On the 24th May 2023 at Kapikule on the Turkey/Bulgaria border I was caught up in a brutal attack from the Turkish border guards perpetrated on 104 members of the Ahmadi Religion of Light.
Accompanied by my filming partner, Sermad Al Khafaji, both also members of the Religion, we were both attacked and subsequently detained alongside the group for a period of two weeks. Throughout this time, we both suffered severely at the hand of the Turkish authorities and bore first hand witness to their brutality.
In 2023, a group of 104 members of the Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light had gathered in Turkey after suffering extreme persecution in their countries of origin. They came from eight different countries, including Iran, Algeria, Thailand, Azerbaijan, Palestine, Morocco, Jordan, and Turkey, where they had been labeled as apostates of Islam and heretics due to the teachings of the religion.
After the arrest of one of the Turkish believers for publicly proclaiming his faith, the group no longer felt safe in Turkey - another Muslim country - and began to make plans to leave and find refuge in neighbouring Bulgaria. After hearing about the ordeals that the group had been through, Sermad and I travelled to Turkey to meet them and to document their attempted border crossing.
They set off on their journey to the border in the early hours of May 24th carrying their entire lives with them. The group made sure to follow all the necessary procedures, including sending a letter in advance to both Bulgarian Authorities and Frontex, which was endorsed by several human rights organisations. They were approaching an official border crossing point carrying this letter and banners illustrating their past experiences of religious persecution and copies of “The Goal of the Wise.”
The previous night we had interviewed the group and heard of their harrowing stories of oppression in their countries of origin; many of the group had been imprisoned, tortured and beaten for their beliefs, this journey was their last hope for safety and the freedom to practise their faith without fear, after enduring years of mistreatment. The group was initially stopped by a group of the Jandarma border guards where they explained why they were at the border and stated their intention to cross over to Bulgaria and claim asylum and the guards let them pass.
As they began the march towards the border I walked alongside Leila from Iran who had been imprisoned by her own family and force-fed antipsychotics after they found out about her beliefs. As we walked she proclaimed her love and dedication for Aba Al-Sadiq from Him is Peace in a touching moment that was caught on camera.
As the group approached the border the scene suddenly descended into a war-zone. The guards began indiscriminately attacking the crowd of believers with batons and men, women, children and elderly all sustained injuries. One sister Youssra Bezai, from Algeria was badly beaten and strangled by the Police when she tried to prevent them from hitting one of the children. The attack was completely unprovoked and the violence continued to intensify with gunshots being fired. The scene quickly became so chaotic and there was so much blood from people's injuries that it was impossible to know what was going on and we thought that the guards were shooting at us, it was so unexpected and sudden and it seemed like the guards would be capable of doing anything to the group. The group was rounded up by the Tukish Boarder Police and maneuvered into a small gated enclosure, where the insufficient space caused the group to be tightly packed together and we were unable to move. Amid the cramped conditions, I looked down and saw eight-year-old Mahdi, who, just the night before, had been joyfully playing with the other children. Now, he cowered in fear on the floor, his mother desperately shielding him from being crushed in the crowd.
At this point I had no idea where Sermad was and was unable to search for him amidst the chaos. It was only later that I learned he had been earlier assaulted and subsequently detained by the guards.
The guards bought reinforcements and further beat the believers before locking them into buses. I continued filming this shocking scene until I was roughly pushed onto a bus and had my phone taken. From the bus, I could see the brutal scene of the believers who had been filled with so much hope before being violently attacked and dragged away. Afterward, I was escorted into a police van and transported alongside other believers in handcuffs to the Edirne Jandarma Komutanlığı detention centre.
The scene at the detention centre on the first day was one of complete lawlessness and chaos. The guards had free reign to take out their aggression on the group and the exposure of their brutality at the border had made them even more angry with the group, they were completely merciless and unrestrained in their attacks.
The women in the group were subjected to degrading treatment and were stripped of their clothes. All members had their possessions taken from them. The guards had taken out the copies of “The Goal of the Wise'' from their luggage and were asking us why the symbol for the religion was the Star of David and accusing the believers of being Zionists and apostates of Islam.
Both Sermad and I were accused of being British Agents and of inciting unrest during the elections. As British citizens we requested to speak to the British Embassy and asked for someone to come to the detention centre to mediate the situation and prevent further aggression from the Turkish Guards. Despite our pleas for help, the British embassy provided no assistance during this ordeal; instead, our sole support came from the lawyer employed by the religion
Eventually, I was escorted down a flight of stairs, where I had seen many believers marched down in handcuffs. This descent led to a dirty, elongated room surrounded by cells, where believers were crammed into small, overcrowded cells. I was directed to an empty cell at the back of the room and locked inside alone.The cell I was taken to was filthy, reeking of sewage, and furnished only with dirty blankets on the floor. We remained here for a week.
The rest of the group received very harsh treatment during this week. They were frequently taken out of their cells one at a time and beaten and interrogated about the Religion and called heretics by the guards. One instance of this saw one brother, Mahdi from Iraq beaten simultaneously by eleven guards and he sustained serious injuries from this and was not permitted to see a doctor.
Another individual, Yousef Abunada, a Palestinian national disclosed that he was verbally assaulted, physically beaten, and labeled as an “infidel” due to his religious beliefs. He was taken to a separate room and brutally beaten again causing serious injuries. During this beating, he was constantly insulted and threatened with death for his religious beliefs.
During this time there was also a disturbing report of a sexual assault on a minor perpetrated by the guards that were justified by them because the faith accepts members of the LGBTQ+ community.
While myself and around 40 of the believers had been locked in the underground cells for a week, the rest of the group including the women, children and the elderly who had been initially taken to the Turkish police on the first day were transported to Edirne deportation centre. When they first arrived here they were taken to a filthy outdoor enclosure and made to stand there outside for three days and three nights. During this time they were not allowed to sleep or even sit down. They were not given food and the women were denied access to sanitary products. Subsequently, following this ordeal, the group was transferred inside the Edirne Deportation Centre, where, after one week in the cell I was reunited with them.
The conditions in the Edirne deportation centre were like a concentration camp. Families were segregated into different blocks, with children permitted only a brief weekly visit with their fathers. All detainees, including children, endured prolonged confinement in cramped and unsanitary rooms for the majority of the day. The cells were extremely unclean, with 20-25 people sharing one bathroom and no access to cleaning supplies. It was no surprise that detainees frequently fell ill, and initially, no access to medical treatment was provided to them and when it finally was it was inadequate with patients all given the same medication regardless of their condition and no proper emergency care was provided.
The food provided was of bad quality, with little nutritional value and the children, who were already traumatised from the attacks at the border, struggled to eat it. One eight-year-old child, Mahdi, who already had a pre-existing health condition, was unable to eat the food provided and became extremely ill with jaundice-like symptoms by the time I left. His mother had begged for him to see a doctor but was repeatedly told to wait despite the urgent nature of his symptoms. It was extremely concerning to see his symptoms steadily worsen over the time I was detained with the group as it was such a clear medical emergency in a young child that would be treatable.
After two weeks of detention, both my colleague, Sermad, and I were released and sent back to the UK. It was surreal to be back in the comfort of the UK after such a chaotic few weeks and we were shocked to see how far the news had spread online and in the media. The remaining members of the group endured five months of confinement in the deportation centre under worsening conditions. The group was issued with deportation orders which would mean a return back to the very oppression they had been escaping and for many would mean imprisonment or death. The Turkish authorities resorted to coercion, depriving them of necessities like water to compel them into signing deportation papers.
During their detainment, many of the group fell ill and were not allowed to access adequate medical care. At one point one of the female detainees went into diabetic shock- a condition requiring emergency treatment and was not taken to hospital for this and was given cigarettes and chewing gum by the guards in the camp.
The group's plight caught the attention of the United Nations. Several UN Special Rapporteurs intervened, recognizing them as a persecuted religious minority and urging for the deportation orders to be dropped. Thanks to growing international pressure, the Turkish court eventually ruled in favour of the group, acknowledging their actions at the border as lawful and dropping all deportation orders against them.
The group was finally released from the Edirne Deportation Centre after five months. Some made it safely to Europe and are now able to practise their religion in peace without fear of being harmed; however, many remain in Turkey. The level of brutality and aggression directed at the members of the Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light illuminated systemic corruption and failings within the governmental system and showed extreme religious prejudice. The attack and detention at the border of the group is something that should not have happened and highlights the corruption and darkness of the world we live in, where people follow leaders who were not appointed by God; the worst and most oppressive people end up in positions of power.
Comments