Am I more dangerous than Zehra Kınık?
Zehra Kınık, who caused the death of one person and the injury of three others, has not spent a single day in prison. I have been in prison for days simply for doing my job as a journalist. The Ankara judiciary, meanwhile, has entered a new era.
I have been a correspondent for the BirGün newspaper, which I used to distribute on the streets and in neighbourhoods when I was a student, for around seven years. In Tokat, where I had gone for a holiday visit, I was detained on fabricated grounds and imprisoned in Sincan Prison, where I held a copy of BirGün in my hands and read it for the first time.
As newspaper subscriptions are processed at the start of each month, I submitted a written request stating that I wished to subscribe to three newspapers. On 1 April, the 10th day of my detention, I got up early and began waiting at the cell block door. My day began at 07.00, but the newspapers didn’t arrive until around 11.00.
When I finally got my hands on the newspaper I’d been waiting for with childlike excitement, I dragged a chair out into the courtyard of the cell block where the sun was shining. I also got myself a strong cup of tea and began reading the newspapers at length. Here, people read the newspapers for hours on end, scrutinising every detail, simply to pass the time, or rather, to kill time. They even devote a significant amount of time to the sections of the newspapers covering television channels.
It turns out that in prison, people make do with all sorts of things out of necessity. Some turn a small yoghurt pot into a cup for drinking tea, others make a shower head from a plastic bottle...
When I was thrown into prison, the whole cell watched the news reports about my prolonged arrest and the protests organised in response. It’s actually quite interesting to watch your own arrest on the news.
Here, everyone asks me, ‘What are you doing here?’ I’ve heard this question countless times since I arrived. Honestly, what am I doing here! Perhaps the real answer to this question is ‘the last news reports I produced.’
Perhaps someone got so angry that they had me arrested on a public holiday...
The Ankara judiciary has, relatively speaking, adhered more closely to the rule of law than the Istanbul judiciary. The most significant example of this was the events of 19 March. I recall that whilst hundreds were arrested in Istanbul, the number of arrest warrants issued in Ankara did not even reach the fingers of one hand. However, it appears that with the change of Justice Minister and the influence of various actors, the Ankara judiciary will adopt a ‘tougher’ stance from now on.
In summary, I believe a new era has begun in Ankara in terms of the judiciary. I suspect the doors to this new era were opened by my own arrest.
The arrest of politicians and journalists, coupled with allegations of corruption within the judiciary, has brought public trust in the judiciary to its lowest point in Turkish history. According to studies, approximately 70–80% of the country does not trust the judiciary or the justice system; no one believes the rhetoric of an “independent and impartial judiciary”.
Why has Fatma Zehra Kınık, the daughter of the former president of the Turkish Red Crescent, Kerem Kınık, not spent a single day in prison despite causing the death of a young man and the injury of three others in a traffic accident? Well, am I more guilty than Fatma Zehra Kınık? Am I more dangerous than her? Is practising journalism in this country a greater crime than causing the death of a person and the injury of three others?
The country is on the brink of an abyss. AKP, MHP, the judiciary and the bureaucracy... Together, they are dragging our country towards disaster.
Note: This article is translated from the original article titled Ben Zehra Kınık’tan daha mı tehlikeliyim?, published in BirGün newspaper on April 5, 2026.
