I haven’t tried to go to Turkey since 2020.
Six years later, I learnt that I was ‘banned’ and that ‘the ban had been lifted’…
Now I can enter Turkey ‘without a care in the world’…
Should I go, I wonder?
I sat down and tried to draw up a comprehensive list of ‘places to visit’…
However, my mind is all over the place…
I’m thinking of starting with Ankara, which I’ve missed so much…
The ‘NATO summit’ is starting there today…
If there are still people at the airport, or on the road, who are able to say “No to NATO”, and if I were to pass by such a protest and respond with a slight smile…
I wonder what might happen to me?
It remembered that a young ‘rapper’ appearing on a ‘YouTube’ programme was thrown in for laughing at a joke…
No; going to Ankara isn’t a sensible idea today…
Better still, to update my ‘places to visit’ list and remove the capital from it…
That’s what I did…
I’ve re-compiled my list of ‘places I want to visit’.
For example, I’m very curious about the Çorlu Karatepe Prison…
There, a young ‘stand-up comedian’ is being held in one of those dim, single-occupancy cells with no natural light…
I’d have loved to go and kiss Deniz on the forehead – a lad who, whilst thinking he was making people laugh and telling jokes, was thrown into prison on charges of ‘insulting the President’ and ‘offending religious sentiments’…
When he returned from abroad, they handcuffed his hands behind his back, didn’t they…
His mind was left exposed…
Yes, it was the boy’s young mind that was doing the real work…
Yet, I don’t know how they’ll manage to handcuff that…
Anyway… When I go to Turkey after six long years, I would love to visit and see many different places…
‘Edirne F-Type High-Security Prison’ is also on my list…
Selahattin Demirtaş has been held there for the past 3,532 days…
Despite the European Court of Human Rights’ (ECHR) ruling that he must be released immediately, he has spent most of his time in this prison since 2016…
I’d love to talk to him about ‘Devran’, ‘Leylan’ and ‘Efsun’ – the books he wrote in prison with an excellent Turkish…
Then, of course, I’d love to go to Silivri…
Having travelled to Turkey after so many years, I simply would not miss seeing ‘Silivri’—a place that ‘houses’ dozens of mayors, journalists and politicians, and which I am certain will one day be turned into a ‘museum’ like the one in Sinop…
Osman Kavala has been there for 3,171 days… The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled that Kavala’s rights had been violated and that he should be released, yet Osman Kavala remains behind bars…
Also in Silivri, I’d like to see the ‘cell’ of Can Atalay, who, despite being elected as an MP for Hatay, had his parliamentary seat revoked and has been held in Silivri for 1,535 days.
Despite the Turkish Constitutional Court ruling on two separate occasions that his right to stand for election and engage in political activity, as well as his right to personal liberty and security, had been violated, Can Atalay remains there…
I’d also love to pay a visit to Teacher Ayten whilst I’m in Turkey…
I’d love to see her and kiss her hand…
Teacher Ayten is a 75-year-old volunteer of the Turkish Foundation for Combating Soil Erosion (TEMA)…
They’d recently gone on a nature walk to study the plants. On the way back, their bus was stopped by the Gendarmerie, who collected their identity documents…
“But the worst was the dawn raid,” she says…
Whilst she was sleeping alone at home, she was suddenly raided in the early hours of the morning and taken away…
She was held in custody at the police station for two days, followed by court and prison…
“Tell us,” they said to Teacher Ayten…
“What was your code name?”
“Were you a courier?”
“Where did you hold meetings?”
They mentioned the name of a terrorist organisation. The woman was hearing it for the first time. She couldn’t even pronounce the name…
Then, I’m planning to make my way from there to Düzce Prison…
If only I could visit Fatoş Pınar Türker, General Manager of the İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality Media Joint Stcok Company, in this prison where she has been detained for 15.5 months… If only I could see her…
If only I could congratulate her for speaking so bravely in court…
What had she said?
“Whilst I was at Vatan Police Station, they took me to a room like an archive. A police officer wearing gloves said, ‘Take your top off,’ so I did. Then he told me to take off my trousers and underwear as well. ‘Expose your genitals,’ ‘Turn round, bend over,’ he said.”
Months later, whilst presenting her defence in court, she turned to the people in the courtroom and addressed them as follows:
“Anyone who feels ashamed may leave. I am not ashamed. It feels as though this is being done to shatter people’s dignity and pride. Let those who did this be ashamed; I am not.”
If only I could express my admiration for her for this ‘brave stand’…
I would have also loved to visit İpek Elif Atayman, who was imprisoned in connection with the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality case. She spent 15 months of her life in prison without knowing, or understanding the charges against her…
One night, she was suddenly taken from Silivri and, handcuffed, transported to Afyon in a cage-like compartment after an eight-hour journey…
Ms, Atayman had to lie on the floor for days on end in a crowded cell filled mostly with drug addicts and dealers…
I’d have really liked to wish her well…
If only I could express how deeply it affected me that her son, Efe Çakır, and his 80-year-old grandfather were not allowed to visit her at Afyon Prison—a journey of eight hours—due to a ‘system failure’…
If only I could share the pain she felt as a result of being sent unexpectedly to a prison with which she had no connection, and the ‘ordeal’ she endured whilst separated from her family…
I was just about to finish my tour of Turkey when a voice from afar said, “Stay where you are, where are you going?”…
Where am I really going? Where are we going? Where are they going?
