Arrested Activist Aksakoğlu: 'I Defended Peaceful and Nonviolent Methods'

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Civil society activist and Bernard van Leer Foundation's Turkey representative Yiğit Aksakoğlu was taken into custody in November 2018 with another 16 activists. While all others were released after testimonies, Aksakoğlu was arrested and put into Silivri No. 9 Closed Prison in İstanbul.

In a letter he sent to bianet, Aksakoğlu said, "If the argument that can be a reason for my arrest is the suspicion of 'spoliation of evidence,' it is clearly not possible for me to spoil sound recordings which were put into the interrogation file or affect the investigation if there is any."

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Having been held in a solitary cell since his arrest, Aksakoğlu told what he has experienced in the last three months in his letter:

"I was taken into custody at 06.30 a.m. on November 16, 2018. At the night on November 17, among those 16 people who were taken into custody and interrogated, only I was arrested because of an inconceivable reason which begins with 'Even if the contents of the meeting could not be reached and some points of the meeting were left in the dark...'

"Since that day, our three separate release requests, even though we shed a light on the contents of the meetings with documents, have been rejected. Again, although I submitted many petitions to the Silivri No. 9 Closed Prison Management, I am under isolation in a solitary cell. There has neither been a concrete allegation, nor an indictment for three months."

A 100-page question list

"In the process of interrogation when I was in custody, I was shown a 100-page question list that includes questions from 150 different wiretap records which consist of my conversations regarding my job and private life. The wiretaps were from 5 years ago, dated between June 2013 and February 2014. My conversations were presented as if it were related to the Gezi protests.

"In none of the wiretaps, there was an element of a crime. All of them were related to legal and justified civil society activities. On the contrary, these are where to look for an offense in this investigation: Unrelated conversations were presented as related, I was claimed to get orders and directions from some people even though there is no such thing in the wiretaps, the wiretaps have not been deleted although it has been 5 years since they were recorded and the prosecutor who gave the first order to wiretap my conversations is a fugitive now."

"I request release to drop my children off at school"

Aksakoğlu said in his letter that he has been working in the civil society as a professional and as a volunteer since 1997 and he supports peace since then.

"I defended peaceful and nonviolent ways and methods. I gave support to rights-based civil society activities. I made academic and semi-academic publications in this field. In the last five years, I have been the Turkey representative of a foundation that provides financial and technical support for works regarding children aged between 0 and 6 and their parents.

"Within this scope, I work in partnership with numerous district and metropolitan municipalities, three of which are run by the government party. And I have been waiting on my own to be tried for three months for 'attempting to overthrow the government by force and violence.

"If the argument that can be a reason for my arrest is the suspicion of 'spoliation of evidence,' it is clearly not possible for me to spoil sound recordings which were put into the interrogation file or affect the investigation if there is any. I did not request release to run but to drop my children off at school and I still request my release.

"I don't give up the hope of a country where legal and justifiable, peaceful and nonviolent civil society activities are not reasons for an arrest, long and unnecessary arrests and isolation during an arrest are not a method of punishment.

"Greetings to every friend who showed solidarity with me and my family in this period." (EMK/VK)