Can Atalay, a former member of the Turkish Parliament imprisoned at Istanbul’s Silivri Prison, spoke to Medyascope regarding recent political developments in Turkey since the March 19th arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu.

Atalay’s case plunged Turkey’s judiciary into a constitutional crisis in late 2023 after the Constitutional Court ordered his release on the grounds of his May 2023 election victory. A competing ruling from the Turkish Court of Cassation ordered that Atalay be stripped of his parliamentary status, which was carried out in early 2024.

Prior to his election victory as a representative for Turkey’s Hatay province from the Turkish Workers Party (TİP), Atalay had been imprisoned since 2022 due to his involvement in 2013’s Gezi Park Protests.

It’s been said that prisoners should sleep, read, and eat.

I’m following that advice.

But I ate a bit too much of the bad, fatty food; I’m trying to cut back :)

Thankfully, there’s a constant stream of visitors during the day. Naturally, I keep a busy schedule of reading books and newspapers, keeping up with daily developments, taking notes on important topics, receiving letters and replies… The “garden” walk, an essential part of prison life, and occasional exercise…

Improving the food, inventing supplementary food…

As you can see, we work a busy schedule within four walls, as if “the unemployed have plenty to do.”

You can essentially see other prisoners in the lawyers’ meeting area and speak loudly for a very short time.

If we encounter them on the way to the mentioned location, a few words of greeting are exchanged. That’s all. But in those brief moments of encounter, you appreciate the immense value of a greeting, a wave, and a smile.

It’s what the government does to maintain its power. Just as war is the continuation of politics with weapons, arrests and detentions have also become a continuation/extension of politics. They have now become a useful political tool.

That’s how the broader society sees it. The government is aware of this perception. But it doesn’t care. It’s focused on results. Its priority is to exhaust, wear down, and subjugate the public opposition with this method. Public consent isn’t really on its radar at the moment.

However, fortunately, there’s a “but”: things aren’t progressing as planned. The public opposition is resisting and doesn’t seem willing to yield.

The question states that the judiciary is “under the government’s........

© Medyascope