I am Ceylan Ozgul. I am 26 years old and a college graduate. I live apart from my family however when I went to visit my sick mother on May 9, 2007, I was beaten by my father and his armed men. I was kidnapped with my mouth covered with tape under the force of weapon. All the neighbours in my apartment, people passing through the street at that moment and people living in other buildings in the neighborhood are all witnesses of me both being taken by force and my mouth being covered with tape.
I was detained for 2 days. After that I was rescued by the intervention of Gendarme (rural police). The reason I was subjected to such an act is the intolerance my father and my brother expressed to the life style I have chosen.
Instead of giving respect to my ideas and thoughts, they tried to change my ideas by force and by taking me under pressure. However, as a major, and a college graduate, I am free to live and think however I wish like everyone else.
However, starting from the day I was kidnapped by my family up to this day, there have been comments completely deviated, tendentious, and totally untrue on Vatan Gazetesi (Istanbul, Turkey) and other daily newspapers having the same vision.
"Custom murders" are committed everyday in Turkey. People are executed by being kidnapped by their own families. There are many barriers facing a person to make a decision freely and living freely. And now, some press organizations including Vatan Gazetesi are providing support to my father to kidnap me again, to restrict my freedom, to subject me to pressure and violence and to make the same event reoccur. I would kindly ask you to send letter of condemnation to these newspapers.
Appendix: Email addresses of Vatan Gazetesi board members.
Yours sincerely ,
Ceylan Özgül
