Kamber Ateş will always be associated with the sentence ‘Kamber Ateş, how are you?’, the only sentence his mother pronounced when she was visiting him in Mamak Military Prision in 1980, as she could not speak any language other than Kurdish and Kurdish was banned. He says today that AKP (Justice and Development Party) is not sincere with the constitutional amendment package. Ateş adds: “Why would I go to polls at the referendum? I won’t feel at ease unless the complete coup constitution is removed.”
Kamber Ateş was born in İmranlı/Sivas in 1959. He joined the Halkın Kurtuluşu (People Liberation) group and sentenced to life during the military coup of 1980. Ateş was paroled in 1991 and walked free after 11 years imprisonment.
Turkey knows him with the sentence, ‘Kamber Ateş, how are you?’. Ateş is detained with his two friends on 11 July 1980 on charges of participating in pirate demonstration when he was in his final year at university in Ankara. His mother Dilek Ateş and his sister go to see him when he is on life sentence in Mamak Military Prison. However, ‘Speak Turkish, speak much’ application in prisons at that time, when only the orders of martial law commanders were ruling, worries Kamber Ateş as his mother doesn’t know even a single word in Turkish. Knowing about the application, her mother tries to learn a few words. Then, the five minute meeting between Ateş and his mother starts under a soldier’s care. With tearful eyes, mother Dilek Ateş ask ‘Kamber Ateş, how are you?’ to her son, whom she hadn’t seen for a long time.Her son replies; “Thanks, mama. How are you?”. Mother says responds again; “Kamber Ateş, how are you?”. Kamber Ateş understands that his mother doesn’t know any other Turkish words and replies with sorrow; “I am fine, mama. Don’t worry.” The five minutes talk with one sentence but many feelings inside, comes to an end in this way.
With Kamber Ateş, a retired worker from Ankara Metropolitan Municipality,we talked about his experiences before and after the military putsch, about his memory mentioned in books and about the present situation on the 30th anniversary of 12 September military coup.
*Begin with, can you tell us how you were detained and arrested?
It was my final year at Gazi University in Physics-Chemistry-Biology Department when I was detained with my two friends near Maltepe Market on 11 July 1980. At those days, there were countrywide demonstrations to stop the execution of Erdal Eren. And there was a pirate demonstration participated by 2 thousand and 500 people in Mithatpaşa/Ankara, where a policeman lost his life. However, we had no concern with the meeting, which we were accused of participating in. After 15 days torture, we were brought into court on 29 July. Despite the release decision of the court, I was not set loose and I was jailed although I didn’t have an arrest warrant. In the evening of 3 October, I was blindfold taken to Ankara Police Department. They took me to a special torture place called Deep Research Laboratory (DAL), where I was tortured till 29 October. I was questioned together with Hacettepe University student Hasan Özmer, who was murdered during torture. After DAL, I was brought back to Mamak Military Prision. Then, my much criminal charge was prepared, which was constituted of much conflicted and disconnected assertions. I was charged with simultaneous acts in four different places. And my trial was first in early 1981. At the second trial, the court board issued an arrest warrant for me, saying ‘I was not arrested’. Namely, I stayed imprisoned without an arrest warrant.
TORTURES HIT THE TOP WITH PUTSCH DECLARATION
*So, you met 12 September in prison. Can you tell us what happened in Mamak Prison on 12 September?
The applications had already started İn August with continual operations and psychological and physical tortures, which hit the top in 12 September evening. The here and there words of Kenan Evren before the military putsch had such big effects on the decisions of courts that most of the courts decide death penalty after Kenan Evren’s speeches. Namely, many people were sentenced to death regardless of the differences in their acts. Writers, stone throwers and bombers were all executed with the same decision. It was a process, when it was completely imponderable what people would come up again. The results were reflecting into the prison just after the meetings of National Security Council. And right after, they started arbitrary treatments against us. To break our resistance, in 11 September evening they soaked ill and old people in barrels, tied them up on trees and tortured them in our sights. Then, in the same way, they committed violence and heavy beats on us. They stomped up so much on us with their boots, that our bodies became black as coal. And in some other wards, they caught prisoners in crossfire and unleashed dogs on them. Some prisoners were taken to baths and bastinadod them after putting their heads in water-filled bathtubs. These applications lasted that night from 12 a.m. till 5 p.m. We were suffering with pain when we heard the coup announcement outside. That day, some people died of the beats of the previous night. In this sense, Mamak is the second well-known prison after Diyarbakır.
*They consciously put the nationalist prisoners with leftists together. Were there any nationalist prisoners in your ward, what did you live with them?
Yes, the policy of Mamak Prison was ‘mix, pacify’. With this aim, nationalist rightist prisoners from MHP (Nationalist Movement Party) were brought to the wards of leftists. There were in my ward too. I stayed in the same ward with rightist nationalists like Namık Kemal Zeybel, Celal Adan, Mustafa Mit, whom Muhsin Yazıcıoğlu calls as ‘Türkeş of the East’. While staying in cells, we were together with Dündar Kılıç’s. And this time revolutionists showed reaction to not to stay with them and made a hunger strike. There broke out a serious fight in our ward, where we were staying with Celal Adan and his friends. The main reason of the fight was a their own quarrel about leadership and all prisoners in the ward were tortured due to the fight.
RAVING SOLDIERS
*What hurt and upset you the most in the prison?
It is a place where you lose your human feeling, where you can’t speak and where the humanity is completely disregarded. It saddens you to see people under those circumstances in your country but you can do nothing. You can only nurse a grudge and as one might expect, you develop a grudge. We could have paid back if we had been able to flee from the prison then. You see soldiers next to you, who were raved and saw red, in capability of doing anything. This hurts you. Their behavior is incomprehensible.
VISIT DESPOTIZM
*How were the family visits work?
The visits were great difficulty for both us and families. For example, for a 5 minutes visit, you are taken out of the ward just one and half hour ago. You are passed over different kinds of torture methods and rooms, until you are taken to visit cabinet. And with distended hands and feet, they make you do push-ups.They beat you if you can’t do as they want. Namely, they go you through the wringer till the visit. That’s why prisoners from time to time wished to have no visitors. The visitor also regrets coming there.
KAMBER ATEŞ HOW ARE YOU?
*Can you tell us your well known memory ‘Kamber Ateş, how are you?’
It was a process with heavy tortures,when almost everything like looking around, speaking another language except Turkish, saying a word beyond the orders of martial law commanders was forbidden. It was the end of 1980’s when my sister sent me a letter, saying that she will visit me with my mother. The first thing I thought was that my mother would face many difficulties as she didn’t know Turkish. I had no idea what she would say me because she didn’t know even a word in Turkish. I lighted cigarettes one after another till the day of visit. Fortunately, other visitors taught my mother a few words in Turkish, which was ‘Kamber Ateş, how are you?’. When they entered the cabin, my mother asked me ‘Kamber Ateş, how are you?’ and stepped back. Again my sister came to talk to me, but my mother again asked me the same question. And I said; ‘Thanks mama, how are you?’ but she couldn’t reply to me as she didn’t know any other word in Turkish. In the meanwhile, with anxious eyes,I was looking at the soldiers standing by us. In this way, we used our body language and spoke to each other with our eyes. During this visit, there were Kurdish visitors at the cabins on the right and left sides of us; which was organized on purpose. They wanted Kurdish families to react together in case of a trouble. This is something I learned afterwards. I shared this memory of mine with Ex-President of Revolutionary 78’s Union, Ruşen Sümbüloğlu, who narrated it later, sent to the competition of İHD (Human rights Association) Diyarbakır Branch and came in first.
MY MOTHER STILL DOESN’T KNOW TURKISH
*And did your mother visit you again, could you talk to each other?
She visited me when I was in Çanakkale Prison. Those days, we had chance for open meeting due to the pressures of public opinion. We were able to speak Kurdish on that visit. And my mother still doesn’t know Turkish.
*Did you speak this subject with your mother after your release?
Yes, my mother says me; “I did pretty good on that visit, there didn’t arise any problem”. And while telling these, she sometimes smiles and sometimes moves to tears. She felt bad about not being able to speak but she was also happy to see me alive.
KURDISH PEOPLE HAVE NEVER BEEN TREATED EQUALLY
*When and how did you come out of prison?
I was paroled in 1991 with the law, which was actually made for rightists. They would tell us that they didn’t make any discrimination between rightists and leftists but in this sense, we were never treated equally. Neither in censuses nor in wards. For example; the life imprisonment for leftists was 12 years while it was 8 years for rightists. And inside all these, there were those, who were never balanced; Kurdish people. Kurdish prisoners weren’t even granted this law.
PUTSCHERS HAVE TO PAY FOR IT
*What do you think about those people who made you, thousands and the people of Turkey live these?
They stole our youth and life. All of us became a sort of last generation of the enlightenment that we took over from the past. Turkey stopped moving with us. Before our imprisonment, no one found voice in ethnical and religious identities. However, after our release, we saw that people were classified like Alewi, Sunni, Turkish, Kurdish or congregant. They created such an atmosphere that they made away with this generation. The responsible people of this atmosphere have to pay for it. Kenan Evren and his team, even their children and grandchildren must apologize from all Turkish people and they must be dispossessed. Because they appropriated and sent their children to schools while making thousands suffer. They were drawing nude pictures of the famous sex artists and singers of the period while we were being tortured and our girls were being raped. What more can thay pay for? Those, who don’t bring them to book, must turn and look at themselves.
VOTING IS BESIDE THE POINT FOR ME
*The constitutional amendment package of AKP includes an article regarding this issue. How do you see this package and what is your attitude towards the referendum?
The legal order of 12 September is proceeding with all faults. Our glutton and chunky politicians, who are the products of this legal order, are now civil pashas because the electoral law of putsch legal order enable them. My voting or approval of the putsh law is beside the point. Why would I vote at referendum? The putsch law means electric, nightstick and torture to me. If we approve it this way; it means that the putsh law will proceed. And I won’t feel at ease unless the complete putsch constitution is removed.Temporary 15. article is important but AKP is not sincere. So, they offer us this package to get a kiss for the system itself. People mustn’t be deceived, they must open the putsh law to discussion. Politicians pull themselves together and roll their sleeves up for civil constitution. Only then we will believe, trust on them and go to polls.
