Carleton University doctoral student Cihan Erdal said he is “bitterly happy” following his conditional release from prison in Ankara, Turkey, where he had been held for 262 days.
Erdal traveled to Turkey with his spouse, Omer Ongun, to visit family and stayed behind after Ongun returned to Ottawa to conduct fieldwork for his research. It was during this period, on Sept. 25, 2020, when Erdal was arrested in Istanbul.
At the time, Turkish authorities accused Erdal of inciting terror and violence in relation to the 2014 protests in Turkey. Two social media posts were cited as evidence. Erdal was a student member of the People’s Democratic Party (HDP) of Turkey at the time.
Erdal said he has to report to local police twice a week and is not allowed to leave Turkey. He described the conditions of his release as an “open-air prison experience.”
According to Paul Champ, Erdal’s lawyer, a final decision from the judge will be expected in a sentencing hearing this September. If Erdal is found guilty, he could face five to 10 years of imprisonment.
“I’m conditionally released. It means the struggle continues,” Erdal said. “This is why I describe my feelings, my current feelings as ‘I’m bitterly happy.’”
Cihan Erdal TAHLİYE Edildi!
Cihan Erdal is FREE! pic.twitter.com/1mk6oQBsWn— freeCihanErdal (@freecihanerdal) June 15, 2021
On June 15, the same day he was conditionally released, Erdal defended himself in court.
“I was a bit nervous because of the atmosphere, but I succeeded in keeping calm and staying, you know, positive, optimistic,” Erdal said.
The court still has to hear evidence against the other 80 people charged during the 2014 protests before a decision will be made on Erdal, Champ said.
“As I understand it, the judge will not make a decision on anyone until he treats the evidence in all the cases,” Champ said.
Champ said he is optimistic that Erdal will be acquitted.
“Cihan hasn’t even been involved in politics in Turkey for a number of years. And I think all of that is very clear in the evidence. So, I think that he’s quite clear to be acquitted,” Champ added.
Ongun recalled the moment he received the news of Erdal’s release from his lawyers.
“I wanted to see him so bad. I was, like, walking up and down in the hall in the apartment,” Ongun said. “The moment that I spoke with him was really worth it all the way.”
Erdal said he spent 25 days in solitary confinement at the beginning of his imprisonment and had no access to the outside world, including the other detainees. He said he was allowed one hour per day in a small courtyard where he couldn’t see or talk to anyone.
“It was so terrible that I refused to leave my cell during that so-called break,” Erdal said.
After a month, Erdal said he and other detainees were transferred to a high-security F-type prison in Ankara. F-type prisons place prisoners in cells rather than larger dormitories. Since F-type prisons were introduced in Turkey two decades ago, organizations have raised concerns about the potential for prisoner mistreatment, including Amnesty International and the Human Rights Watch.
“[The F-type prison] almost felt like a military, or a very strict, boarding school,” Erdal said. “You are constantly reminded that you are alone, you are small and you need to be fixed, you need to be corrected.”
He added that the experience was similar to solitary confinement except he shared a cell with an activist friend detained at the same time as him.
While Erdal was awaiting trial, Ongun organized campaigns and petitions to bring awareness to the case.
“We also started getting a lot of letters,” Ongun said. “I just started feeling a lot stronger. And with that strength and the solidarity that we receive, we just knew that he was going to be released.”
Erdal said the global support uplifted his spirit.
“This is why I feel much stronger than when I was arrested,” he said.
Erdal and Ongun wrote letters to each other every Sunday night, their only way to stay connected.
“One of the hardest things for me in prison was that I couldn’t see and hear Omer for months,” Erdal said.
Erdal said he could only speak with immediate family members, not including his spouse Ongun because same-sex marriage is not legal in Turkey.
“I couldn’t speak with him at all, so the letters were very important for us,” said Ongun.
While he was incarcerated, Erdal was able to receive his books and school materials. While behind bars, he wrote a research article on young activists’ experiences in Turkey who advocated for migrant rights during the 2010s.
His former PhD supervisor in Turkey, Derya Firat, connected him with research participants and conducted the interviews while his friends transcribed them. The article is set to be published beginning next year as a chapter in a book on young people, political democracy and community building.
Erdal said he will continue his doctoral research from Turkey until he can return to Ottawa.
His current PhD supervisor Jacqueline Kennelly, who is a professor in the Carleton department of sociology and anthropology, said she encouraged him to conduct his interviews remotely through Zoom and telephone interviews.
Although he moved away from active politics to focus on academia, Erdal described himself as an activist academic who continues to promote democracy and peace through his studies.
“The activism doesn’t really stop right when we go into academia. I feel like it takes a different form or shape,” Ongun said. “In Cihan’s story, [the activism] has always been there. It just [took] a different path.”
A previous version of this article misspelled Jacqueline Kennelly’s name. The article was corrected on July 19. The Charlatan regrets the error.
Feature image from Screengrab.
