Buğra Gökce recounts his 1 year in Silivri Prison: 'I am getting closer to freedom with each passing day'

Istanbul Planning Agency (IPA) President and urban planner Buğra Gökce shared his feelings in a post on his social media account, stating that the month of March marks one year since he has been in prison.

'I will not give up on hoping, on wanting; on shouting this desire to the heavens with a pure intention and an open heart,' said Gökce, adding, 'With each passing day, I am getting one day closer to my freedom. I feel that I am getting a little closer to my loved ones every moment.'

“TODAY IS ALSO THE 54TH SUNDAY”

Gökce used the following expressions in his post:

“We are finishing the month of March. We are in the month when our adventure here began, that is, the month in which we have completed one year. Today is also the 54th Sunday. It is springtime… But it is a month that can make you look out the door. If it doesn't come, spring never arrives, it doesn't approach. Hope, however, is warm. That is why even if it comes or goes with a little cold, the end is pure… It means sunshine, birds chirping, greening hills, a rising sun, and a sparkling sky.

I have been writing for months that the courtyard of my ward resembles a well. When I say, ‘I feel like I am at the bottom of a well,’ I am actually expressing a factual reality. Just as the sun approaches the bottom of a well, it has been coming into the ward courtyard since mid-February every day with an increasing effort, both in terms of reaching deeper and staying longer."

“LET THE SUN SEE ME; EVEN IF I CANNOT SEE IT, LET ME FEEL IT”

"At noon, at the beginning of March, I had caught the sun approaching the bottom of the well in the far corner of my courtyard, at eye level. It lasted about 15 minutes. Around 13:00, the sun approached the bottom of the courtyard, up to my eye level. Every day it gets a little closer to the bottom. There were those who marked it before me: perhaps Suat Toktaş marked it. On March 3, it was at shoulder height, I think it was the eye level of the person who marked it. March 8 was noted as waist height, as ‘the arrival of the sun.’ As of the week of March 9, when our trial began, the sun had approached the bottom of the ward courtyard at noon. Around the middle of March, the sun hit the bottom of the ward from the corner for 10-15 minutes. Then it gradually progressed, both by expanding the area it hit on the courtyard floor and by increasing the duration it stayed.

What I remember from the end of March and the beginning of April last year was that a piece in the corner was warming up at noon. Today, around 13:00, the sun finally entered, even if it was from the very edge of the courtyard. I went and spent those 15 minutes standing in the very corner. So that the sun might see me; even if I cannot see it, let me feel it, let it penetrate me, let my bones warm up… So that I can get Vitamin D not through supplements, but in its most natural form… I felt it with my eyes squinting but my heart warming. You might not notice this presence of the sun, this precious effort… Yet, after not seeing it at all for 4-5 months here, this is a blessing. 15 minutes later, the sun began to retreat before I could even fully see the concrete at the bottom of the courtyard. It slowly climbed up the walls. At the hour I am writing these lines, it is felt that the weather outside is sunny but cool. The sun is only at the very top of the 10-meter walls… I think it will pass over those too in less than half an hour."

“LIGHT ENTERS NOT THROUGH THE DOORS THAT ARE CLOSED, BUT THROUGH THE EYES THAT ENDURE”

"It doesn't seem like a coincidence to me that the sun approaches a little more every day; it is as if life finds a way even in the narrowest place, opening a leak for itself even in the darkest. Light enters not through the doors that are closed, but through the eyes that endure. And a person, no matter how besieged they are, always has a part of them that remains open to the sky."

“I SPUN ON THE STOOL FOR ABOUT 10 MINUTES”

"Then on Friday, March 20, when the sun started to enter the courtyard more at noon, I leaned my plastic stool against the corner where the sun entered so that I could see the sun more. I climbed onto it and rose; I approached a little above the well and saw the sun. I spun on the stool for about 10 minutes; as if I were doing a rotation, to feel the sun on my back and face. Then the sun went away again. I was left with the coldness of the shadow again.

This Friday, that is, on March 27, the sun had finally touched the floor of the ward properly for the first time. Around 12:30, I put my stool down, and this time I sat on it without standing, and I read the newspaper in the sun for 10-15 minutes. I also took my tea in my hand. It felt so good… Inside me, in a piece of my heart."

“A HIGH LEVEL OF BURNOUT SYNDROME IN A NEGATIVE SENSE”

"On one hand, the newspapers where I read the news that upset me; the decaying world order centered in the rogue US, on the other hand, the striking effect of two policies on the already growing crises… A high level of burnout syndrome in a negative sense. It is as if the country also needs to be saved from this darkness—from this mediocrity lacking sun and light—from the shadow of that mediocrity. Yet, if they did not cast a shadow, that sun would tend to rise sparkling, starting from the bottom of our ward's courtyard… It would both illuminate our world and warm our hearts. Moreover, hope and the light of the future are also in it…"

“WITH EACH PASSING DAY, I AM GETTING ONE DAY CLOSER TO MY FREEDOM”

"Because I will not give up on hoping, on wanting; on shouting this desire to the heavens with a pure intention and an open heart. With each passing day, I am getting one day closer to my freedom. I feel that I am getting a little closer to my loved ones every moment. It is easy to say…"

“SOME RESISTANCE IS A VICTORY IN ITSELF”

"May the end of March be spring, I hope. And one day, when all these days are accounted for, all that will remain to be said is this: We did not bow down. We may have been broken, we may have been tired, we may have been diminished… But we did not bow down. Because even some defeats do not diminish a person, and some resistance is a victory in itself.

As for the rest… May the shadows of those who cast shadows wither. What can I say."

News Source: 12punto