that's a good link to get informed on - and a personal narrative to give you a taste of what is going on:
First off, thanks everyone who has shown concern, enlisted legal aid, and helped in any other way. Now I’m home and fine. I’d like to write about what I’ve been through. My sole aim is to let everyone know what has happened under police custody, and I honestly have no other agenda. I’ll be writing about everything from the start, including all the insults and the abuses. And in a wholly straightforward manner…
Last night (June 3, 2013) at 9 pm, I was taken under police custody somewhere around the traffic lights on Beşiktaş Barbaros Blvd. I hadn’t been involved in any such action as swearing or rock-throwing. The police grabbed my arm upon their fist sight of me. Some of my friends have seen the manner of my being taken under police custody on television. Then all hell broke loose. On the way to the pier I was beaten by all the police officers along the 100-150 meters up to the Kadıköy ferry pier. Every cop who saw me was quick to deal me a punch or a kick. There was no end to verbal abuse like “Is it you who will save this country, motherf***ers and bastards?” I’d lost count of the people who beat me by the time I reached the custody bus, when a couple of others called out to my captor from behind the bus, and told him to take me there. They started to punch me and kick me behind the bus. I later learned that they’d been hiding me from the cameras while beating me between the bus and a wall. The lights of the custody bus were out when I arrived, but I could hear a girl begging: “I didn’t do anything, brother.” I never saw who they were who were hitting me before or after I got on the bus. All I could do in the dark was cover my head. Verbal abuse didn’t end. I sat down but was being hit by every passer-by, so I stood in a corner. They told me to sit down. “When I do, you all hit me,” I said. They forced me to sit by swearing, smacking and punching. They were hitting and throttling the girl. A plainclothes cop called Süleyman said in these exact words: “I’ll bend you over and f*** you right here.” And her reply was gut-wrenching. She said in a hoarse voice, “all right, brother.” Then, they forced the 3 of us on the bus to yell “I love the Turkish police!” and “I love my country!” Again and again, saying “louder! Louder!” each time. There was no end to verbal abuse and battery. When it seemed to be stopping, they brought another friend of ours. His nose was broken. When I asked him why he didn’t protect his face he said “two of them held me, a third punched me three times on the nose.” They would occasionally bring some others. The next to come was a friend called Mustafa, a student at Bahçeşehir Uni. 20 riot cops had attacked him, and he could barely stand, but they went on smacking and punching him next to the custody bus. When they thought that wasn’t enough, they first hit him on the head with a helmet, and then hit his head on the bus window. They got him on the bus hitting him. They sat him on the floor, his hands cuffed behind him, and his head bleeding. We saw his head was bleeding, and I went to him, and tried to stop the bleeding with a piece of cloth (the bloody t-shirt of the other friend with the broken nose). The cop called Süleyman swore at me and said “f*** off and sit down.” I said, “he is bleeding.” He said, “let him bleed.” He didn’t care. They were keeping him cuffed in the state he was in. We told a couple of cops and one of them finally uncuffed him. The second gut-wrenching incident happened at the police station when we were giving our statements. Mustafa asked me “did they hit me on the bus? What happened?” He did not remember. He had obviously been unconscious on the bus. Lastly, we weren’t able to relieve ourselves on the custody bus. They only gave us a bottle of water. Then, we were taken to hospital for doctor’s reports, and to the police station after that. When we were taken to the police station there were an army of lawyers, and the police started politely requesting us to do things. I’d like to thank the lawyers, our friends who have called the lawyers, and everyone who has become concerned for us. This piece of writing excludes the slightest exaggeration, it contains facts, and facts only, and my only purpose in writing it is to let everyone hear the first-hand account of what has happened.
Revolt against oppression goes on. This fascist regime will end.
Erkan Yolalan
Where has the Mediterranean Gone?
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