Italian Philosopher Giorgio Agamben wrote a letter to Kurdish People's Leader Abdullah Öcalan. The letter, which was conveyed to the İmralı Delegation, contained the following words: "Dear Abdullah Ocalan, many years ago, when you were in Italy and the Italian authorities delivered you to Turkey, I wrote that I felt ashamed for my country. Today I still feel ashamed for Italy and the whole Europe in front of you and the Kurdish people. I join those who demand your liberation, but, in my eyes, you are the very freedom that men seem to have forgotten.”

 

WHO IS GIORGIO AGAMBEN?

 

Giorgio Agamben is an Italian philosopher born on 22 April 1942. Considered one of the most influential continental European thinkers of the late 20th and early 21st century, Agamben is known in particular for his concepts of sovereignty, "state of exception" and "bare life."

 

Having taught at various universities in Italy and France throughout his academic career, Agamben developed his thought in critical dialogue with figures such as Aristotle, Walter Benjamin and Michel Foucault. In his most comprehensive work, the Homo Sacer project, Agamben analyzed how the modern political order is constituted in the context of the relationship between law and violence. Agamben's work has had wide influence not only in political philosophy but also in the fields of legal theory, theology, biopolitics and cultural studies, and has occupied a central place in contemporary critical thought through his effort to conceptualize the crisis of modern forms of sovereignty.