They took my flags away, my family is starving.

They took my flags away, my family is starving.

Those who were taken into custody and consecutively detained on charges of “encouraging the people to revolt” during the Gezi protests shared their strong reactions with the MPs from CHP who visited them. Flag salesman Ali Sarıçiçek; who stated that as he is in jail, his wife and 5 kids are starving; protested against the fact that flags with pictures of Atatürk were recorded as evidence against him.

The narrative of the detainees appeared in MPs report as below:

They use us in the ward

Veli Ağbaba, CHP MP from Malatya, and Özgür Özel CHP MP from Manisa visited the 9 detainees, who claim to have been abused, with special permission from Ministry of Justice. The MPs reported that all the detainees said they were in separate wards and with criminal convictions.

The MPs said, “Some young detainees states that they are being given the duty of serving others, that they were forced to be on guard; that they’ve been asked to conduct lots of work from cooking tea to cleaning or to washing the clothes;  and sometimes they’ve been threatened too.”

We took refuge in the police station; they arrested us

Ahmet Kayce (Born in 1990, Eruh): I’m working in a job where I earn 600-700 TL. We ran away from the tear gas and took refuge in Beyoğlu Police Station. They detained us there, they did not ask questions, they did not ask for our identities. Another friend was released, I did not understand why they detained me. I’ve never imagined I would be detained in the police station I took refuge.

Umut Akgün (Born in 1988, Hozat): I’m a computer programmer and Management student in the Open University. My wife is one of the teachers who did not get assignment. We were sitting in Mis Street with my mother, father and my cousin. We were drinking beer. After the gas attack, we took refuge in an inn. Police repeatedly threw gas bombs into the inn.  Later, they entered the building and took us under custody by beating us. We were beaten as we were taken 5 floors down, they cursed. They cursed and insulted my mother.  My mother, my father, my wife and my cousin we all went out together, we sit at the same location, we entered the same inn. My cousin is free, I’m in prison.

Flag with picture of Atatürk confiscated

Ali Sarıçiçek (Flag salesman): I make my living by selling flags in sport games or in protests. I have 5 kids. The eldest one works in a belt store for 150 TL. The household has no other source of income. My wife, my kids are hungry. I was selling flags; I got tired and decided to return home. They did not let me cross the police barricade; they only let go 2 Americans who showed their passports. I got angry, yelled with my hands up. At that moment, TOMA sprayed pressured water, my flags got wet. I went mad and walked away while yelling. They took me under custody 2 blocks away, where I was sitting on the pavement to rest.  My flags remained in the police station, they did not hand them back to my family. They’ve registered the evidence as Turkish flag with picture of Ataturk. The man with machete is in Morocco and I’m here.

BEŞİKTAŞ is my right and my left.

İbrahim Halilullah Turan (Born in 1993): My house was raided; they got the unexploded gas bomb that I had taken home. That was the only evidence against me. I’m most offended by expressions such as “Çarşı was bribed; they received instructions from someone etc.”. The very first night, we run to Taksim and to İstiklal by our own will. The same police who made our life unbearable after each soccer game was now beating others. We went to protest against the police. When we saw the Çarşı flags, we united. The following days, we convened and marched together. I have nothing to do with politics. In the last elections, I went to the ballot box and wrote “Beşiktaş is my right and my left”.

Mehmet Yalçın (Born in 1979): I have no affiliation whatsoever either with interest loby or jewish loby, I come from the Seyyid lineage. I approached the police barricade. I said “do not use force, it’s a shame”, on that basis they detained me saying “take him, take”. The photo that I have standing in İstiklal street was the evidence.

Ahmet Erol (Born in 1980 doğumlu, married for a week): I was detained walking in front of a shopping mall

They slipped masks into my hands

Oğuz Tekin (Born in 1990, ITU Physics student): During mass detentions, police registered the mask, the goggles and the helmet as mine.

Ali Can Sünnetçioğlu (Born in 1990, Senior at the Faculty of Law): They beat us a lot. Police slipped gas masks into our hands.

Özgür Yıldırım (born in 1994, Mersin University PR student): I had no mask or nor goggles. They detained by beating me. They beat me hard when taking down from Rumeli Inn.

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