11 Jan 2017 | Mapping Media Freedom, News and features, Turkey, Turkey Uncensored
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Turkey Uncensored is an Index on Censorship project to publish a series of articles from censored Turkish writers, artists and translators.
[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]This article is written by a human rights activist who has requested anonymity.
I am about to make a life changing move and leave Turkey. This decision did not come easy. I still do not feel very comfortable about leaving my family, friends and the struggle behind. However, this is a must-do move in order to keep my soul, spirit and mind intact.
I am an activist, a human rights defender, a dissident, and currently I feel like a lab rat trapped in a maze, trying to find the exit to freedom. And worse still, I can hear countless fellow mice doing the same! This is extremely disempowering.
In Turkey, we are losing all our legitimate grounds and means to scrutinise, criticise, oppose power and express our ideas and thoughts in the media, the streets, associations, social media….
There are almost no independent mainstream media left that dare write what is newsworthy if it touches the government or big business interests close to power. The outlets that do so face countless sanctions ranging from prosecution and arrest to total closure. Journalism was already under huge pressure but the failed 15 July coup provided a big opportunity to the government to further silence all opposition. As of today, there are 145 journalists in jail, 157 media outlets have been closed and approximately 9,000 journalists are jobless. Thousands of websites are either banned or blocked. If I cannot make my voice heard to influence public opinion, how can I be effective in my work to promote human rights, peace and justice?
Media is not the only medium that’s been hijacked; since 20 July, the government closed about 500 non-governmental organisations under emergency decrees. Some of these NGOs were very effective service organizations. Authorities confiscated all their equipment, bank accounts and documents — a violation of their clients’ right to privacy. And very recently, an investigation was initiated into four prominent human rights organisations — ok, listen to this — for reporting on human rights violations that occurred in cities that were under curfew. In other words, they are accused of their raison d’être!
The shrinking space for freedom
Social media was the only space left for us to communicate, inform and be informed. However, for a long while we are under attack for using this medium, too. Just a couple days ago, the deputy prime minister warned everyone to “behave on social media or face the consequences”. Actually, many have already faced it. There are hundreds of prosecutions with charges of terrorist propaganda and even more of insulting the president (based on Article 299 of the penal code, which became the new 301). Saying “I wouldn’t serve tea to the president” or “I don’t like the president” are now considered insulting.
The message is clear: Do not speak out, do not criticise, do not expose corruption, nepotism, abuse of power, lies or violations committed by the government. If you insist, you will be rendered jobless like thousands of journalists, academics, teachers and doctors, or you will be prosecuted and jailed.
We hear their message. We hear it again and again, every time a friend is put behind the bars, any time trolls target us on social media. We hear it when we are attacked by pepper gas and batons for protesting on the streets.
I know that this is an intimidation strategy. I also know that it will not deter me or my friends from doing what we do. Yet, the climate of fear dominating the country makes me feel trapped, cornered, inefficient and useless. I am at the verge of falling into a state of learned helplessness, if not depression.
I don’t want to self-censor what I am to say, yet I don’t want fall victim to their repressive policies just because of the non-violent things I say and do. Increasingly, I am turning into a lesser version of myself – less productive, less confident and losing faith.
It is true that the people of Turkey have never enjoyed a full democracy. Rights defenders and the opposition have always been targeted and criminalised as traitors, branded as terrorists and disloyal enemies for exposing the truth.
But for the first time in my life I feel so besieged and under threat. It is not just about the authoritarian regime, people find ways to bypass the restrictions and find other means to continue working. What slammed me to the ground and drained my hope and sapped my energy is the pure evil that has burgeoned in society. As the columnist Ahmet Insel quoted from Ibn al Muqaffa in his writing, “The worst time is when the ruler and the evil of the people are united.”
I couldn’t cope with it. I am choosing to retreat, only to come back stronger, wiser and more equipped.[/vc_column_text][vc_basic_grid post_type=”post” max_items=”4″ element_width=”6″ grid_id=”vc_gid:1485774506870-edde10de-35f5-10″ taxonomies=”8607″][/vc_column][/vc_row]
21 Dec 2016 | Magazine, News and features, Turkey, Turkey Uncensored, Volume 45.04 Winter 2016
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Turkey Uncensored is an Index on Censorship project to publish a series of articles from censored Turkish writers, artists and translators.
[/vc_column_text][vc_custom_heading text=”Linguist and newspaper columnist SEVAN NIŞANYAN has found himself locked up for 16 years after being subjected to a torrent of lawsuits. Researcher JOHN BUTLER managed to interview him for the winter 2016 issue of Index on Censorship magazine” font_container=”tag:p|font_size:24|text_align:left” google_fonts=”font_family:Libre%20Baskerville%3Aregular%2Citalic%2C700|font_style:400%20italic%3A400%3Aitalic”][vc_column_text]
Well-known linguist Sevan Nişanyan will not be eligible for parole in Turkey until 2024. Locked up in the overcrowded Turkish prison system, he has found his initial relatively short jail sentence for blasphemy getting ever longer as he has been subjected to a torrent of “spurious” lawsuits on minor building infringements related to a mathematics village he founded.
Nişanyan, who is 60, spoke exclusively to Index on Censorship. He said he was being kept in appalling conditions. Moved from prison to prison since being jailed in January 2014, he is now being held in Menemen Prison, a “massively overcrowded and brain- dead institution”.
He added: “About two thirds of our inmates were recently moved elsewhere and the remainder pushed ever more tightly into overpopulated wards to make room for the thousands arrested in the aftermath of the coup attempt.”
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1481550218789{padding-bottom: 40px !important;}”][vc_column width=”1/4″][vc_icon icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-quote-left” color=”custom” size=”xl” align=”right” custom_color=”#dd3333″][/vc_column][vc_column width=”3/4″][vc_custom_heading text=”Nişanyan is adamant that his time has not been wasted. He has been working on the third edition of his Etymological Dictionary of the Turkish Language, which presently stands at over 1500 pages“” font_container=”tag:h2|font_size:24|text_align:justify|color:%23dd3333″ google_fonts=”font_family:Libre%20Baskerville%3Aregular%2Citalic%2C700|font_style:400%20italic%3A400%3Aitalic” css_animation=”fadeIn”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text el_class=”magazine-article”]
Nişanyan’s ordeal started in 2012 when he wrote a blog post about free speech arguing for the right to criticise the Prophet Mohammed. Through notes passed out of his high security prison via his lawyer, Nişanyan told Index what he believes happened next:
“Mr Erdoğan, the then-prime minister, believes in micromanaging the country. He was evidently incensed.
“I received a call from his office inquiring whether I stood by my, erm, ‘bold views’ and letting me know that there was much commotion ‘up here’ about the essay. The director of religious affairs, the top Islamic official of the land, emerged from a meeting with Erdoğan to denounce me as a ‘madman’ and ‘mentally deranged’ for insulting ‘our dearly beloved prophet’.
“A top dog of the governing party, who later became justice minister, went on air to assure us that throughout history, no ‘filthy attempt to besmirch the name of our holy prophet’ has ever been left unpunished. Groups of so- called ‘concerned citizens’ brought complaints of blasphemy against me in almost every one of our 81 provinces. Several indictments were made, and eventually I was convicted for a year and three months for ‘injuring the religious sensibilities of the public’.”
But what happened afterwards was even more sinister. He found himself, while in prison, facing eleven lawsuits relating to a village he was building with the mathematician and philanthropist Ali Nesin. Nişanyan has been involved for many years in a project to reconstruct in traditional style the village of Şirince, near Ephesus, on Turkey’s Western seaboard. It is now a heritage site and popular tourist destination. And nearby, he and Nesin have built a mathematics village which offers courses to mathematicians from all over Turkey and operates as a retreat for maths departments in other countries. They hope it will be the beginnings of a “free” university.
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1481549931165{padding-bottom: 40px !important;}”][vc_column width=”1/4″][vc_icon icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-quote-left” color=”custom” size=”xl” align=”right” custom_color=”#dd3333″][/vc_column][vc_column width=”3/4″][vc_custom_heading text=”Jailing a non-Muslim, an Armenian at that, for speaking rather mildly against Islamic sensibilities… would be a first in the history of the Republic“” font_container=”tag:h2|font_size:24|text_align:justify|color:%23dd3333″ google_fonts=”font_family:Libre%20Baskerville%3Aregular%2Citalic%2C700|font_style:400%20italic%3A400%3Aitalic” css_animation=”fadeIn”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
It was this project the Turkish authorities decided to focus on. Nişanyan was given two years for building a one-room cottage in his garden without the correct licence, then two additional years for the same cottage. Nine more convictions for infringements of the building code followed, taking his total term up to 16 years and 7 months.
He, and many others, are convinced that this is a political case, because jail time for building code infringements is almost unheard of in Turkey. He believes the authorities have prosecuted him for these crimes because they do not want his case to cause an international stir.
“Jailing a non-Muslim, an Armenian at that, for speaking rather mildly against Islamic sensibilities… would be a first in the history of the Republic,” he told Index. “It might raise eye- brows both here and abroad.”
Despite everything, Nişanyan is adamant that his time has not been wasted. He has been working on the third edition of his Etymological Dictionary of the Turkish Language, which presently stands at over 1500 pages.
On entering prison, he signed away most of his property, including the copyright to his books, to the Nesin Foundation which runs the mathematics village he is so passionate about. Today the village has added a school of theatre. A philosophy village is the next project in the works.
“The idea is, of course, to develop all this into a sort of free and independent university,” he said. “I am sure the young people who have come together in Şirince for this quirky little utopia will have the energy and determination to go on in my absence.”
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John Butler is a pseudonym
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[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_custom_heading text=”From the Archives”][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”90772″ img_size=”213×289″ alignment=”center” onclick=”custom_link” link=”http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/03064229908536530″][vc_custom_heading text=”Slapps and chills” font_container=”tag:p|font_size:24|text_align:left” link=”url:http%3A%2F%2Fjournals.sagepub.com%2Fdoi%2Fpdf%2F10.1080%2F03064229908536530|||”][vc_column_text]January 1999
Julian Petley’s roundup looks at the bullying of broadcasters and asks: are they being SLAPPed around?[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”89167″ img_size=”213×289″ alignment=”center” onclick=”custom_link” link=”http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0306422010388687″][vc_custom_heading text=”Survival in prison” font_container=”tag:p|font_size:24|text_align:left” link=”url:http%3A%2F%2Fjournals.sagepub.com%2Fdoi%2Fpdf%2F10.1177%2F0306422010388687|||”][vc_column_text]December 2010
Detained writers suffer from violence, humiliation and loneliness – writing is their only solace.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”93991″ img_size=”213×289″ alignment=”center” onclick=”custom_link” link=”http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/03064228408533768″][vc_custom_heading text=”Writers on trial” font_container=”tag:p|font_size:24|text_align:left” link=”url:http%3A%2F%2Fjournals.sagepub.com%2Fdoi%2Fpdf%2F10.1080%2F03064228408533768|||”][vc_column_text]October 1984
The trial outcome is uncertain, but it could mean putting Turkey’s leading intellectuals behind bars for 15 years.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_separator][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_custom_heading text=”Fashion Rules” font_container=”tag:p|font_size:24|text_align:left” link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Fwww.indexoncensorship.org%2F2016%2F12%2Ffashion-rules%2F|||”][vc_column_text]The winter 2016 issue of Index on Censorship magazine looks at fashion and how people both express freedom through what they wear.
In the issue: interviews with Lily Cole, Paulo Scott and Daphne Selfe, articles by novelists Linda Grant and Maggie Alderson plus Eliza Vitri Handayani on why punks are persecuted in Indonesia.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”82377″ img_size=”medium” alignment=”center” onclick=”custom_link” link=”http://www.indexoncensorship.org/2016/12/fashion-rules/”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_custom_heading text=”Subscribe” font_container=”tag:p|font_size:24|text_align:left” link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Fwww.indexoncensorship.org%2Fsubscribe%2F|||”][vc_column_text]In print, online. In your mailbox, on your iPad.
Subscription options from £18 or just £1.49 in the App Store for a digital issue.
Every subscriber helps support Index on Censorship’s projects around the world.
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13 Dec 2016 | News and features, Turkey, Turkey Uncensored
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Turkey Uncensored is an Index on Censorship project to publish a series of articles from censored Turkish writers, artists and translators.
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Women’s Voices by Meltem Arikan
The piece of land surrounded by water on three sides is turning into a country where blood-sucking spirits conquer people’s bodies…big big men are leeching children’s blood, viciously…those who know know, those who know keep quiet, those who see look away…children with dying spirits imprisoned in their own bodies endlessly bleeding within…unhappy, fearful, insecure…No one is making a sound…
The place surrounded by water on three sides is turning into a country where blood-sucking spirits conquer people’s bodies…While shouting out loud “We have never been this free”, and putting writers, translators and journalists behind bars yet life goes on as if everything was normal. While lies feed each other with more lies, liars and yes-men feed off each other murderously. Denying even the smell of death leaking from prison cells, still, more deaths are being called for.
The peninsula surrounded by water on three sides is turning into a country where blood-sucking spirits conquer people’s bodies…the number of people queuing up to turn each other in never ends. The more hatred is carefully fed and made bigger, the more solutions are generated with violence…the violence of hatred and the hatred born out of violence are plunging the spirit of life into a pitch-dark void.
The slippery heaven surrounded by water on three sides is turning into a country where bloodsucking spirits conquer people’s bodies…while religious extremists obsessed with power are accusing one another, those applauding them are constantly switching sides. Fraud intellectuals, phoney writers, scam businessmen are crossing from one side to the other like a peg-top. Whoever gets to shout louder has their lie spread across the whole world. And sadly, it is always those who do not belong to either side that end up paying the price.
The piece of heaven here on earth surrounded by water on three sides is turning into a country where blood-sucking spirits conquer people’s bodies…while the words of those who can shout out louder, who can buy more, who can be purchased more are suppressing the truth, everyone is turning a blind eye to this. Being closed down, those newspapers and news agencies which once caused innocent people to be sentenced to years in prison with the false evidence they provided are now being proclaimed as the representatives of free press around the world. Without carrying the slightest regret or shame for having destroyed other lives, without engaging in any self-criticism, not even once. As each side becomes more fanatical, truth is drowning further down in a well in which those who choose not to take sides become more and more invisible….Understanding what is happening inside the well is becoming impossible to those outside it. The stories of those who provide the money are marketed as the truth to the world.
The place I once used to live, surrounded by water on three sides is turning into a country where blood-sucking spirits conquer people’s bodies
The country surrounded by water on three sides is turning into a country where blood-sucking spirits conquer people’s bodies…Those who, until not so long ago, would applaud the government in power today until their palms hurt and blame those who didn’t, for being the enemies of democracy, are today still preaching shamelessly from the same TV channels, from the same papers this time saying “we have been deceived.” Those who, until not so long ago, turned a blind eye to and even from time to time supported what today’s government did to some artists and writers are now expecting support from those whom they had, back then, turned their backs against. Those, who, until not so long ago, said “not enough but yes” (liberals used this slogan during the 2010 referendum) to pretty much all the actions taken by today’s government, and even called their critics fascists are now saying “fascism is coming, can’t you see, why are you keeping quiet?” The climate today is turning into a desert of memoryless miserables in which those, who, not so long ago, hailed the government’s policies on women as freedom are now, interestingly getting frustrated with the child rape law introduced by the same government and are clearing their consciences by saying they had previously been deceived. The hour and minute hand travel in time, but always around the same faces of people who are constantly in self-denial.
The place I once used to live, surrounded by water on three sides is turning into a country where blood-sucking spirits conquer people’s bodies…with every passing day, we are becoming strangers to the places we used to belong, to our past, to our memories and even to ourselves…with every passing day, we are feeling more and more trapped in darkness…most particularly women…if you are a woman…if you have not yet given up on being a woman…
The cage surrounded by water on three sides is turning into a country where blood-sucking spirits conquer people’s bodies..the sound of seagulls have long since been replaced by religious preachers yelling through speakers. Trees have long since surrendered to concrete walls. The sun is no longer shining in the eyes of the crying children…and lies are growing fast by being fed with more lies…and fears are being ignited by hatred…and people are giving up on themselves more and more with each passing day…and the power of bloodsucking spirits puffs up.
The temple surrounded by water on three sides is turning into a country where blood-sucking spirits conquer people’s bodies…your needs count for nothing and neither do your thoughts. From now on, you are nothing more than a subject that needs to obey…you need to fully understand that you are a subject and you must surrender entirely…you no longer exist as an individual, now there are only those things you have to do and those you have to believe, as determined by the authorities. You will have to bear the brunt of giving up …the more you surrender, the more you will give up on who you are. The more you give up, the more you will be expected to do it…and the more you will give in to hatred.
The stage surrounded by water on three sides is turning into a country where blood-sucking spirits conquer people’s bodies…the more applauded ignorance becomes, the more crowned the lack of knowledge becomes…As opinions get judged , giving in is embraced further. Asking questions has become dangerous now, you must accept the discourse unquestionably. And so you’ll learn to see through the eyes of bloodsuckers, but not your own.
That Sodom surrounded by water on three sides is turning into a country where blood-sucking spirits conquer people’s bodies…rape and abuse have become ordinary acts…a normality. Children are being sent as appetisers for men to lay them on their beds… any sort of perversion can be legitimised as long as one says “I am a believer”. Perverts protect other perverts, perverts determine the laws…As perversion becomes normalised, everywhere is turning to hell for women and children.
That hell surrounded by water on three sides is turning into a country where blood-sucking spirits conquer people’s bodies…people are queuing up to be bloodsucked and the bloodsucked turns into a bloodsucker. And gradually, ruthless vampire stories are coming to life.
That hunting ground surrounded by water on three sides is turning into a country where blood-sucking spirits conquer people’s bodies…none of these bloodsuckers cares about freedom or humanity, but they are yearning to figure out who will suck the most blood and who will rule more…
a country where blood-sucking spirits conquer people’s bodies…
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Meltem Arikan is a poet, playwright and author. Her latest play Enough is Enough, about violence against women, will start touring in Wales between Jan-Feb 2017. And her multi award-winning short film Exhibit will continue to be screened various places in Europe. [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_basic_grid post_type=”post” max_items=”4″ element_width=”6″ grid_id=”vc_gid:1485774621131-5d65e5b1-5cf0-4″ taxonomies=”8607″][/vc_column][/vc_row]
5 Dec 2016 | News and features, Turkey, Turkey Uncensored
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Turkey Uncensored is an Index on Censorship project to publish a series of articles from censored Turkish writers, artists and translators.
This is the second instalment of Ece Temelkuran’s periodic diary of developments in Turkey’s age of emergency rule.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]23 November: The women around me are more alert to the Turkey’s situation than the men are. The comfortable male universe is full of denial encased in a constantly refreshed argument: “It cannot go on like this; this is not sustainable.” And my reiterated response to this denial: “What will stop it?” There are neither domestic nor international limits to the resident’s ambitions. While the world is rightly horrified by the jailing of writers and journalists, the objections fall on the president’s deaf ears. Turkey’s opposition is spent, its strength consumed by endless court appearances. A handful of lawyers are trying to catch their breath while running between courtrooms to represent or witness the trials of Turks caught up in the witch hunt that swept the nation in the wake of the failed 15 July coup.
24 November: Just another day in a land of insanity. The EU Parliament announced its decision to freeze Turkey’s accession talks due to the government’s suppression. Three soldiers were killed by a Syrian jet, interestingly on the anniversary of Turkish jets bringing down a Russian plane last year. There was no news due to the traditional news ban so we don’t know if there will be a war tomorrow. And Ahmet Türk, the most prominent and dovish figure of Kurdish politics was jailed. He is 74 years old. Turkish lira dipped to a new record.
On the streets, the humour is in accordance with the insanity: “Make Turkey so-so again!”
25 November: Castro dies. As with everything else, this also becomes a subject of dispute between opposition and government supporters. Nothing can escape being the object of polarisation in the country. After some people say goodbye to Castro on social media, government supporters revolt: “How can you support a dictator?” If the partisanship can make you defend child rapists, which happened recently due to a child abuse case in a government-affiliated charity foundation, it can make you do anything.
26 November: President Erdogan is threatening the European Union. “We will open the borders for refugees and you will see,” he says. His reckless statements are on one side, Europe’s ethical failure about refugees on the other. Erdogan now seems to be the bull abducting Europa. As the fundamentals of Western civilisation and democratic values come to pieces, the bulls around the globe find their way to the top.
One perfect Balkan noir scene at a Zagreb cafe. At each table there is a grumpy old man reading a newspaper while the young waiter plays high volume Riders on the Storm at high volume. He asks where I am from. “Oh Istanbul! Never been there,” he says. I smile. “Go before it is too late.” He smiles back with sarcasm: “I am from Bosnia. Everywhere is too late.” Maybe true. Maybe it’s a bulls’ world now.
27 November: I was avoiding this piece of news for two days. I have finally read it. A nine-year-old girl died of a heart attack because she couldn’t take the pressure of facing her rapist during her hearing in court. One friend asked: “Why have the men all of sudden became so evil in this country?” My answer is “Because they can!” When the rule of law is damaged and basic human values are shaken, they can. And we, stunned like a beaten dog, just murmur: “It cannot go on like this.” But it does.
28 November: Came to Copenhagen for NewXChange, the meeting point for the world of journalism. I will be speaking in a panel with the title Are we out of Touch? Well, Trump is tweeting: “CNN is so embarrassed by their total (100%) support of Hillary Clinton, and yet her loss in a landslide, they won’t know what to do.” He knows that attacking established media will get him more points than anyone can imagine. While talking about Operation Euphrates Shield president Erdogan said: “We entered Syria for nothing else but to end cruel reign of Al-Assad” It is as if Turkey declared war on Syria. People are asking, “How can he say that?” Well, shall I repeat it once more? Because he can.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_basic_grid post_type=”post” max_items=”4″ element_width=”6″ grid_id=”vc_gid:1485774671069-2b48111f-e2eb-10″ taxonomies=”8607″][/vc_column][/vc_row]
