Against oppression, hope stands tall like a mountain

İsmail Arı

Journalist Furkan Karabay was arrested on his birthday 15 May. On the 114th day of his detention an indictment was prepared against him on charges of “insulting the President” and “targeting people who served in counter-terrorism” citing statements on a YouTube channel and social media posts, and a prison sentence of 6 to 15 years was sought.

The indictment lists AKP President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor Akın Gürlek, Deputy Chief Public Prosecutor Can Tuncay, Public Prosecutor Ahmet Şahin and Judge Hatice Kozan as ‘victims’.

Answering BirGün’s questions from Silivri Prison, journalist Karabay said, “As oppression grows, hope stands like a mountain against it.” About his indictment he said, “My first hearing will fall in the seventh month of my detention. If they want, they can bring me out in the 70th month, I will continue to shout the truths and the oppressions that happened in their faces. If I wrote an indictment against myself, I would have written a better one. They themselves do not believe the indictments they prepare.”

WHY WAS HE PLACED IN A CELL?

You have been in prison for about 150 days. You have continued to write and produce in prison. You took human stories from your ward with you, but we learned that you were placed in a single cell some time ago. How did they decide this? Did you request it?

When I was transferred to Silivri No. 5 Prison from Metris Prison the prison administration could not find a suitable ward for me because I am a journalist and because I was detained under the article “targeting people who served in counter-terrorism”. From the start I should have been transferred to No. 5 because of my profession and the ‘offence’ article. The prison administration was also surprised. They could not put me in a political PKK ward because according to the indictment I was shown as targeting not a specific terrorist organisation but any organisation. They asked, “What shall we do with you?”

They asked why I came here now when I had previously been detained twice under the same article and sent to No. 9. We laughed and I said, “They sent us, we came.” No. 5 is a prison where theft and fraud convicts predominate. Each prison has a predominant offence group, because offences must be separated. We had petitioned for a transfer to No. 9 in my first days of detention. But the transfer happened in my fifth month of detention. In the judicial prison I was political, now in the political prison I remain judicial.

HOPE AGAINST OPPRESSION

Many things have happened in the country since you entered prison. How does the country look from prison?

I try to follow the agenda in prison as much as I can. I take notes, I try to make news. Of course, the country can look much darker between four walls. The day by day growing autocracy and oppression has become much more striking. But at the same time, you see voices rising, fists raised in the air, people standing shoulder to shoulder more tightly against all this evil, and the struggle increasing. As oppression grows, hope stands like a mountain against it.

THEIR AIM IS TO TEACH A LESSON

Your first hearing will be in the seventh month of your detention on 2 December. Do they want to hold you in prison for months to teach you a lesson? Why do they want to silence you?

Yes, my first hearing will fall in the seventh month of my detention. If they want, they can bring me out in the 70th month, I will continue to shout the truths and the oppressions that happened in their faces. Their attempt to teach a lesson is for that reason. This government does not want the voices of those who stand on the side of justice, merit, rights, law, the oppressed and human rights to be heard regardless of name. They do not look at profession; journalist, politician, lawyer, academic, student, soldier, retiree, they look like a gang asking, “Are you with me or not?” That is their only concern. For that reason, they try to teach lessons, but the greatest lesson will be given to them by our organised people. Knowing that they cannot stop it, they try to gain time by increasing oppression.

WALLS CANNOT STAND AGAINST FLOWING WATER

The government continues to build a wall of fear in the country. İmamoğlu, you, Fatih Altaylı, Ayşe Barım and even recently a former AKP MP... Where do you think this will end?

There is a great collapse waiting for them at the end of this. They know this themselves. We need not describe the fate of tyrants in history here... They are aware that the more oppression grows the faster the end comes, and their reckless attacks are for that reason. They can detain as many people as they want, torture them, kill them, but neither walls nor mountains can stand against flowing water. They are condemned to be crushed under those walls.

I WOULD HAVE WRITTEN A BETTER ONE

As a journalist who follows the judiciary closely how did you feel and what did you think when you read your own indictment?

The indictment was as I expected. Some prosecutor copied and pasted a detention referral. If I wrote an indictment against myself, I would have written a better one. They themselves do not believe the indictments they prepare. After all they have graduated from law faculty. They know there is no crime here. Yet knowing that they continue to keep people in prison. By writing these indictments they are committing a crime. Unfortunately, they do this deliberately.

WE MUST GROW HOPE

A large part of society and especially young people are largely hopeless because of what happened in the last year. Do you have a message for young people and society?

It is natural that people are unhappy and hopeless in an environment where they have no future, where their labour is not rewarded, where there is no right to live or legal security. But we know that hope exists every time we breathe. Honest politicians, lawyers, activists, educators and journalists have a big role in this environment. Our duty is to grow the hope that exists at every moment, to bring hope together with struggle and present it to our people.

There are those who say, “Will I save the country?” or “Will you save it?” Yes, we must say ‘I will save it, you will save it’. You can save the country with a word you say, a finger you raise, a word you teach, a client you defend, an action you take. You can change one person with one action. Who knows maybe that person will change the country. As long as we exist and act there is nothing we cannot change and save.

Note: This article is translated from the original article titled Zulmün karşısında dağ gibi umut var, published in BirGün newspaper on October 15, 2025.