Letter from detained Bosphorus University student

Agah Suat Atay, one of the students to be detained after they protested against people handing out Turkish delight at Bosphorus University in connection with the Afrin operation, has written a letter to his friends “on the outside.” Atay said, “As you will guess, I am a bit taken back. I did not expect such an unjust decision to emerge. Being among four walls in these lovely spring months cannot but affect a person. But I am inclined to turn this space into a school, into an award with all my effrontery or even, to use advertising-speak, an experience “that must absolutely be had.” So, let me say right now that you will never hear regret, hopelessness or cynical talk from me.”

 Atay, who has been detained for more than one and a half months in Silivri Prison states that he was arrested on 25 March and placed in detention on 3 April. Atay, pointing out that one of the major reasons he was well was that there were people fighting for them on the outside, continued, “I take this opportunity of conveying my thanks to them and warmly embracing them. I am not about to deliver a great freedom speech, either. I am crammed in among forty people in 150 m2 and, I mean, were I to say, ‘I’ll slip out and then come back, I promise’ they do not allow this. In fact, they bolt the door and hold a count and so on twice a day. It is quite interesting, you know, if you think about it. I still perceive myself to be a ‘free hostage’ and 24 hours are still no match and do not suffice for me. I spend hours reading and exercising. Having practised spatial decomposition, I am sharing a life with people I have been separated from. Pacing up and down and watching the main news (of course Fatih Portakal) have become my new routines. As you will realise, I am tasting that famous modest happiness that limited opportunities provide. We find ourselves invited to a duel. My struggle is the struggle to be a prisoner worthy of the likes of Dimitrov, who put fascism on trial.”

 In the letter in which he included lines from Nâzım Hikmet, Atay wrote, “The process forces us to confront our fears, even if we don’t want to or evade this. We find ourselves condemned to freedom, to become subjective. Those who pity us essentially pity their unstruggling egos. This is what I did prior to the incidents so this is how I know. Everything is forbidden to us at the dining table of intimidation; everything is permitted to us at the dining table of the sun among friends. This invitation is from us! Come, at the worst we will get a Bosphorus wing opened here, I promise you. See you very soon on the inside, on the outside or however and wherever.”

Tutuklu Boğaziçi Üniversitesi öğrencisinden mektup: Benden pişmanlık işitemeyeceksiniz