Sevan Nişanyan’s Letter to Hasan Cemal

Dear Hasan Cemal, In the article with the title of “Sevan Nişanyan will go into jail tomorrow, do you know?” which you wrote within the first days of my imprisonment, the call you made for the permission of my computer gave me optimism.  Within the passed one and a half months, that optimism exhausted. I was welcomed with a smiling face in my first day. “Mr. Writer” has come, is welcome! Prison warden called out two or three times, conversations were realized.

I proposed to work for the improvement of the library. It was approved, I was appointed as the library employee.

“Give me a corner with size of 2x2 and also a computer, I may study on my book and we can create goodness from this evil.”

They said, “Why not”.

They even gave the possibility signal for Internet. 

Three days letter they got a phone call from above, the weathers changed. 

The faces became sullen.

They started to turn their eyes away and to make doubtful statements.

As soon as the library modification was terminated the library was locked.

I was dismissed from the duty.

My computer requested was denied. They threatened me:

“Watch your step, with your first mistake, you go to closed prison.”

In the open prison, prisoners have the right to work outside in a public enterprise. 

It was also barricaded.

They said “We can send you to the cemetery of the municipality as a laborer, if you want”. 

There was no other job.

I know that there are prisoners who use computers in many other prisons.

They allowed me to have my computer in the Selçuk Closed Prison in 2001. I had studied on my dictionary during ten months for fourteen hours a day.

Person experiencing this knows that as long as there is goodwill and a dialogue between prisoner and prison administration, one can get more than a computer.

I don’t think the reason of the lack of goodwill as the local authority. I had an impression that a constructive dialogue could be possible due to their attitudes during the first few days.

I think an instruction came from somewhere above. It is said that, “This man will eat the humble pie”.

I am not sure that is this the bureaucracy of Ministry of Justice of or from the higher.

Bekir Bozdağ, present Ministry of Justice, has told about me as “psychopath”, “insane delusion”, “Ebû Cehîl (father of ignorance) of this epoch”, mentally unstable” because of an article expressing my ideas and called the prosecutors who were not affiliated with him directly to perform their duties with a threatening rhetoric.

The possible relation between this call and the actual attitude comes to my mind.  

Gönderen: Sait Cetinoglu [cetinoglus@gmail.com]