The English text

 

TO THE INTERNATIONAL ANARCHIST AND REVOLUTIONARY COMMUNITY!

THE DISCLOSURE OF SERKAN BAYRAK AND THE REVOLUTIONARY ANARCHIST FEDERATION (Devrimci Anarşist Federasyon, DAF) IN TURKEY!

This is our disclosure on the systematic intimidation, humiliation, oppression, physical violence and exploitation in DAF originating from the organizational structure but conducted primarily by Serkan Bayrak himself.

We were from the “Revolutionary Anarchist Federation (Devrimci Anarşit Fedrasyon, DAF)” (formerly known as “Devrimci Anarşist Faaliyet” (“Revolutionary Anarchist Action”) in Turkey), the organization claiming to be anarchist though what we call it as the “Serkan Bayrak Sect”. We are people who left the organization at different times between 2011 and 2021, but exactly for similar reasons. Most of us joined in the organization during our high school years, that is, we have had many incidents of violence that we had been exposured to mostly when we were underage. Now, we are speaking out and will describe these incidents below.

Contrary to anarchist ways of structuring organization, this “cult” includes violence, harassment and all kinds of authority. Thus, we feel the need to make a statement about the “anarchist leader, chief and boss” of the sect, namely Serkan Bayrak, and his wife Çiğdem Bayrak, who acts as the perpetrator of the male violence. Because we are the people who have spent either long or short years in this structure and have been a part of many non-anarchist events, that we are still criticizing ourselves as well. We have seen a lot, we know a lot and we say; “To know is to be damned.” We have remained silent until now because the process we were exposed to has inflicted psychological and physical wounds on each of us. We had to heal these wounds before we could do anything.

Now each of us is in a rush to build our lives from scratch. We would have loved to have spoken and deciphered something when we were members of the organization called DAF. But we did not want our families and loved ones to know about the humiliating insults, violence and harassment we experienced. The situation we are in was hard enough for us, and we didn't want to upset them.

We are now not afraid of either Serkan Bayrak or his soldiers. We are the people who were woken up at 4 am by Serkan Bayrak by pouring cold water on our faces; tables and chairs were broken on our backs and heads; we were stabbed, isolated and humiliated. Now, it is their turn to be afraid. Now, let the misogynistic Çiğdem Bayrak be afraid, who filled up and released Serkan Bayrak on us and while doing these, claimed to defend the women's struggle... Now, let them have difficulty falling asleep.

Each of us made a great effort to change this “Serkan Bayrak Order”. We wanted to fight. We wanted to fight against the state, authority, violence, harassment and rape. When faced with the fact that there is a “Serkan Bayrak Order” within the organization, our entire struggle would reach at a level consisted of trying to change the internal dynamics of the organization.

We talked, we were beaten as we talked. We talked more, we were forbidden to take action on the streets with the others against the authority. We talked even more, we were isolated. Our comrades manipulated by Serkan stopped talking to us and those like us - that is, those who struggle against the Serkan’s orders.

This was done to us because we did not bow to the authority of Serkan and Çiğdem Bayrak.

They stole... They stole our faith in the struggle from us and us from the struggle. They stole from those of us who had left everything we had behind and dedicated ourselves to the struggle. Now, our struggle against the order of Serkan Bayrak will definitely continue.

DAF, which Serkan and Çiğdem Bayrak saw for their personal needs under the name of “anarchist struggle”, exploited and destroyed many people materially and spiritually. They coveted the few scholarships that our friends who went to university received, and forced our friends who could not get a scholarship to apply for a student loan and used that money for their personal needs. Currently, many of our friends, who have applied for loans on the orders of Serkan and Çiğdem Bayrak and then left the organization, continue to try to repay these loans.

In the so-called collective named 26A, the Bayrak couple, who ignore the will of the person and forcibly take the initiative, are so ruthless that they can account for even a sandwich eaten by our friends who work 16 hours a day. None of the vital needs of those who were employed under the name of “volunteers” were met by the collective. Collectively earned money was used to meet Serkan Bayrak's daily alcohol needs and to help Çiğdem Bayrak decorate her house from IKEA. We can even say that the carpets in their homes are original Isparta carpets which are not so easily affordable by many people in Turkey.

Solidarity funds collected from anarchist organizations abroad were spent in a similar way. While Serkan Bayrak was drinking beer, a few comrades must have accompanied him as he wished. Words are not enough to describe the experiences of people who have been in  these alcohol drinking environments with Serkan Bayrak. We were beaten, we heard insults, our being revolutionaries and anarchists were questioned in that environment. Our books were smashed, our hair was cut, besides we have experienced psychological violence in various forms.

These events were not just events that happened while Serkan Bayrak was drunk. But he tried to justify his actions by saying “I have an alcohol problem” every time. Although he said that he was psychologically damaged and that he would make an effort to fix this situation, his relationship with us got worse with each passing day, and his aggression reached to the level of sadism.

Although it is presented as separate structure, we would like to point out the fact that the organization called “Anarchist Women” is a sub-structure of the DAF.

In the meetings of the organization, the discussions were never decided by direct democracy, but by the imposition of Serkan Bayrak and his wife Çiğdem Bayrak. Decisions to be taken at women's meetings were taken by Serkan Bayrak himself, and meetings with the other women's organizations were arranged and held as he wanted. We were ashamed to call ourselves as Anarchist Women, because DAF was in fact a men's organization.

As Serkan Bayrak always said, DAF was his organization.

We were insulted many times because of our sanitary pads in the toilet garbage, because according to Serkan Bayrak, a woman's period was disgusting, she should have been out of his sight. We could not count how many of our female comrades became “cheap women” because of their choices of clothing. There is no swearing (all purely masculine curses) left that we haven't heard of. It had become a routine for these people, who had lost their conscience, to curse our beloved, even if the dead ones.

While trying to change the male world, we found ourselves in one of the biggest forms of it. We have been silent enough, we have been silenced while we were inside the DAF. It's enough now.

Now we shout out: There have been systematic intimidation, humiliation, oppression, physical violence and exploitation in the DAF. The perpetrator of this is the organization itself, and especially Serkan Bayrak himself. The organization has adopted a structuring pattern that includes violence and torture.

We invite all the women's organizations, all the revolutionary organizations into showing solidarity with us.

We repeat: “To know is to be damned.” We are now and then decisive of spreading this cursed truth. Let everyone know; let everyone be damned. May one be from DAF who knows and does not take their oppositional stand against it.

INDIVIDUALS SEPARATED FROM DAF