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Purged By Turkey, An Ex-NATO Officer Speaks Out About Detention Under Erdogan
Purged military officers being brought before judges in May 2017
Why is Erdogan's dictatorship still a NATO member? I appreciate geo-realities, but the Erdogan/AK-Party regime is becoming an embarrassing stain on NATO.
Purged military officers being brought before judges in May 2017
8/15/18
"I am a navy officer who has been stabbed in the back by his brothers in arms," reads a pinned tweet by Turkish former Lt. Cmdr. Cafer Topkaya. "Trapped, purged, and imprisoned by his fellow countrymen. Once a NATO staff officer, now an exile. I guess it's time to tell my story!" After arriving in Ankara, there was an uneventful overnight at the officers' club. But then he got to the "urgent meeting" at general staff headquarters. He says he got a bad feeling the moment he presented his commander with a customary box of chocolates. "He felt guilty. I could see it in his eyes," Topkaya remembers. "I understood that the trap was ready, everything was ready." When Topkaya tried to leave the building, suddenly his pass didn't work. Then police arrived and hauled him off. He soon found himself lying on the floor of a re-purposed gymnasium with hundreds of other military officials, many of them battered and bruised, and with bloodied bandages lying all over. He'd seen this place and the condition of its inhabitants in leaked photos, but it was shocking to be there. After 12 days with little food, he remembers barely being able to stand or think clearly. Topkaya was brought before a prosecutor he presumed would release him once she knew his status as a lifelong officer and a NATO diplomat. Instead, what he thought were respected achievements were now liabilities. Prosecutors accused him of supporting a "terrorist organization" — which is what Turkey's government labels alleged or real followers of Gulen — and of insulting Erdogan on Twitter. Topkaya explained to authorities he had no political or religious ties, and wasn't even on Twitter.
Nevertheless, he was packed off to Sincan prison, where he says he avoided physical abuse himself but saw cellmates returning from interrogation bearing signs of maltreatment. They spoke of torture, such as being strapped to electric chairs or waterboarded, he says. In the gym, he saw one colonel repeatedly taken away to interrogations where the colonel's wife was also brought in and threatened with imprisonment, as authorities emphasized that would mean their two small daughters would be left unattended. After more than 16 months in detention, Topkaya was released conditionally to family members in Ankara with orders to check in with police every week. Going through old documents, he found a nondiplomatic passport that military police missed while scouring his parents' and in-laws' houses. He decided not to chance being arrested again. In late February, he took the passport and ran for the Greek border. "It was like escaping from enemy territory," he says. It took him a few days to get back to Belgium. He doesn't want to give exact details of how he traveled for fear of putting up obstacles for future escapees. "Bad guys have taken control of the government, the country," Topkaya concurs, "and someone should do something to stop them." Topkaya decided he had become at least one of those "someones." Last month, he created two Twitter accounts under his real name — one in Turkish, one in English — where he's telling his story, post by post, in meticulous detail. He includes supporting documents when possible. opkaya says he and his wife are aware of the risks and both believe it's the right thing to do — no matter what. "I have to tell things even if it costs me my life," Topkaya says, "because there are some mistakes you can't correct. And if I don't talk now, it will be a big mistake that I will regret for the rest of my life. And instead of living with that regret, dying with the feeling that I have done my duty is better."
Why is Erdogan's dictatorship still a NATO member? I appreciate geo-realities, but the Erdogan/AK-Party regime is becoming an embarrassing stain on NATO.