IZMIR, TURKEY
It was learned that 6 prisoners in Şakran No.1 Closed Prison in İzmir Aliağa were battered by the guards after being forced to take off their clothes and chant the fascist phrase “How happy is the one who says I am a Turk.” The torture was implemented after the prisoners refused to accept the change of their wards. Bruises and wounds occurred on various parts of the prisoners’ bodies.
Battered and stripped
Barış İldem, one of the prisoners, explained what had happened his nephew Kadri Süer, whom he talked to by phone.
Süer said that his uncle had wounds on his forehead and swelling in his arms, that his jawbone was dislodged and that he had difficulty speaking.
Stating that the other prisoners were in a similar situation, Süer said that his uncle told him the following:
“During the assault, they tried to force us to shout ‘Happy is the one who says I am a Turk’. We did not accept this. Thereupon, they battered us more. They kept us naked and continued to batter. We wanted to be taken to the hospital to get a report of assault. However, we were not referred to the hospital. Currently, 13 people are being held in a 3-person ward. ”
Süer explained that his uncle had also been battered by the gendarmerie, when he was transferred to the hospital about a month ago.
İldem’s lawyer Suat Çetinkaya stated that they will file a criminal complaint.
Not just a saying
Under Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the Turkish nation-state attempted to Turkify all of its non-Turkish minorities, including the millions of Kurds in northern Kurdistan which it occupies. His well-known motto of “How happy is the one who says I am a Turk” became the slogan of this fascist policy, and symbolizes the period following 12 September 1992 when a witch-hunt was initiated by the Turkish state against Kurds. Hundreds of thousands were tortured and killed during this process, which institutionalized fascism in the Turkish state.
Today, the phrase “How happy is the one who says I am a Turk” has become a symbol of this period, and attracts rage within ethnic-minority circles in Turkey and the Kurds of northern Kurdistan.
