EKİM YAĞMUR

Ankara- Living in exile is actually living with memories. Maybe it's a life being tried to fit into a suitcase! Narin Yükler is one of those who have to fit their lives into a suitcase… “The streets you walked on when you were a child change, old people die and children grow up… But we didn’t see how our streets changed, how the children in our childhood grew up,” says Narin. We talk to Narin about her story.

· You have written the places and people of the cities you lived in with an effective expression. Does your life in exile affect your writing?

Yes, exile had an effect on my first poems. But I can remember every detail of places thanks to my interest in photography. Moments and places always remain in my mind like a photograph. Sometimes a few sentences remain in your mind about a person, a city, a meeting, or a place after years. It doesn’t work like that for me. I take photos of everything in my mind; a silent photo without words.

“She was forty-day-old”

· You have a life in exile. Could you tell us about why you decided to live in exile?

I lost my mobile phone in 2011, and police found it in the backpack of someone throwing stones and molotov cocktails at the police. I learned that when I was taken into custody. I was released when I proved that I was at the hotel the day the stones were thrown at the police. Many people were taken into custody along with me. Some of them were released while others were sent to prison. The trial lasted one year. All detained people were sentenced to prison in 2013. Everyone received the same prison sentence. 10 years and four months prison sentence was approved in October 2014. My daughter was forty-day-old at that time. I was already unlawfully tried and punished so I didn’t take the risk of being put in jail with my daughter. I left my work and country. The court that sentenced me to prison was closed by the state after I left. Judges, who gave me the prison sentences, are currently in prison and charged with being members of the “FETÖ” organization. The police officers and police chief who detained me are wanted within the scope of the operation carried out against members of the “FETÖ”. The state does not apologize out of arrogance.

· Leaving the place you were born in…Isn't it hard for you?

Surely, it was hard. If leaving a place is not your choice, you always build your life to return. For example, I cannot turn the house where I am staying not (I cannot say I live in) into what I want. The other day I wanted to buy a new curtain but then I gave up. I see myself as a guest. Six years have passed but I still think which color I should print on the walls of my house if I can return to my house one day. The people living in exile have not a permanent home.