Message from Silivri: On with the same decisiveness

CHP Deputy General Chair with responsibility for human rights, Tekin Bingöl, visited our newspaper’s detained Executive Board Chair Akın Atalay along with Fatih Gürsul, Ali Bulaç, Osman Kavala, Ahmet Altan and Mehmet Altan in Silivri Prison.

Assessing his visit, Bingöl, noting that the fight against FETO was evolving into a process of intimidating opposition circles, said, “FETO’s political leg is on the outside, but nobody from the AKP which gave succour to FETO is in jail. This fact alone shows how the ruling body is making FETO into an excuse to silence the opposition. Not even the ringleaders of FETO, with whom they say at every opportunity they besieged the state in parallel and operated it together, are in jail.”

Bingöl, saying all those on the opposition were in jail while the principal culprits behind the event were on the outside, commented as follows: “The point reached shows all of us that common sense, democracy and logic have been deactivated, not just the law. Today in Turkey human rights are going through their darkest period at the hands of the ruling body. Those who are trying to make lawlessness normal in this country are defining “crime” not as justice demands but arbitrarily. 

Bingöl’s notes from the visits are as follow:

On with the same decisiveness

AKIN ATALAY: I risked all and returned from abroad and came as my responsibility to my newspaper, my readers and my country dictates. Neither I nor my newspaper can have any connection with this affair. I am the one to have spent the longest in prison in our trial. When I come out, I will carry on my duties again with the same decisiveness and I am aware that I have a heavy responsibility.

OSMAN KAVALA: I don’t know what and who is in the indictment and I want the court proceedings to be moved onto at once. There is talk of me being the financier of Gezi. Two youths sold me a ticket before Gezi and I made a modest contribution of some 500 lira. I am in any case a person who gives aid from time to time. It is said that I was the financier of Gezi simply due to this. I am facing huge lawlessness. My detention is part of the attack on opposition people.

AHMET ALTAN: The AKP has used up everything in its hand and only the nationalist trump card remains in its hand, and it is using it. The AKP cannot govern the country any more under these circumstances. Nobody in Turkey has the slightest security. Everyone in Turkey can be accused of FETO involvement at any time. 

Greetings to my brother

MEHMET ALTAN: We cannot speak to one another as two brothers in prison. Convey my greetings to my brother. My trial is no longer a political or legal trial, it is a constitutional trial. Both the Constitutional Court and European Court of Human Rights say that there are rights violations in my case, but I am still in detention. Turkey’s supreme judiciary and Europe’s supreme judiciary say that I am innocent, but my release does not ensue. The Minister of Justice is unable to account for why I am in detention. The Minister of Justice remains silent over injustice.

ALİ BULAÇ: I have been incarcerated for twenty months with five different illnesses. My only crime is to have written articles for Zaman newspaper. There are no crime elements in my file, just my articles. It was not long before I said that the Gulenists had been poisoned by power, and I said this all the time. I kept on making my criticism but my punishment continues all the same.

FATİH GÜRSUL: There is no connection between either me or the CHP and FETO. The only explanation for my trial having been held and determined so quickly was the CHP being accused through me. This trial is a political trial and the decisions taken are political decisions, too.

Silivri'den mesaj var: ‘Aynı kararlılıkla devam’