“We met in 2016 through a book club at University. I was doing my post-grad in Communications, having a degree in Journalism. Emine was doing her degree in English Literature. Like us, our friends in the book club were writers, academics, poets, historians, philosophers and thinkers. The club met once or twice a week, and it was quickly clear that Emine and I shared the same values, we had a similar view of the world, and we thought the same way. We fell in love and married in May 2019.

As a journalist, my passions are politics, philosophy and critical theory. Critical theory analyses culture and society, revealing and challenging the established power structures. I question everything, which is what a good journalist should do. But it is an increasingly dangerous activity in my country. The political environment has changed in the last twenty years. It was always risky to have left-leaning views, but recently it has become even harder for people to discuss our different views and perspectives respectfully. And it is especially dangerous for journalists to criticise government policies.

My friend Korkmaz was killed in the Ankara bombings in 2015. He was attending a peace rally with his friends. His family and 102 other families are still waiting for justice. Since the bombings, Turkey has become even more polarised, and the government has cracked down on anyone with opposition views.

Journalists who criticise the government are being arrested and detained for lengthy periods and left to rot in jail on fabricated charges. Free speech is being eroded, and people voicing opposition views live in fear of being ‘disappeared’. It’s a frightening situation for intellectuals, especially since Turkey was previously a free and democratic republic. For me, the choice was to stay in Turkey and risk imprisonment or worse or to seek political asylum in a democracy. We chose Ireland because we knew of Irish history. We knew about your people’s struggles, and we hoped that you might understand our predicament.

Sabahattin Ali, Yaşar Kemal and Nazim Hikmet were all famous Turkish writers, well known around the world. Ali and Kemal developed their writing skills by working as journalists. Unfortunately, throughout history, many journalists and writers have spent many years in prison or were brutally murdered. A government agent assassinated Ali. Kemal was persecuted and imprisoned repeatedly throughout his life. Hikmet died in exile, yearning for his country. These are painful stories for a writer like me, but they have never diminished my journalistic dream. They inspire me to work even harder.

There are many noble reasons to be a journalist. Who wouldn’t want to do the same job as beautiful and inspiring people like Ali and Kemal?
I miss my parents, and I miss my books the most. But I had to leave everything behind because a fascist administration now rules Turkey. Like other fascist dictators, Erdogan dreams of a strong empire. But this dream has brought an entire country to the brink of disaster. Under this administration, writers, women and children suffer greatly.

If you asked me to define my country right now, I would answer you with an Oscar Wilde poem, ‘The Ballad of Reading Gaol’. In this poem, Wilde’s characters are prisoners observing with dread the inevitable death of a condemned man. That is how I feel about the Turkish Republic.
Wilde was also exiled, dying far away from his home country, Paris.

Human life is a half comedy, half tragedy. Unfortunately, journalists, poets and authors worldwide join together in the tragedy. I think it is time for us to think about this at length”.