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Deniz Yücel at Lit.Cologne: "Would be a good idea, wouldn't it?"
Photo: Ying Tang / NurPhoto / IMAGO
Five former Presidents of the PEN Center Germany have called for the resignation of the incumbent President Deniz Yücel.
In a letter to Yücel, which is available to SPIEGEL, they justify this by saying that at the opening event of the Lit.Cologne literature festival last Tuesday evening, Yücel spoke out in favor of a no-fly zone in Ukraine and thus in favor of direct military intervention by NATO.
The five former presidents are Gert Heidenreich, Christoph Hein, Johano Strasser, Josef Haslinger and Regula Venske.
"It's not about your private opinion here," they wrote to Yücel.
At the event in Cologne, he clearly spoke as President of PEN and was also invited as such.
With his statements he had exceeded his powers and violated the charter of the international PEN, which obliges the members "to work with utmost force...for the ideal of...a humanity living in peace".
Yücel's statements, on the other hand, boiled down to "that one could risk making NATO a direct participant in the war in the Ukraine, then we'll see how far Putin dares."
At the event in Cologne (here is an audio recording from WDR), Yücel was asked by the moderator, SPIEGEL author Susanne Beyer: “Should the airspace over Ukraine be closed?” To which he replied: “It would be a good idea, wouldn't it ?” Otherwise there is a risk of Kyiv being bombed by the Russian armed forces.
"It's not because the Ukrainians are so keen on including us all in this war," said Yücel.
»But we will clarify that internally«
He's surprised that so many people think they know how Putin would react if NATO were to change their tune.
He knows the following about the schoolyard: "If I punch Sasha in the face because I just feel stronger (...) and then Navid comes - he's two heads taller than me - and says: 'Leave my buddy alone, Yes?
Otherwise you'll have to deal with me!' Then I can think.
Of course he has to take the risk that I'll be a bit crazy and stab him somewhere with a jackknife.
But I have to think: 'He's two heads taller than me and twice as wide - am I really going to put up with him?' I don't know how Putin would react to that."
Yücel referred to a report by Deutschlandfunk in a Twitter post on Monday, according to which he had rejected the demand for his resignation.
According to Deutschlandfunk, Yücel takes the position that he did speak in accordance with the PEN Charter.
The "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" and the "Süddeutsche Zeitung" also reported on the demands for his resignation.
"This dispute is (also/actually) about completely different things," wrote Yücel on Twitter: "But we'll clarify that internally."
The "FAZ" had published a guest article by PEN member Petra Reski, in which there was talk of personal details that the PEN board led by Yücel wanted to enforce.
The annual conference of the writers' association takes place in Gotha in May.
feb/dpa
