Arşiv

📂 1999

1999 — Second Detention in Köpenick: Severe Untreated Illness, Violence, Punishment Cells and a Mass Protest Supported by Approximately 480 Signatures Main court cases: Amtsgericht Schöneberg — 70 XIV 3148/98 B for 1998; 70 XIV 3782/99 B for 1999. Landgericht Berlin case concerning the appeal against the second detention: 88 T XIV 298/99 B. This folder contains documents concerning events that profoundly affected the subsequent course of my life and health. These are not merely individual police forms and court decisions. They show the sequence of events that began in 1998, continued with my being left on the streets while seriously ill, and culminated in a second detention, violence and a mass protest in 1999. This connection must be considered when reading the documents, which are written in German and sometimes contain handwritten notes. In 1998, after approximately three and a half months in detention pending deportation in Köpenick, I was released because my health had deteriorated. The police medical service document explicitly states that I was no longer medically fit to remain in detention. An official letter dated 23 November 1998 states that the application for detention had been withdrawn and that I was released for precisely this reason. However, my release from detention because of serious illness was not followed by the provision of continuing treatment, accommodation or the necessary documents. I repeatedly approached the Ausländerbehörde, but was sent back onto the streets without assistance. In the winter cold, I remained seriously ill, homeless and without continuing medical care. A person considered medically unfit for detention was forced to live on the streets. There is a written record of this situation from that period. The court records from 1999 contain my explanation that I had received neither accommodation nor documents following my previous release. A letter dated 27 December 1999 states that I had approached the immigration authorities four times for accommodation and financial assistance but had received no help. The public authorities had already been informed of my lack of documents, homelessness and absence of treatment before the second detention. On 12 October 1999, I was detained again. The absence of documents and a residence permit was again central to this second detention. Thus, the lack of documents and homelessness left unresolved after the first detention were once more used against me. I was deprived of my liberty a second time because of a situation I had repeatedly sought to have resolved. I object to this as a serious violation of my rights. My lawyer’s appeal also requested that the period of the first detention be taken into account, challenged the continued second detention as disproportionate and demanded my immediate release. During the second detention, my health was in a worse condition than in the previous year. Against the background of prolonged lack of treatment, living on the streets during winter and the violence I had suffered, I experienced bleeding, coughing up blood and severe convulsive seizures. My hands and feet curled, my limbs and fingernails turned blue, my mouth twisted, my body became rigid like wood, and I lost consciousness. My written complaint also records convulsions, the immobilisation of my entire body and the bluish discolouration of my fingernails. These were serious health episodes that I experienced in detention and complained about at the time. The staff personally witnessed this condition. During the most severe seizures, instead of taking me to hospital, they dragged me away, beat me, tore my clothes, stripped and humiliated me, and placed me in special punishment cells on the lower floor. My complaint also describes a humiliating gesture demanding that I lick my own vomit, my fear of being held alone and my appeals for help. My objection concerns more than the failure to provide treatment: it concerns the violence inflicted on me while I was seriously ill, the violation of my honour and dignity, and my being taken to a punishment cell instead of receiving medical assistance. The chaplain, Mr Biedermann, knew me from the previous year and knew that I was ill. He asked why I was in detention for a second time. I explained that I had been detained again because I lacked documents and that my approaches to the immigration authorities after my previous release had produced no result. He helped me understand the grounds for the second detention, challenge them and prepare a written complaint. His assistance is explicitly recorded in the complaint itself. I remember this support with gratitude. His subsequent removal from his position is also one of the important issues I have raised concerning these events. These events led to a mass protest at the detention facility. Approximately 480 detainees signed the protest letter I had written by hand and declared their intention to begin a hunger strike. The protest was directed against violence, humiliation, the absence of treatment and inhumane treatment. The lawyer’s correspondence records the collection of signatures in solidarity. Another letter states that the entire second floor was already on hunger strike and that other floors would also join. This was a collective protest involving hundreds of people. Presenting it merely as one person’s dissatisfaction diminishes the scale and causes of the events. Following the mass protest, a large delegation including parliamentary representatives and other senior government and public representatives visited the detention facility. Six detainees were expected to participate in the discussions. An official personally promised to investigate the situation and asked me for time. I replied that forty days had already passed and that no one had approached me concerning the substance of my complaint. I was again released after approximately three and a half months. These events did not end as a dispute confined within the detention facility. They continued through subsequent court proceedings and my submissions to public authorities and international organisations, and were brought to public attention through television. This folder shows one of the important early stages of my twenty-eight-year struggle for legal protection and medical care. In the Turkish-language programmes broadcast over two days on the TD1 television channel in 2006, I gave a detailed account of my detention in 1999, the violence I suffered, my placement in a punishment cell and the collective protest supported by approximately 480 signatures. These broadcasts are available on YouTube and on my channel. The written documents in this folder must therefore be considered alongside the television material. The fact that every event is not repeated in every document does not diminish the significance of my account of that event, the signatures or the other materials. Through my appearances on TD1, I brought the serious violations of my rights that I experienced in Germany to public attention. My words were also broadcast in the channel’s promotional segments for a year. Approximately one year after those broadcasts, this Turkish television channel, which had operated in Germany for approximately twenty years, closed completely. I record this chronology as archival information; the reason for the channel’s closure is a separate matter to be established through documents. The central content of this folder is clear: my being left on the streets without treatment after release from detention because of serious illness in 1998; my unsuccessful requests for documents and accommodation; my renewed detention in 1999; the further deterioration of my health; the violence I suffered in detention; and the protest against these events supported by hundreds of people. These are inseparable parts of my life, my health and my subsequent fate. Materials concerning the subsequent events of 2000 are presented in a separate folder.