Recall order for the book 'Aşkın Son Ozanı Neşet Ertaş'
Author Bayram Bilge Tokel has won the lawsuit he filed against the book 'Aşkın Son Ozanı Neşet Ertaş' (The Last Bard of Love: Neşet Ertaş), authored by Sinan Yağmur, on the grounds that it plagiarized his own work, 'Neşet Ertaş Kitabı' (The Neşet Ertaş Book). A court order has been issued for the recall and cessation of publication of Yağmur's book.
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The Ankara 2nd Intellectual and Industrial Rights Court has reached a verdict in the plagiarism lawsuit filed by researcher, author, and musician Bayram Bilge Tokel against Sinan Yağmur.
As a result of the lawsuit, plagiarism was identified in the book 'Aşkın Son Ozanı Neşet Ertaş', which was released in 2022, based on expert reports. The court ruled to prevent the reprinting, publication, and distribution of the book, ordered the recall of printed copies, mandated that the court decision be published in the highest-circulation national newspaper, and ordered Sinan Yağmur to pay 11 thousand 25 Turkish Lira in material compensation to Bayram Bilge Tokel.
USED AS A TEXTBOOK
In the lawsuit petition, Bayram Bilge Tokel's attorney stated that his client's work titled "Neşet Ertaş Kitabı," published in 1999, was the first work written about the famous folk bard, that it had gone through seven printings, and that it had been translated into English and used as a textbook at Bilkent University.
The lawsuit petition, which also included details of Bayram Bilge Tokel's relationship with Neşet Ertaş, emphasized the influence of his friendship with Tokel on Neşet Ertaş's return to Turkey after 25 years.
DOCUMENTARY PREPARED
The case file also included details that researcher and author Tokel had prepared two documentaries, "Bozkırın Tezenesi" (The Plectrum of the Steppe) and "Garip," contributing to every stage including scriptwriting and program consultancy, and that he had hosted Neşet Ertaş—who had settled in Germany and rarely visited Turkey—as a live guest for 5 hours on the "Gönül Dağı" program for the first time after 25 years.
The allegation that Sinan Yağmur had made excerpts from the "Neşet Ertaş Kitabı" in his own book and failed to comply with citation and quotation rules was evaluated by an expert committee that examined both books. The expert committee report used the phrase, "The portions belonging to the plaintiff contained within the defendant's book exceed the limits that the purpose would justify."
It was emphasized that Sinan Yağmur did not use a bibliography in his book regarding where he obtained the information within the text, and that Bayram Bilge Tokel was not cited as a source at the end of the book.
According to the examples presented in the expert report, there is also a finding of 100 percent similarity on some pages.