited for publication, the public meetings where I spoke or attended. I think that everybody should jointly react against this campaign of arrests that turns into a collective lynching. These illegal practices should be stopped,” Zarakolu writes in his letter from prison.