Madam's Inheritance Squabble Drags On

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Hürriyet Newspaper, 27 January 2020)

love money click here for previous TNT reporting.


                                   Madam at tea time.

The bitter inheritance saga related to brothel madam and record-setting
taxpayer (!), the late Matild Manukyan, last saw Dora Çilinger, the
daughter of Manukyan's sole heir and son Kerope Çilinger (80), trying
to have her father's marriage 7 months ago to Neslihan Kahraman
annulled.  However, the public prosecutor declined to act on Dora
hanım's complaint.

Kerope Çilinger had left the hospital where he was being treated
8 days after Dora hanım had filed an inheritance suit and married
Kahraman.  Dora hanım claimed that medical reports dated 26 August
and 19 December declared her father to be mentally handicapped. She
also asked that her father's bank account be examined by the
prosecutor, but this request was declined, as well. 


                           Daddy-daughter dispute.

In consequence, Dora hanım has filed a complaint against the
prosecutor with the Judges and Prosecutors Council (HSK), asserting
that the prosecutor's inaction was illegal.

Dora hanım's lawyer Oğulcan Şakrak declared that "it is unacceptable
for the marriage of mentally handicapped Kerope Çilinger to Neslihan
Kahraman 8 days after Dora Çilinger filed suit to be considered valid.
The prosecutor did not gather any of the evidence we requested."



Long ago, advice to her girls: "Don't get caught up in luxury,
eat dry bread if you have to."

TNT Medical Miracle Edition: Aorta-enveloping Tumor Removed

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Sözcü Newspaper, 27 January 2020)


              Çapa's "Good-hands" Göksel is at right.

The problem began when Sencan Tomak (33) of Giresun's Bulancak
district, saw a swelling in her neck after she delivered twins in 2011. 
The young lady eventually reached Prof. Onur Göksel at Istanbul
University's Çapa Hospital in her search for help. 

Dr. Göksel determined that a tumor that began in Tomak's heart had
grown around her aorta and progressed all the way up to her neck
region (!).  He photographed the tumor and sent the image to Prof.
Ross Naylor, the chairman of the European Arterial Surgery
Association and one of the world's authorities on the matter.  Prof.
Naylor confirmed that he knew of no such tumor in medical
literature.




Tomak had reached the point where she could not even swallow
water, so Dr. Göksel operated on her on 23 January.  The surgery
was a success, as Dr. Göksel completely removed the tumor, which
was wrapped 360 degrees around Tomak's ascending aorta.


               Çapa-Istanbul University Medical Faculty.

Dr. Göksel lauded his team at Çapa for their assistance and said
about Çapa: "this is the place where modern medicine began in Turkey. 
The Istanbul University Medical Faculty is enduring hard times
(budget woes).  Nevertheless, we press on with saving lives and
performing nearly impossible operations.  So, as a faculty we haven't
collapsed. We're still standing!"


Bulancak is just west of Giresun city, on the Black Sea coast.

 

TNT History Mini-Series: Bekir Ağa Prison - Turks in Turkish Hands/Part IV

//Ed. note: The precise dates of Süleymen Sırrı's time in
in Bekir Ağa Prison and the length of his stay are unclear. 
He was probably arrested in 1910.  In any case, herewith
his description of interrogations in the jail.//



Interrogation Team

This team was active from 1 o'clock at night until morning prayers and
its most important investigations were conducted at night.  The team
didn't work much during the day.  Although its official work hours were
in the daytime, its 'unofficial' activities occurred at night.  Prior to the
start of an investigation, a prisoner would be summoned and questioned
as follows:

"What's your number?"  The prisoner would say he didn't know or, out
of fear, say a number like 7 or 8, which was, of course, wrong.  The
team would then accuse him of concealing information and put him in
the 'falaka' (feet tied for caning).  The number of cane blows was never
less than 50 and the guards inducing them were big brutish Albanians,
who had been captured during an anti-Ottoman insurrection there (1910-
1912) and made to work off their sentences as prison guards. 

It wasn't possible to learn anything from those who returned down to
the dungeon after being beaten.  I went to the lavatory, where for the
first time I saw my father-in-law, who had been arrested the same day
I was.  He showed me his rolled-up sleeves, which exposed his bruised
arms.  He gestured to indicate how brutal his interrogation had been,
although there was really no need for any explanation.  The sounds of
the clanking chains bore witness to the vortex we had fallen into.


Photo of Şeyhülislam Mustafa Sabri Efendi, taken
in Egypt at the end of his life.

Like everyone else, I was pressured and the most frightening thing
was having a pistol shoved in my mouth.  I also suffered from whipping.
'Glasses' Mustafa, Hacı Kemal and teacher Emin Efendi got the worst
of the beatings so they would provide information to have Şeyhülislam
(senior Moslem official in the Ottoman state) Mustafa Sabri Efendi
and Rıza Nur Bey (a leader of the anti-CUP faction) arrested, which
they eventually were on various pretexts. 

I heard a sad but comical story about a young fellow named Demokrat
Mustafa, whom they beat repeatedly.  The interrogators would ask him
about the 'secret society' and his 'number', which he gave as either 10 or
20 or 40, etc.  But any number would have been the wrong one so the
beatings continued.  When he gave up some informartion about Dr.
Münir, though, he was spared more beatings.  Realizing the self-
preservative value of informing, he thought of a relative named Mustafa
Natık Paşa (an Ottoman army artillery commander), who was then
arrested.  The informant youth began to receive special treatment -
coffee, lemonaide, cigarettes.


                          Kâmil Paşa 

Demokrat Mustafa realized that by informing, whether true or not, he
could avoid being beaten. He began to provide made-up information,
even about Kâmil Paşa (a CUP opponent and 4-time prime minister, his
last stint being a 3-month term that ended at the point of a gun wielded
by CUP leader Enver Paşa in January 1913.)  Demokrat
Mustafa claimed to have gone to Kâmil Paşa's residence with Mustafa
Natık Paşa to have discussions about the killer of Mahmud Şevket Paşa
(Kâmil Paşa's successor as PM, who was assassinated in June 1913.) -
all lies. 

Nevertheless, newspaper stories were written about the imminent arrest
of a 'prominent politician' (Kâmil Paşa) and the jailers were giddy with
the prospect of having evidence of Kâmil Paşa's involvement with the
'secret society' that would put him in jail. In this way, Demokrat Mustafa
avoided further beatings and his involvement with the interrogation team
increased.

//Ed. note: Kâmil Paşa was, in fact, arrested on 28 May 
1913, but in relation to the First Balkan War and a plot to 
overturn the ruling CUP with British help.//

//END of PART IV//

Mustachioed Snidely Whiplash is a Good Guy in Turkey

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Sözcü Newspaper, 25 January 2020)


                      Gillette's sales are way down these days. 

The negative reactions to the National Education Ministry's (MEB)
book "Psycho-Social Preventative Support Program", in which women
with their heads covered are depicted as 'good' and those without 'bad',
continue with the depiction in the same book of mustachioed men as
'caring and good', whereas clean-shaven men are depicted in a section
addressing child sexual assault as 'sexual predators'.

In response, MEB characterized the criticisms as a 'perception
operation' against it, but nevertheless launched an investigation
yesterday. 


                     Bad-hair day for the uncovered ladies.

CHP (opposition party) member Yıldırım Kaya posed a
question about the book to MEB Minister Ziya Selçuk in Parliament,
saying "the exploitation of children in the dormitories of religious
foundations and associations has been documented by severe
sentences handed down in court.  And yet, MEB is promulgating
these ugly stereotypes with this book, characterizing people as 'good'
or 'deviants', based on their clothes and grooming preferences. Was
publication of this dangerous book the decision of MEB or the 'Secret
Palace Education Ministry' ('palace' is a reference to President Erdoğan).


Evil, clean-shaven Do-right seen oppressing the valiant,
mustachioed Whiplash. Note: the deviant's horse is clean-
shaven, too!

TNT History Mini-Series: Bekir Ağa Prison - Turks in Turkish Hands/Part III

//Ed. note: Süleyman Sırrı describes his arrival at Bekir Ağa
Prison and his initial experiences, as well as the history of
its namesake.//



                                   Falaka & Bastinido


At The Prison

When I was handed over, the police officer who accompanied me
asked for the signature of the receiving official at the prison, who
refused, saying that incoming prisoners were not numbered. The
police officer insisted, though, and with some difficulty was able to
get the official's signature.  This beribboned officer asked me harshly
whether I knew Dr. Münir and I said in response that I did know him.

When he addressed me as a 'roughneck', though, my patience expired
and I said that I rejected such an epithet, adding that "for you, merely
a beribboned officer, to insult a man of letters sent here as a guest in
the period of 'Meşrutiyet' (constitutional government) is quite
demeaning."  Nevertheless, the officer ordered his cohorts to "take
this low fellow away!"

Right away, two soldiers took me by my arms and began to turn me
around.  I screamed as loud as I could, shouting "what is this rough
treatment and insult for one defending rights and honor in this period
of 'Meşrutiyet'!  Is this what freedom is about?!"  But after absorbing
some blows, I was unable to stand so the soldiers dragged me by my
arms to the entrance to the Bekir Ağa dormitory, kicked me and threw
me inside.


Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk) spent 3 months
in Bekir Ağa prison around the time of his 
graduation from the War Academy (1905),
before being essentially exiled to Damascus
for his first assignment as an Ottoman officer.

They sat me on a grass-filled cushion and told the other prisoners not
to speak with me, adding that if anyone dared to talk to me he would
get 100 cane blows.  The prison guards were given the same
instructions. An hour later, they summoned those they called 
‘traitor to the nation’ like 'Glasses' Mustafa and Enver Ağa 
(Sırrı’s father-in-law).   They were taken away and, upon their 
return, were dragged in, moaning with their faces bloodied and 
their feet trapped in heavy large-link chains.

In the quiet of the night, the sound of these chains among the more
than 300 prisoners, and the weak lamp that made even daytime seem
like the dead of night, filled the inmates' hearts with sorrow, fear and
terror in this dungeon. I, too, was overwhelmed with the fear that I
would get the same treatment and I was unable to sleep.  But, in any
case, it became clear that sleeping is such cramped, flea-infested
quarters would take getting used to, much as an animal would have
to.


                       
                            Not all traditions are good.   

The History of Bekir Ağa Prison

Based on the information I acquired there, I learned that the name came
from big, stupid, illiterate officer named Bekir Ağa, who was the warden
of this place when it was a military prison.  At that time, when a soldier
was sent here for some infraction he would immediately be interrogated
and, whether guilty or not, beaten to a pulp.  Ancient methods were
employed for punishment of these 'criminals', including the 'falaka'
(a staff with a loop of rope let through two holes, by which the feet of
the prisoner are held up for the 'bastinado' - caning the soles of the feet.)
The 'falaka' was hung from the most appropriate spot in the room and
it became customary to subject those in need of punishment into it.

In fact, during prisoner inspections inmates were admonished to behave
'or else' - the 'else'  being the threat of the 'falaka' being lowered from
the ceiling.  Another custom of Bekir Ağa, who left his name to this
den of torture and horror, was to have inmates sentenced here by court
martial to undergo the 'falaka' treatment at the time of their discharge,
no matter who they were.  The message being "don't do anything that
would send you back here!"  After Bekir Ağa died, among the wardens
who followed him was Salim, who was our warden and who was so
tyrannical and brutal that he would even make one wish that Bekir Ağa
was still in charge.   

                                  The outdoor version.

//END of PART III//