A Successful Soldier's Life Story

First of all, I would like to extend my greetings and respect.
The main reason for writing these lines is to explain the reasons for my arrival in the Netherlands, taking many material and spiritual risks, and to shed light on my experiences of injustice. By sharing examples from my life story, I hope to help people understand the realities. I can confidently say that I am ready to prove all the points I mention here with documents.

After graduating from high school, I began my career as a soldier in 1987 following a difficult exam, physical fitness test, and interview, along with the equally challenging education and training that followed. During the 31 years I actively served:

• I performed my duties with the joy given by the unwavering love for my country from the first year to the last.
• I willingly and eagerly moved my home to nine different provinces of our beloved country.
• During the February 28 period, I was investigated due to my wife's headscarf.
• I lost count of the number of awards I received, which totaled over 110, something not everyone experiences.
• I will not recount the hardships and difficulties my wife and children endured during this period, as none of them could surpass the love for my country. I was deeply passionate and highly successful in my profession, receiving more than 110 awards throughout my career.
• I will not recount the hardships and difficulties my wife and children endured during this period, as none of them could surpass the love for my country.

Now, I will briefly tell you about the events that turned my life upside down and led me here:

I was detained because a colleague, who had previously worked in the same province with me and was under investigation for activities he participated in while working in another province, named me under the provisions of effective remorse. The indictment stated that as a result of the investigation into me: there was no ByLock, no subscription to any magazine or newspaper, no membership in any foundation or association, no education in any of their schools, no stay in their dormitories, no account in Bank Asya, and no work in any workplace associated with the group (these are considered sufficient evidence for being a terrorist organization). Despite this, the prosecutor considered the testimony against me as sufficient evidence and decided that I should be tried as a terrorist. We were released by the judge who stated, "The allegations against the suspects are based solely on a witness statement, and these claims are prior to December 17/25, adopted by our state, hence they should be tried without detention." Meanwhile, I was first suspended and then dismissed by decree law.

My trial process began. During this period, a police report stated that there was no payphone or sequential calls, only eleven unanswered calls over approximately one minute from a booth to the phone used by my wife, though it was registered to me. In our defense, we explained that the calls were made by our daughter from a booth in front of her study center. Additionally, a statement from a repentant colleague from 1994 was added to my file. When I objected during the hearing, the judge ordered the statement to be retaken, and the same person then stated that he did not know anything about me. On the day of the final verdict, I confidently went to court with my wife to receive an acquittal. However, the court unexpectedly ruled that there was sufficient evidence that I had been a member of the organization since 1994 and sentenced me to 6 years, 10 months, and 15 days in prison. At that moment, I was in great shock and realized there was nothing more to be said.

There is no need to elaborate on the hardships my family and I have endured since the day of the detention. To cover up their own crimes, they created such a persistent and planned perception that even our relatives turned their backs on us, fearing they might also be targeted. We became individuals everyone feared and shunned, like the plague, deemed deserving of eating tree roots. This is the situation I faced at the end of my 31-year career, as described above. Unfortunately, there are tens of thousands like me.

As I explained above, as someone who dedicated 31 years to the homeland from his youth and did not commit any crime, I preferred to leave behind all my burdens, weights, chains, and the stain on my forehead, in short, everything I had related to Turkey, in the waters of the Meric River (river Maritsa) and came here rather than live as a traitor or terrorist in the same country.