MIT former employee Mesut Geçer said that he was abducted by his former colleagues and taken to Syria and tortured for 16 months. Can Dündar remarked on this incident saying, “Syria turned into Turkey’s Guantanamo.”
In the last four years in Turkey, people have been abducted by state officials and tortured in secret detention centers for months.
Some of the so-called “Black Transporter” victims described their experiences after their releases. However, the judicial system, which lost its independence, remains silent.
The abductees alleged that they were kept in a extra-judicial detention center called “Ranch” in Ankara for 6 to 9 months.
The last event is striking than any other. This time, the former MIT member Mesut Geçer told about his experiences after his abduction. He said that he knew the people who abducted him and the people who tortured him.
“I was detained for 16 months”
Mesut Geçer is accused of being affiliated with the Gülen Movement, just like any other abducted and tortured people. Erdogan’s regime starts blaming the Gülen Movement after the chief corruption operation in December 2013 that was targeting the government, and then Erdogan has declared the Movement as a terrorist organization.
Geçer was able to appear before the judge for the first time after his abduction. Speaking at the Ankara 34th High Criminal Court on December 3, 2019, the defendant Geçer summarized the “abduction case” in his statement as follows:
“On March 18, 2017, I felt like I was being followed when I was driving in the direction of Sincan Lale square (a district of Turkey’s capital Ankara). I knew the following vehicles and their drivers. They stopped the car like it was a routine police control. A gray Doblo (transporter style vehicle) with a plate number 58, came near to my vehicle. After getting into the Doblo, they put a sack on my head and we started the journey. I was put in a cell. The first interrogation started on Monday, March 20, 2017. They started by handcuffing me from behind and banging my head against the wall with the sack on my head. It then continued with beatings and other ill-treatment that I cannot describe. In the meantime, I knew the voices of most people speaking around me. I still have a chance to diagnose their voices. Then my health deteriorated. I started bleeding that Wednesday. When my health deteriorated, they transferred me to another place I knew at night time. On the night of June 20, 2018, to June 21, I was transported again with a vehicle. I didn’t know where I was going. Later I realized that this was Syria. I traveled with a sack on my head with my hands in plastic handcuffs. I had earbuds in my ears and eye patches in my eyes. People with guns came around me. Arabic speaking people with the Kalashnikov rifles in their hands. They held me until July 14, 2018.”
Months later he was brought back to Turkey
Mesut Geçer told about how he was brought back to Turkey with the sack on his head after being tortured in Syria:
“I was brought back to Turkey while I had a sack on my head, and I was taken to the Kumlu District Gendarme Headquarters. Later, I was handed over to the TEM (Anti-terror Police) Branch of Ankara Security Directorate. When you add this period (detention) for 17 months after being lost for 16 months, I have been away from my wife, children, and my social life for 33 months. Due to the conditions of ill-treatment and detention at that time, my left foot and knee were damaged and I still have difficulty using them. There is a problem with my intestinal system.”
Can Dündar: Syria turns into Turkey’s Guantanamo
Can Dündar shared the details of the news from his Twitter account and commented on the subject as: “Syria turned into Turkey’s Guantanamo.”
In Turkey, it has been proven that more than 30 people have been abducted with “Black Transporters” and tortured in the last three years. However, under the new regulations, MIT head and President Erdoğan must give permission to prosecute members of MIT. The courts even refrain from demanding this permission.