My petition to the ‘state’

I am a journalist by profession. I have earned my living by writing articles for 53 years. I have been a journalist for 47 years. Over that time, you have viewed me as your own “property” and have tried me in military or civilian courts, thrown me in detention cells and made me march around exercise yards in military and civilian prisons.

They taught me at school that you were made up of the legislative, executive and judicial powers and you held the monopoly over the use of force. I – no longer – have any idea which branch of yours I should address and to which I should submit my grievances in this petition. I am aware that these three powers have morphed into a single power. I am thus addressing my petition directly to you.

Do not immediately grimace and change your facial expression from that of “magnanimous state” to your more accustomed one of “overpowering state”. My supplication is quite small, quite simple and easy to carry out.

My dear state,
The police you sent to my home at the break of dawn did not confine themselves to taking me and shoving me in a detention cell. They also took my laptop, tablet and phone transformed into a pocket computer, press card and some of my books.

You released me after a five-day compulsory stay. I am supposedly on release pending trial. OK. I am not objecting, because there is no point or purpose to objecting. I know that. Given that I am your “property”, if you have said you are going to try me, you will. What can I do about it?

However, for somebody like me who purely and simply engages in writing articles, my “work tools” of my computer, tablet and mobile phone are very important. They hold my things like my notes, phone book and draft articles. It is pretty tough for me to do my work without them. I mean, my situation is comparable to that of a barber deprived of his scissors, a blacksmith of his hammer or a tailor of his needle.

From what your police have told me off the record, you have already taken “scans” of my computer and phone. I mean, you will find whatever you need on them.
My work tools have currently been sent to the police’s ‘Cybercrime Investigation Branch’. However, you have either remanded in custody or suspended ninety percent of the experts there on the grounds of involvement with the Fethullah Gülen Terrorist Organisation. On the other hand, the remaining five or six experts are confronted with thousands (tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands?) of computers and phones. I mean, it will take them years and years to examine them and prove our guilt. Come on, for a moment assume the mantle of the “magnanimous state”, hand my work tools back to me and look for proof of my crimes(!) on the scans.

You are not just a state, you are a capitalist state. For you, property is sacred. What for you as the current state is sacred is also a priority. Those work tools are the property of an impoverished journalist like me.

How about it? Do not be a capitalist state that devours sacred property and hand my work tools back to me.
That is the extent of my supplication.
(signature, date and citizenship number)