One-year digital tracking, 10 organizations, 118-page testimony

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Shortly after she had criticized the government in a street interview by saying, "We live in the country of those who deprive people of their rightful share", discharged teacher Sümeyya Avcı was briefly detained.

Speaking to bianet, she says that the police have been digitally tracking her for a year and she was detained on the grounds that she allegedly propagandized for nearly 10 organizations in her social media posts.

Discharged from public service by a Statutory Decree in 2016, school teacher Sümeyya Avcı was taken into custody by four civilian police officers from the Antalya Counterterrorism Branch Directorate on May 19, 2021.

"They have apparently been digitally tracking me for over a year," she says, telling bianet the following about her detention and its reasons:

'I testified for 118 pages'

"It is about my Twitter posts. I gave a statement for 118 pages, it took nearly 10 hours. It began at 3 p.m. and continued till 1 in the morning.

"They put almost all my tweets. If there is a tweet about Kurds, they accused me of propagandizing for the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), if there is something about someone else, they accused me of propagandizing for the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C). There is nothing else in my file, except for my social media posts on Twitter.

"They have apparently been digitally tracking me for over a year. They were following my tweets, my everything. They had my videos transcripted, they had all of them on paper, all of my interviews.

"Everyone said on social media that they detained me due to that interview. The police said, 'We didn't take you into custody because of this, it was freedom of expression. We detained you due to the propaganda in your posts.' There are supposedly insulting remarks in a couple of tweets of mine. I said, 'I have to watch my wording, but I am defending rights.'

"For instance, a 76-year-old person died in prison. I said, 'I don't know who he is, I criticize that a 76-year-old person dies in prison.' Legally speaking, the criminals also have rights behind bars. I gave my statement. We were expecting to be arrested because my file was quite thick.

"It must be thanks to the social media pressure that they have released me on the condition that I give my signature once in 15 days.

'I will continue criticizing'

"From now on, I will at least not say something ironic. But I will continue criticizing the things that I will criticize. 

"I did not want people to have this doubt: 'She gave an interview, she is now staying silent, they have silenced her. We apparently mustn't speak.' Then, we will seek our rights by watching our language, we will not give up.

'So many people paying a price...'

"When I am alone with my conscience, I do not feel uncomfortable in any way at all. Because there are so many people paying a price. People like Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu, Ahmet Altan...

"For instance, journalist Melis Alphan was put on trial on the same charge, on propagandizing for a terrorist organization; she has been acquitted. It might happen to me as well. It happens to the people who stay at home as well. It also happens to those who do not speak up.

"I think I must struggle before we lose all our rights. And I call on everyone to not give up the struggle; follow whatever is legally written in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Don't give up your rights.

"What saved me was actually that I tweeted criticisms about all groups. It is not possible for me to simultaneously propagandize for the organizations with conflicting ideas. I mean, one of them is conservative and the other one is the DHKP-C. They can examine my old tweets, if they want; they can find something else. Or it might be enough that I have my brow over my eye.

"All I want is this: Let this be a beautiful country where the rulers, like a civil registrar's clerk, a teacher or a doctor, practice their profession, then bid farewell to it nicely and hand over their seats to new people." (BÖ/NÖ/SD)