İstanbul bombing: Lawyer threatened after fake news says her phone number 'leaked by officials'
After fake news that she was the perpetrator of the Taksim bomb attack, Jiyan Tosun received many threatening phone calls. Her family members and another lawyer using a number registered under her name were also called. Tosun says only officials can access and leak such data.
A lawyer who received threats after being falsely accused of carrying out Sunday's (November 13) bomb attack in Taksim, İstanbul, said she suspected that her phone number was leaked by officials.
Shortly after the explosion that killed six people and wounded 81 others, a member of the far-right Victory (Zafer) Party, Adem Taşkaya, claimed in a tweet that lawyer Jiyan Tosun had carried out the attack in the name of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). He later deleted the tweet.
But with the fake news spreading on social media, Tosun said she received many death threats. Worried about her safety, she spent most of the night at a courthouse, where she had gone to file a complaint against those who spread the claims and threatened her.
Tosun explained what happened on that day at a press conference yesterday at the İstanbul branch of the Human Rights Association (İHD), which she is a member of. Her colleagues and human rights advocates were there to support her.
Noting that not only her but her family members were threatened, Tosun expressed her suspicion that their phone numbers were leaked by the state.
Eren Keskin, co-chair of the İHD, said she uses a phone number registered under Tosun's name, and she also received threats by people calling her by Tosun's name.
"My office is in Beyoğlu. And İHD is also very near to where the explosion took place. Everyone was calling me. I was saying 'I am not at İHD today. I am at a meeting with my clients.' Somebody who heard me speaking has given a notice to the police. But I learned about this when I went to the police headquarters," Tosun said.
"There were two Syrian citizens with me. The person who calls the police says "One person is sitting with her and there are two Syrians." Upon this they came and they said that they would be taking the Syrian citizens for identification. And I said that I would accompany them during the identification process, giving them legal support. That is how I went to the police station.
"Half an hour later I was told that there was such a notice given for me. So I told the police about the situation. Then came the anti-terror police teams.
"I also told them that I was at a meeting with my clients and that I had an office in this neighborhood. The event took place at 16:40. I got off the metro at 16:30. They nevertheless said that they would be writing minutes and I was kept there until 7 p.m.
"At around 7:30 p.m. Eren Keskin sent me a message saying 'Jiyan such and such is being circulated'. I started to receive hundreds of phone calls all at the same time. I started to receive requests for following in my social media accounts and also insults and threats.
"My family and my friends are also victims. I am a survivor of a bombing and the police knows this very well. But I have been accused of being a bomber.
"I was in front of the Ankara railroad station in the October 10 explosion [2015]. My friends died a hundred meters away from me. I live with this panic since years being a sufferer of a suicide bomb explosion.
"Even my niece received threats"
"There is something else that horrified me. The telephone number of my 16-year-old niece was disclosed. The phone numbers of all my family members were circulated. Only official personnel can do this. They call and they threaten my niece. They say "You are bombers and you do not deserve to live."
Tosun also said that she called the İstanbul Bar Association after being targeted and that the chairperson of the bar did stand by her. She said this situation was 'embarrassing.'
Tosun's lawyer Jiyan Kaya said that the prosecutor did not take their statement and that the police and the prosecutor would be responsible if something bad happens to Tosun.
"They called me Jiyan"
Speaking after Tosun, Keskin said she also received threats ont he day of the explosion.
"I have received hundreds of such calls," said Keskin, questioning how can so many people find her phone number. She played a recording, where a man is heard accusing her of perpetrating the attack, using foul launguage.
"This is a deliberate state operation," she said, noting that the number she uses was registered under Tosun's name. "They were first calling me Jiyan. They they started calling me Eren."
She noted that she is working with Tosun and Kaya at the same office and said, "Adem Taşkaya is someone who is involved in many infamous crimes. Minister of Interior Süleyman Soylu and the President of Zafer Party Ümit Özdağ have argued publicly.
"They have some power within the state. Otherwise they will not be able to circulate such a lie so freely. We are receiving hundreds of threats since yesterday.
"They are calling using their own numbers. What kind of a state is this? Where are they? Do they show up only against us? We are calling İstanbul Governorship for duty. The Governor and also Minister Soylu should at once announce that the news was fake. I am also calling on that table of six [alliance of opposition parties] that defend democracy very much. They should also make announcements.
Keskin also said that what Taşkaya has done was an invitation to violence and that he should be detained and prosecuted. (EMK/PE/VK)
bianet kadın ve LGBTİ+ haberleri editörü (Ekim 2018- Şubat 2025). bianet stajyerlerinden (2000-2001). Cumhuriyet, BirGün, DİHA, Jinha, Jin News, İMC TV için muhabirlik yaptı. Rize'de...
bianet kadın ve LGBTİ+ haberleri editörü (Ekim 2018- Şubat 2025). bianet stajyerlerinden (2000-2001). Cumhuriyet, BirGün, DİHA, Jinha, Jin News, İMC TV için muhabirlik yaptı. Rize'de yerel gazetelerde çalıştı. Sivil Sayfalar, Yeşil Gazete, Journo ve sektör dergileri için yazılar yazdı, haberleri yayınlandı. Hemşin kültür dergisi GOR’un kurucu yazarlarından. Yeşilden Maviye Karadenizden Kadın Portreleri, Sırtında Sepeti, Medya ve Yalanlar isimli kitaplara katkı sundu. Musa Anter Gazetecilik (2011) ve Türkiye Psikiyatri Derneği (2024) en iyi haber ödülü sahibi. Türkiye Gazeteciler Sendikası Kadın ve LGBTİ+ Komisyonu kurucularından. Sendikanın İstanbul Şubesi yöneticilerinden (2023-2027). İstanbul Üniversitesi Avrupa Birliği ve Bilgi Üniversitesi Uluslararası İlişkiler bölümlerinden mezun. Toplumsal cinsiyet odaklı habercilik ve cinsiyet temelli şiddet haberciliği alanında atölyeler düzenliyor. Şubat 2025'den bu yana kadın haberleri editörü olarak çalışıyor.
This AI-generated version of the "Turkish Pikachu" went viral on social media.
Pikachu has been deported, or is under house arrest. Since video images are not shown on mainstream media, we are left in limbo. It is hoped other cartoon or Marvel characters will come to the rescue. Most wishing for Spiderman, Ironman or Superman; someone who could be quite useful for the demonstrators at the moment.
At present it would appear that the government have only Daffy Duck or Mister Magoo leading their charge, it would be no match.
Whilst the images have caused much humour in the west, here there is more to it than that. You couldn’t think of a more likable Pokémon than Pikachu, loved by all children.
This coupled with kindergarten games of jumping together at demos now, with thousands doing this saying if you don’t you are then a name they disapprove of, phone lights in the air with beaming smiles of unity, are just the equivalent of name calling at school.
It is the lighter side to free expression away from the dogma they perceive in the country. Other incidents are a demonstrator as a whirling dervish in front of the police, water cannoned, or someone doing a Christiano Ronaldo celebration or groups doing press-ups. All this points to different more light headed fun-loving and different Turkey to the one they experience day to day. They (peaceful demonstrators) are of course demonised by certain sections as, in not so many words, unturkish.
And yet these are the very same people who would:
Help your elderly relative to cross the road.
Stand next to you singing their heart to the national anthem at a football ground.
Some will pray in the mosque, celebrate Ramadan and bayram with all their family like you.
Whether you believe it or not, because they are you, they are a part of what makes Turkey great. They may be the other side of the fence, but not the other end of the world.
To end on a lighter note, alleged images of Pikachu drinking in ExpressoLab, is an attempt to undermine the moral of students. To me he is now old hat, I would much rather see people dressed as Bambi. I mean who would ever dream of water cannoning Bambi, or would they?
Disclaimer: Pikachu, Bambi, Ironman Superman, Mr Magoo or Daffy Duck have not, or ever been a part of any political party.
David R. Mellor is from Liverpool, England. He spent his late teens homeless on Merseyside. He is currently writing and performing in Turkey. His work...
David R. Mellor is from Liverpool, England. He spent his late teens homeless on Merseyside. He is currently writing and performing in Turkey. His work has been featured by the BBC and the Tate, and his published collections of poetry are What a Catch (2013), Some Body (2013), Express Nothing (2019) and So This Is It (2020). His collection of stories An Englishman in Turkey – Türkiye’de Bir İngiliz is recently published in Turkish.
Seven people, including a journalist, were detained yesterday during a protest in Ayvalık, a district in the northwestern province of Balıkesir.
Those detained were accused of violating the Law on Meetings and Demonstrations and of “insulting the president.” The political magazine 1+1 Express confirmed that one of its team members, journalist and translator Çiğdem Öztürk, was among those taken into custody.
Despite the prosecutor’s request for their arrest, all seven individuals were released under judicial supervision the today.
The magazine issued a statement calling for the release of everyone who has been detained during the protests: “Freedom for all those who have been detained or arrested since Mar 19 for exercising their constitutional and democratic rights."
The protests
Protests have spread across Turkey since the Mar 19 detention of İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, a prominent opposition figure from the Republican People’s Party (CHP). Demonstrations have been particularly active in İstanbul, where the CHP held nightly rallies in front of the municipal building for seven consecutive days. Student-led protests have also taken place in cities across the country.
According to the Interior Ministry, more than 1,800 people were detained nationwide between Mar 19 and Mar 27 in connection with the demonstrations, with 260 formally arrested.
At least 14 journalists have been among those detained.
Dozens of individuals have also been taken into custody over their social media posts related to the protests. In addition, court rulings have blocked access to numerous X (formerly Twitter) accounts.
İmamoğlu was formally arrested on Mar 23 on corruption-related charges and suspended from his duties as mayor. On the same day, the CHP held a previously scheduled primary in which İmamoğlu was declared the party’s presidential candidate for the 2028 presidential election. Following his suspension, the İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality Council, where the CHP holds a majority, appointed a CHP member as acting mayor. (VK)
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