Brazilian Trans Inmate in Turkey: “I live like a dog”

Brazilian trans inmate’s cell protest in Maltepe prison: “I am victimized here and isolated.” 

Source: Damla Yur, “Köpek gibi yaşıyorum,” (“I live like a dog”), Cumhuriyet, 2 September 2015, http://www.cumhuriyet.com.tr/haber/turkiye/358213/_Kopek_gibi_yasiyorum_.html

There are 79 LGBTI individuals in prison according to the data collected by the Ministry of Justice. 71 of these individuals have been convicted of crimes and 8 are detainees. While LGBT individuals are held, respectively, in groups 9 or 3 in maximum and minimum penal institutions, in five prisons they are being held in single cells.  As subjects of isolated detainment, they are particularly vulnerable to mistreatment and abuse.  

LGBTI individuals who are foreign nationals struggle with similar problems in Turkish prisons. The victimization experienced in Maltepe Prison was documented in a letter sent to the LGBT in Prison Group organized under the umbrella of the NGO Civil Society in the Penal System.

The Brazilian trans inmate penned the victimization they endured in a letter dated August 27, 2015:

I am still in a cell, I cannot go to the ward. I went to the director but they told me there is no ward. We are held separately in individual cells. The cells are horrible, I cannot bear it. They are very dirty. They are holding us in cells. Maltepe No. 3 [prison] is not suitable for us, we need to go back to No. 1. I am victimized here and isolated. I would like to be with my Turkish gay friends. Still no response from the Ministry of Justice. Foreign men are free to do things. We, on the other hand, are kept in cells. Believe me, I live like a dog. No table, no television, no chair, nothing. I eat on the floor. My morale is gone. I do not know how much more I can bear this. It is very bad indeed. Even a dog would not be able to stay here. I am very distressed, I am dying.”

“Kaos GL is obscene, cannot be allowed in prisons”

At the same time, due to the recent increase in banned media in prisons, 21 NGOs penned a public statement titled, “Arbitrary bans on media in prisons must stop!” The statement noted that Leman, Uykusuz and Penguen were banned in Kandıra No.1 F type prison on account of being “objectionable,” Kaos GL journal was banned in Bafra T type closed prison because of its obscene content, and copies of Volçark, an edited volume that compiles the stories of LGBTI inmates, was rejected by the prisons they were sent to.

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