Shame museum highlights brutality of Sept. 12 coup d’etat

“After the military coup we were in Mamak Prison. We were being tortured all the time. Once, they noticed that one of the sinks in the toilets had a very small crack. They lined us up and started to beat us. One of our friends was killed,” she said and without waiting for me to say something, she walked away. But visitors to the this temporary museum organized by the 78ers Foundation were not only the direct victims of the 1980 coup and their relatives but also young people who were born after the coup.

The exhibition, which opened in Ankara last week, coincides with the 30th anniversary of the coup. At that time some 650,000 people were detained and 230,000 people were prosecuted in military courts. Some 300 people died in prison, including 171 people who died as a result of torture. There were 49 executions, including that of 17-year-old Erdal Eren, whose tweed jacket is on display.

At the entrance of the exhibition at Çankaya Municipality Contemporary Art Center, there is a replica of a gallows. The original one was found in the now closed Ulucanlar Prison in Ankara. Next to the replica gallows it is written that Altındağa District Mayor Veysel Tiryaki promised that he would let the gallows be exhibited but later abandoned the idea.

The final letters written by the leftists just before their executions are originals, and none of them mentions “revenge,” just love for their families and hopes for the continuation of the struggle. For a long time the 78ers Foundation, like many other civil society organizations, has been struggling to bring the coup perpetrators to justice, although Article 15 of the Constitution that was prepared by the perpetrators openly makes this impossible.

But after the referendum on Sept. 12, the anniversary of the coup, this might change. If it is approved by the people, along with many other constitutional changes, Article 15 will be abolished. Then the perpetrators of crimes against humanity during the coup years might face trial, although there are questions as to whether or not the statute of limitations has expired.

But the shame museum reminds its visitors that many people are waiting for justice, especially when visitors see the pictures of many young men and women who were killed or “disappeared” in the 1980s.

The torture tools on display cry out for justice: A wooden pole used to suspend suspects by their arms, a baton used to beat prisoners on the soles of their feet, cables used to give electric shocks and Coca Cola bottles that the victims were forced to sit on. On one of the walls of the shame museum, there is a big “wanted” poster for Col. Raci Tetik, who was the warden of Mamak Prison. “Wanted, Raci Tetik for crimes against humanity, torture, ill treatment of the prisoners in Mamak together with the Sept. 12 coup perpetrators,” the poster says.

The woman who talked to me is standing in front of this poster.

If the referendum is approved by the public, she and her comrades and other people will have the chance to confront the past.