Hayati Uysal, a 29-year-old Turkish man who was imprisoned for alleged links to the Gülen movement, has shared his harrowing account of torture in detention that ultimately left him blind.
Speaking to the Stockholm Center for Freedom, Uysal said during the month that he was held in detention, he endured severe beating, threats to his life and psychological abuse. Each day, he was taken to a small and dingy basement cell by two plainclothes policemen for interrogation. The dark cell had a small window, a wardrobe, a desk with a chair and no cameras. Uysal described his time in detention as hell.
The ordeals started in September 2016, shortly after an abortive putsch on July 15, 2016. The government had declared a state of emergency (OHAL) on July 20 and had been rounding up people they believed had links to the movement.
The Gülen movement is accused by the Turkish government and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of masterminding the failed coup and is labeled a “terrorist organization,” although the movement denies involvement in the coup attempt or any terrorist activity.
The movement proclaims itself as a proponent of the ideals of human rights, equal opportunity, democracy, non-violence and the emphatic acceptance of religious and cultural diversity.
Erdoğan has been targeting followers of the movement since the corruption investigations of December 17-25, 2013, which implicated then-prime minister Erdoğan, his family members and his inner circle.
Dismissing the investigations as a Gülenist coup and conspiracy against his government, Erdoğan designated the movement as a terrorist organization and began to target its members. He locked up thousands, including many prosecutors, judges and police officers involved in the investigations.
Erdoğan intensified the crackdown on the movement following the coup attempt that he accused Fethullah Gülen, the spiritual leader of the movement, of masterminding. According to a statement from the Turkish justice minister, a total of 705,172 people have been investigated on terrorism-related charges due to alleged links to the Gülen movement since the failed coup. As of July 2024,there were 13,251 people in prison who were in pretrial detention or convicted of terrorism in Gülen-linked trials.
The gendarmerie came looking for Uysal at his family’s home in Bursa. He was only 19 years old at the time and still a student at Zonguldak University, some 350 kilometers away. However, Uysal was in Bursa at the time, and he was detained the same day.
“I was taken to a detention center, but all the while I was assuming that I would just be interrogated and then set free,” he said. “But that was far from what happened. I was in detention for a week with no contact with a lawyer, my family or anybody from the outside world.”
When Uysal asked the officers about his interrogation, he was informed that an investigation into him had been initiated in Zonguldak. He was told he would be transferred to a detention center there for questioning.
Five days later, late on a Friday evening, the young man was put in the back of a patrol car in a something resembling a cage. He traveled in a crouched-position for more than four hours to Zonguldak. “When we arrived I could no longer feel my limbs because I was so numb from not being able to move.”
Uysal said he could immediately sense the tension the moment he walked in the detention center. “It was not like Bursa. Nobody was talking. The detainees were slouched in their cells. In Bursa the mood had been lighter, people were talking. Even the officers were relatively polite.”
The next day two civilians escorted Uysal to a basement cell, where he was interrogated without a lawyer. “The so-called interrogation was just them asking me whether I knew certain people linked to the movement. When I said I didn’t know them, they started beating me. They would hold back my arms and punch both sides of my head. They did other things, too, that I don’t want to really talk about or remember,” he said. “The beating lasted for hours, and afterwards they took me back to my cell. I now knew why the other detainees were so silent.”
In addition to the physical abuse, detainees were also subjected to psychological abuse. For example, they were not allowed to use the toilet and the officers shouted insults in the dark.
The following day Uysal was taken back to the dingy cell for interrogation. This time the abuse intensified. At one point the officers locked him inside the wardrobe because he would not give up names.
“They were not only asking me for names, but they wanted me to make false claims. For example, I saw person “X” taking part in activities linked to the movement. When I refused to make these claims, they punched and kicked me on the ground.”
These interrogations went on for nearly a month. But by that time Uysal said he had lost all perception of time as they had no way of knowing the time of day or the date. “I can now tell you it was nearly a month because after I left detention I reconstructed the timeline.”
Over time Uysal gradually became numb to the beatings. While he could still feel the physical pain, his mental state was deeply disturbed. He no longer felt hunger or thirst and couldn’t even recall whether the food they were given was sufficient or not.
After a month in detention, Uysal appeared in court. “It was a total sham. The prosecutor wasn’t even there. I was immediately arrested and sent to a prison in Zonguldak. The funny thing is, I was relieved by the decision. Relieved that at least I would no longer have to endure those terrible interrogations. At least in prison, I would be left alone.”
Uysal was accused of links to the movement, with an anonymous witness statement used as evidence against him. His case file was classified, and to this day Uysal says he did not the exact accusations or how many years of prison he was facing.
“I had a lawyer, but he had been appointed by the bar. He wasn’t really interested in my case. He even told me to keep silent about the torture. He made sure details of the torture were not included in the official interrogation reports. I wasn’t taken to see a doctor, and the abusive police were so skilled at their job that they made sure there were no physical marks of the beatings.”
Uysal was incarcerated for six months in a prison ward he describes as uninhabitable. The five-person cell was occupied by 21 men who had to choose between sharing beds or sleeping on the floor.
Uysal was eventually released pending trial, but the gendarmerie still visited his family home, creating a sense of unease and intimidation. Finding a job was difficult as the social climate was also very tense, and nobody wanted to hire someone who was accused of links to the movement.
Two years after his release, Uysal decided to leave Turkey in search of a safer life elsewhere. By then, he had noticed his eyesight deteriorating. After a challenging journey to Greece, during which he had to walk for hours through marshland, Uysal eventually found a doctor who inquired whether he had suffered any head trauma.
“It didn’t occur to me then so I said no, but after I left the doctor’s office I remembered all the punching and kicking I sustained to my head while I was detained,” he said.
Uysal eventually made his way to Finland, but by that time his eyesight was so bad he couldn’t see anything more than 10 centimeters away. The Finnish doctors diagnosed him with keratoconus, a primarily genetic and progressive eye disorder that is triggered by head injury.
By that time Uysal had completely lost vision in his left eye, while his right eyesight was improved with a special lens. He was put on a transplant list, and he underwent a transplant operation. “I am now on very heavy medication to prevent organ rejection. But at least I can see again,” he said.
Uysal currently lives in Finland. Ultimately, he was unable to complete his university education due to his incarceration and subsequent health problems. Nine months after he left Turkey, the gendarmerie came to detain him and raided his family home.
These days, Uysal is a human rights advocate, taking part in demonstrations and giving public speeches on his experiences as a victim of torture.
His story resembles that of so many others in Turkey who have fled to escape persecution. Torture and ill-treatment of prisoners have been longstanding concerns for domestic and international human rights organizations. After the failed coup, the Turkish government intensified the crackdown on perceived political opponents, which led to a new surge in reports of torture in law enforcement custody.
Human rights groups have accused Turkish authorities of using torture as a tool to extract confessions or as a means of intimidation. Reports of mistreatment include beatings, sexual abuse and prolonged solitary confinement.
Turkey’s legal framework regarding torture and ill-treatment has also been the subject of significant criticism for its deficiencies. While the Turkish Constitution addresses torture, other offenses are inadequately covered. Concerns were raised about the absence of explicit prohibitions against confessions obtained under torture within the Turkish Penal Code.
Turkey’s government has consistently denied sanctioning torture, asserting that it operates under strict anti-torture laws. However, critics argue that the enforcement of these laws is inadequate and that impunity for security forces remains a significant problem. International bodies, including the European Court of Human Rights, have frequently urged Turkey to improve conditions in detention centers and ensure accountability for human rights violations.