Abdülkadir Kiraz from Haymana

The letters have piled up. All bearing prison stamps. Just reading the names on the envelopes takes you on a tour of Turkey: Kırıkkale, Kırklareli, Silivri, Urfa, Malatya, Sincan, Trabzon, Van, Muğla, Şakran, İzmir, Aydın...

Very few of them have been convicted; most are on remand.
Judge, prosecutor, teacher, mayor, co-mayor, academic, soldier, officer, general, admiral, farmer, student, journalist, soldier’s wife, soldier’s daughter, soldier’s son, Turkish, Kurdish, young and old, male and female ...
Each letter is a cry in writing for justice and fair play. Letters with important messages if only they could find an audience, wishing to chime in with a newspaper columnist’s voice.
I cannot quote them all here. I chose one, virtually at random. Abdülkadir Kiraz’s letter. He is from Kirazoğlu in Ankara’s Haymana Sub-Province and is remanded on suspicion of connections with the Fethullah Gülen Terrorist Organisation at the insistence of people who tipped off the public prosecutor with lies and false accusations that would see ten of his friends, ten of his mates from a few doors away, and himself thrown inside, with the prosecutor who says that ‘Cumhuriyet has filled up with FETÖ and PKK people’ having given testimony. I am quoting it slightly abridged:
‘My name is Abdülkadir Kiraz. I am 48 years old and I have never left the village in all this time (except for military service). I only attended primary school and my literacy level is very low. So much so that I have asked somebody in the cell to write these lines. I am dictating and he is writing.
I was arrested, charged with FETÖ membership, on 1 August 2016 and was released on 4 August. Going forward, I was rearrested on 29 August and remanded in custody on the same day.
I have no idea what is meant by FETÖ membership, the reason for which I was remanded. I only learnt what FETÖ stands for when I was arrested. Far from being a member of this illegal organisation, I have not even had contact with it, because I am somebody who does his best to earn a living from farming and raising livestock. I have two children and my sole goal in life is to see to it that these kids of mine get an education. One of the reasons I was arrested was the wallet, a keepsake from my late father, that emerged in the course of a personal search, and the three one-dollar notes inside. My father passed away in 1999. These dollars are dated 1998. They are a keepsake from my late father. I have carried this wallet around with me for years because these dollars are a keepsake from my father. Right until my arrest. If I had ever dreamed that I would be detained on account of one dollar, I would not have believed it.
Another reason for my arrest and remand is that I faced false accusations from somebody I do not know. They reported me saying, “He is a FETÖist.” As I said above, with me not even knowing what FETÖ is, not knowing who Fethullah Gülen is and being unable even to watch the evening news what with me being busy with the livestock, it comes as a heavy blow to be branded a FETÖist, a traitor and a terrorist. To put it bluntly, I know about livestock, onions and garlic, not FETÖ. My sole concern is to make ends meet and give my kids an education. Apart from this, I do not know this organisation, nor have I donated money to such an organisation, nor do I have an account at Bank Asya or have ByLock on my phone. (Also, my phone is an 80-lira, non-smart, simple phone with a broken screen.) My children did not go to their supplementary education centres, houses or dormitories, either. I quite honestly do not know why I am here on remand. I would be delighted if you could make my voice heard to officialdom and publish this text in your newspaper.
Abdülkadir Kiraz (Sincan Prison, cell A-3)’


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Abdülkadir Kiraz’s job would appear to be tending to his livestock and sowing and reaping onions and garlic.
My job is to be the voice of those who say they have suffered injustice and wish to cry out in the quest for justice.
So, we are both doing our job.