Çaglayan Courthouse: “You can’t touch us!”

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“I was there in the Çağlayan Courthouse in today’s riot. What started as a simple press release, turned into something else and here are some of the incidents that happened right before my eyes:

  • “RIOT” security guards that built a wall of flesh, looked at us from a meter’s distance and said, “If you come any closer we will knock you down.”
  • They attacked everyone taking footage with cameras and they tried to take our cell phones away.
  • They punched lawyers who were walking around two meters away from them, and lied in front of everyone by saying, “You also punched me!”
  • I don’t even remember how many of my colleagues, men and women, were punched, dragged away on the floor, held by the neck and knocked to the ground, their clothes and barrister’s gowns  ripped.
  • They threatened everyone  with an announcement based on their orders: “Anyone supporting the protest will be arrested, all of you back up.”
  • Meanwhile if you wonder where the riot squad was, they pounded, kicked, slapped, and punched the lawyers and the people, starting from the beginning of the press release.
  • Security guards ignored the people they were punching at that moment, and started punching other lawyers and people who wanted to help.
  • To the lawyers who shouted, “You can’t touch us!” riot squad members attacked saying, “Oh, I can touch you, you’d be surprised.”
  • Clerks chatted to police and prosecutors saying, “Enormous riot squad; can’t you knock out these lawyers? Dear prosecutor please arrest these blusterers.” (Dialogues I have witnessed in person.)

I have never approved of the demonstrations held in the courthouse; but as a result of the things that happened there today, however, I have regrettably witnessed how far we are away from justice. I have witnessed that there are so many people, becoming the master while they were the servant, that those more royalist than the king have been promoted rapidly and how the lawyers, representing the holy defense have been belittled with phrases such as, “Smash those pests.”

I swear on everything I have that there are no exaggerations and that I haven’t writen anything I haven’t seen with my own eyes. Dear friends, never forget this; the fact that there are no pockets in our gowns means that we do public service and the fact that there are no buttons on our gowns means that we do independent work.

We have been sitting up all night in police stations and courthouses since the Gezi Park Protest started, in order to help people we may not see ever again, leaving our breadwinning problems aside. If you face a similar, illegal situation never forget we will be here until the end. Not behind you, right beside you. We are the assurance of “justice”. To beautiful sunny days…

B. S.
12 June 2013
Source: Social Media

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