The dignity of exiting prison
Is there any “dignity” in being released from prison?
Yes there is, dear friend.
If you are right, if you are brave…
If you have a large heart and if you have an intellectual character that goes with it…
There is also a proper procedure, a dignity to exiting from jail.
Here is Ahmet Şık…
I heard those words from him, the ones that I was expecting to hear for days.
Why are Soner and Yalçın still in jail?
Those people who are supporting him have truly given a major struggle during this process.
But some of them had only their names in the forefront and kept silent about the claims against others.
Whereas, the other evening, on Ahmet Hakan’s TV program, Ahmet Şık also identified with the other journalists. By naming them one by one.
He mentioned Soner Yalçın. He also said, “Yalçın Küçük, I have no sympathy for him but why is he jailed?”
Time to identify with those we are angry at
The present time is such a period. In other words, it is a time when we should stand for those people we are angry at, those we are furious at.
That’s why I am adding this:
- Why is Tuncay Özkan in jail? Once upon a time he used to insult me in all kinds of ways every evening from his television channel, but why is he in jail?
- Why is Yalçın Küçük, who used to sentence me to symbolic capital punishments every evening from television screens, in prison?
- Mustafa Balbay, a person from whom I have very different views, why has he been in jail for three years?
Is there a dignified way of exiting prison?
There is. Here is Ahmet Şık. Here is Nedim Şener.
Silivri turns into Diyarbakır Prison
Write this sentence down somewhere.
Because in the near or medium-term future, you may see that this sentence has become an indictment.
The exact sentence is this:
“Those policemen, the prosecutor and judges who have set up this conspiracy, and who have managed it, will go into this prison, I make a pledge here.”
The person who is saying those words is a journalist.
Ahmet Şık.
He said them on being released from Silivri Prison.
I am sure there are quite a lot of people inside who are making the same pledge.
If a case, which it is claimed has been opened and proceeded in the name of democracy, leaves such determined “pledges” behind it, and such “oaths for struggle,” then you should know that the place where these people are serving time is turning into the Diyarbakır Prison of once upon a time.
I am repeating what I said:
Write these sentences down somewhere.
Because you will hear them a lot in the near or medium-term future; you will see that they will become a chorus symbolizing a dark period in the history of our justice.
Ertuğrul Özkök is a columnist for daily Hürriyet in which this piece was published March 14. It was translated into English by the Daily News staff.
