Website Aims to Share Stories of Violence Victims

* I am the victim of an ongoing war.

* I don't feel contempt toward my torturers, I just think they are pathetic for the sake of humanity.

* If you are not a heterosexual inmate, there is punishment, ill-treatment.

* Turkey's translators are under the current threat of prosecution.

* Police brutality happens in the lack of control mechanisms.

A website initiated by Culture Studies Association of Turkey has been established in order to share real stories of Turkey's victims of violence with interviews and photographs.

"We have archived the stories in 13 different categories where we aimed to make violence visible instead turning it into a set of numbers. The website is aiming to bring together victims of violence, rights advocates and civil society," the website statement said.

The website allows the victims of violence to share their stories by simply writing it on a piece of paper and taking a picture. Voluntary journalists interview the victims to reveal their stories. The initiative invites everyone to share their stories by contacting website editors.

Some of the real story owners included İbrahim Yaylalı who became a hostage of PKK during his military service and joined antimilitarist movement after his release, Ümit Efe who is a human rights activist and torture victim, Süha Sertabiboğlu who was prosecuted due to a book translation, Selay Tunç who filed lawsuits on police brutality, Nevin Berktaş who served the longest sentence due to political views and whose book on the correction facilities was banned by the Turkish state, Osman Akkuş who went to Iraq as a human shield in 2003, and Ozan Gündoğdu who became subject to police brutality and served six months of imprisonment due to a protest demonstration.

"We are open to contributions from civil society, groups who became subject to violence, victims of violence and witnesses," the association said.

You can check out the website in Turkish at http://www.siddethikayeleri.com (ÇT)