British Satirist Denied Residence
Dickinson's expected deportation comes after his most recent work of collage that led him behind the bars, after he displayed the Turkish PM in the form of a "Bush Dog" in public, in an alleged protest of a trial involving a Turkish exhibition operator who had displayed his previous controversial works in public. ( Click for Dickinson's own account
Living in Turkey for 20 years, Dickinson is now due to be put on a plane to Dublin, Ireland, on September 30 after the Turkish Police Directorate has this week refused to extend his residence permit in the country.
The deportation follows his arrest, detention and particularly a number of statements he has made this week in public on the conditions he observed while being held at the police relating to the mistreatment and beating of refugees.
He maintains that during his own captivity, he himself was held sleepless, hungry and felt tired.
Talking to bianet on his most recent experience, Dickinson said that in the eight days he was held at the Foreigners Branch of the police before his release, he observed approximately 400 immigrants from various countries being kept in the same room altogether. "Their only crime" he said, "was to seek a better future for themselves. It shocked me to see force being applied on them".
Dickinson explained that mistreatment to people under arrest continued everywhere in the world and said, "This is not the way the world should be. These should be change".
The artist told bianet that after staying in Dublin for a while he wanted to attend an exhibit in London on October 6 and added that he wanted to return to Turkey on a tourist visa in six weeks.
Dickinson's trip behind the bars
The Dickinson controversy started when police in Istanbul seized his Best in Show collage poster displayed at the Global Peace and Justice Coalition (Kuresel BAK) exhibition on March 11.
In this collage, published at his own internet site under the title "Bush's Dog", he superimposed the head of PM Erdogan on to the body of a canine that appeared to have its bowtie type collar being prepared by President Bush.
The exhibition's organizers Ertan Kara, Gulen Sahin, Mehmet Demir, Filiz Ulget and Burak Delier were initially detained. A prosecutor then decided that non of the suspects other than Kara himself had responsibility for the poster.
On April 5, the prosecutor's office charged Kara under article 125/3-a of the Turkish Penal Code. Namely, for "insulting the dignity of the Prime Minister". His latest case was listed for September 12 at an Istanbul court.
However, Dickinson himself then petitioned to the Public Prosecutor's Office of Kadikoy claiming full responsibility for the collage and saying "if there is an offence, it should be me put on trial rather than Kara".
On July 11, the prosecution rejected Dickinson's request saying, "you do not have good intentions. Although there was no case, as if there was an investigation against you, you mobilized some civil society organizations and led to publications being made against our country. You are not trying to bring the issue to light but to use the incident as an instrument of propaganda against our country".
Dickinson, whose Tripod web site was banned without warning or appeal last year, had already rebuffed not being prosecuted in a June 19 dated new collage showing President Bush in military uniform playing a flute and PM Erdogan's head planted on a growling dog sitting at his feet. "Man's Best Friend" was the title of this collage and the satirist added in explanation "Since I haven't yet been officially charged, I thought I'd exercise what freedom I have left to express myself in this collage on a similar theme".
While no charges were leveled against Dickinson for the previous posters already online on his new web site yabanji (=Alien) a third one he appeared to exhibit in front of cameras at the Kadikoy 3rd Criminal Court of First Instance in protest of Kara's trial on September 12 saw him behind the bars.
Dickinson was promptly placed under arrest for "insulting senior state officials" during Kuresel BAK organizer Kara's's hearing by displaying the poster publicly, taken to the Kadikoy police station, then to hospital for medical checkup and from there to the Umraniye Prison. Her was then moved to the Foreigners Branch of the police where after a week he was released and the deportation order, without any charges, was issued.
Dickinson's new poster showed Erdogan's head planted on a dog where a missile was placed up its tail. A collar, made out of the American flag decorated the dog while US dollar bills filled the ground as well as the dog's mouth. "We won't be Bush's dog" read a piece of paper on the dogs back while in front of it was stacks of 20 Turkish Lira notes. A cracked up world image showed in the background. (EO/II/YE)