I was a diplomat...

I will try to explain the process leading up to my asylum in the Netherlands, why I am here, along with the causes and consequences.

I was born in Afyonkarahisar in 1985. I lived in my hometown until I started my university education. In 2005, I successfully passed the university entrance exams and was awarded a scholarship to study International Relations (in English) at Bilkent University. Studying at this prestigious university in Turkey is every student's dream. I have always been proud of having attended such a university. I graduated from Bilkent University in 2010 with high honors. After graduation, I completed my thesis-based master's degree in Middle Eastern and African Studies at Gazi University. I wrote a thesis at the Gazi University Academy of Social Sciences on the "Democratization Movements in the Contemporary Middle East and North Africa: The Cases of Egypt and Libya," related to the "Arab Spring," which was shaking the Middle East at the time.

When choosing my field of study before starting university, I wanted to choose my profession after graduation as well. Therefore, I always dreamed of a career related to international relations. Consequently, I aspired to enter the diplomatic profession, a career that every young person would carry with pride. After two years of hard work and intense preparation for the exams, I earned the right to become a career officer, also known as a diplomat, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2011. After a successful two-year tenure in the Deputy Directorate Generals for West Africa and Multilateral Economic Relations at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Ankara, I received my first overseas assignment to Ghana. I started my position as Third Secretary at the Turkish Embassy in Accra in 2013 and continued this role for two years. In 2015, I was appointed to the Turkish Embassy in Latvia. I served as Deputy Consul at the Embassy in Riga until July 15, 2016.

The date of July 15, 2016, was a turning point for both my personal and professional life, as it was for many others in Turkey. As a result of the political coup, which was falsely claimed by the Erdoğan regime to be a military coup against it but was in no way related to a coup, more than 150,000 people were dismissed from public service overnight. I was one of those who fell victim to this purge. First, I was informed that I was reassigned from my overseas position to the central organization. Subsequently, I was placed on unpaid leave.

On September 1, 2016, with Decree-Law No. 672, which marked the largest purge of public employees, I was dismissed from my job. I had to support my family, but since my name and personal information were recorded in the SGK (Social Security Institution) as “dismissed from public service,” finding a job was impossible. My ex-wife, who was a primary school teacher, managed to find a job at a private school in Ankara. I tried to contribute to the family budget by giving private English lessons to a friend’s child.

On the morning of December 20, 2016, the police came to our house and detained me. The reason for my arrest was absurd and fabricated: membership in a so-called armed terrorist organization attempting to overthrow the state and the constitutional order. It was unimaginable to accuse someone like me, who had never held a weapon in his life, had no criminal record, and had been deemed suitable for public service by intelligence reports before becoming a diplomat, of such a charge. The politically motivated courts sentenced me to 8 years based on baseless accusations. From 2016 to 2022, I was imprisoned in Konya, Yalvaç, and Afyonkarahisar prisons.

My career and freedom, which I had worked hard to achieve for years, were forcibly taken away from me through a fabricated coup scenario. The same state I had proudly and honorably represented abroad labeled me as an "armed terrorist" a few years later. They inflicted the trauma of the "terrorist" label on my family, relatives, and close friends. My ex-wife struggled to hold on to life with our then 3-year-old child, enduring psychological trauma and pain. While bearing the difficulty of being the wife of someone labeled as a "terrorist organization member," she also struggled to provide for the household amid financial hardships. Although benefiting from supervised release is a legal right, the prison administration tried to unlawfully deny me this right. However, after my appeals, the high criminal court accepted my application, and I regained my freedom after six years.

But my ex-wife, who had been emotionally and financially drained and had been alone for so long, informed me that she could no longer continue our family life. We divorced amicably in the first court session, and I lost my family as well. The post-prison period marked the beginning of a painful chapter for me. I tried working a few uninsured jobs. The severe depression from my difficult prison experience, my immediate post-release divorce, financial worries, the risk of being arrested again in an unlawful country, and social pressure pushed me into a hopeless dilemma. I sought psychological treatment several times.

In Turkey, where injustice pervades nearly every area, freedom is absent, and political and social pressure is felt in every aspect of life, every moment of living had become painful for me. I had reached a crossroads: either stay in Turkey, living a vegetative life doing nothing, or choose the difficult path of seeking asylum in a country where I could live freely. I chose the latter, and today I am in the Netherlands.