‘Those Who Made us Lose Our Jobs Won’t be Acquitted in Our Hearts’

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"We have been disemployed and displaced; we were charged in a way we did not deserve. And, what happened now? I will not beat about the bush: The ones who subjected us to all these, the ones who shut their eyes to these have not been and will not be acquitted in our hearts. Our hearts have been broken once, we will see who will give the judgement".

Discharged from Mersin University by a Statutory Decree and acquitted in all three lawsuits filed against him since he signed the declaration "We will not be a party to this crime" of Academics for Peace, Asst. Prof. Hakan Mertcan summarized his own experience in above words.

After the president of the university filed a criminal complaint against him due to his social media messages, Mertcan stood trial at the Mersin 2nd Heavy Penal Court. He was also put on trial by the İstanbul 14th Heavy Penal Court for having signed the peace declaration.

He was first acquitted in the first case, then in the one filed in Mersin on November 10, 2018 and, as of yesterday (September 26), he has been acquitted in the case in İstanbul.

"Yet another news of acquittal", Mertcan tells us and shares his feelings and experience with bianet in following words:

'I conscientiously did not need this verdict'

"Yesterday, I learnt it from my friend and attorney Sezgin Kesim. I have been acquitted of the 'Peace Declaration', which was cited as a justification for dozens of threats, insults, swear words, investigations and court cases!

"If I tell you I am not happy at all, if I tell you I conscientiously didn't need such a verdict by a non-independent judiciary, it is not a lie, believe me...

'Will I be happy, saying "Apparently, I was not guilty"'

"Including legal and administrative investigations, THREE (3) penal suits were filed against me. Insulting the President, propagandizing for a terrorist organization, 'separatism'... The same old stories! I was acquitted in two of them in these three years, now I have been acquitted in the third one as well! Will I be happy, saying 'Apparently, I was not guilty'!

"I will say, 'Shame on those who accused us'... But, now, I do not even think about whether they have ever had any sense of shame or have lost it for some reason later on...

"It is in vain to look for any sense of shame in this 'darkness' and its supporters; it is not something that I have recently learnt; my personal history has long taught me that.

'What should I say? Thank you?'

"But, there is one thing that also made me 'laugh' in the beginning of this process and it has now made me laugh again. We realized it in my first legal investigation. Police traced another Facebook user named Hakan Mertcan and put him in the file.

"I mean, the police who tried to fabricate a criminal, in fact, created a scandal, but 'forgot' to take it out of the file! We disclosed this legal scandal at court. And, now, in the justification of its verdict, the court that ruled for my acquittal referred to me as an academic from Boğaziçi University, which I have not even entered. :)

"What should I say? Thank you? The long and the short of it, to be continued with tragicomic situations..."

(TP/SD)