Having experienced the inhumane treatment with her two months baby under the detainment, Doctor Rana decided to flee the country to abroad, in order to do so, she had to hide her baby in suitcase.
BOLD – Rana, a medical doctor and a mother, was detained during the crackdown that ensued after the July 2016 coup bid. She told about the horrible moments she had to undergo to the rights group Advocates of Silenced Turkey (AST).
The young doctor had to put her baby in a suitcase and set out on a difficult journey to escape persecution. She and her family’s ordeal after the putsch are narrated in a book titled “The Baby in the Suitcase” published by the AST.
During the post-coup purge, the genocidal acts committed by the Erdogan regime forced the victims to flee Turkey. Emergency decrees issued by Erdogan enforced such draconian measures people who are accused of being Gulenists couldn’t even work legally and therefore had been sentenced to civil death.
Their passports confiscated by authorities, the victims of the crackdown weren’t able to use legal ways to flee the country. Many of them drowned crossing the Evros river, which forms the border between Turkey and the European Union.
Dr. Rana is one of those victims who had nothing but two options; face the persecution or live in exile. She decided to flee the country after facing the inhumane treatment in her detention. While crossing the border, she had to hide her baby in a suitcase.
Rana and her husband were on vacation on the day of the coup bid. After the bid was quashed, Erdogan administration began purging people who had alleged ties to the Gulen movement, whom he accuses of orchestrating the coup. Rana’s husband lost his job during this purge. In the following days, police detained her and forced her to become an informant.
“Because I had not breastfed my baby for a long time, it gave me excruciating pain and I had to express my breast milk into the sink of the custody room. I cried saying ‘at least give me a napkin’ but nobody came to help,” said Rana while explaining the ordeal.
Being released after a lengthy detainment, Rana decided to leave the country. She and her husband went through many hardships. Smugglers asked her to put her baby into a suitcase. “Neither I nor my husband wanted to put our two months old baby son into the suitcase,” told Rana and carried on with saying, “I couldn’t stand it, I couldn’t even bear the sight.”
Their dreams stripped away, two young doctors stepped into freedom in such condition.
Staying in Georgia for a short period, the couple traveled to the US and from there they went to Canada. Following long stays in refugee settlements, they are trying to build a new life there.
“We experienced merciless treatment from the Anatolian people that we once saw as divinely wise and benevolent,” said Rana and went on with expressing her wishes, “ I hope and pray that we are destined to have a good life here.”
The PDF format of the “The Baby in the Suitcase” book is available on the Advocates of Silenced Turkey website.