They attempted to escape the persecution of the Erdogan government and died tragically in the icy waters of the Aegean Sea. The recent tragic shipwreck off Kos hid a human story behind it that made many in Turkey gasp.
The deaths of 36-year-old prosecutor Ibrahim Gunduz and his wife Nurdan Gunduz, who married last July, brought to the surface once again in Turkey the persecution of hundreds of citizens whom the Erdogan government is firing from their positions and bringing to justice and the courts. The only charge is their involvement with FETO, the organization of exiled imam Fethullah Gulen, which Ankara believes is behind the failed 2016 coup.
The young couple were dismissed from their civil service positions on the same charge and jailed for 15 months in Osmaniyeh prison in southern Turkey. They were released on condition of a ban on travel abroad and regular court appearances pending trial or appeal. In order not to return to prison again, he got married and made the decision to escape to Greece and seek political asylum. But he did not have time ...
In the morning of Thursday 2/12/2021, the speedboat they were on capsized due to high waves and poor handling of the pilot, resulting in the five occupants, four men and one woman, being in the water. The Coast Guard intervened immediately, but Ibrahim and Nurdan Gunduz did not make it and were recovered dead, while the trafficker and another Turkish citizen who is also being prosecuted in Turkey and wanted to escape to Greece were transported unharmed to Kos. The two young men struggled hand in hand in the icy waters, but did not succeed.
The news of the death of the young prosecutor and his wife was not reported by the pro-government media in Turkey. However, the last photo of the tragic couple, taken on 10/11/2021 just before they made the decision to escape to Greece and uploaded by Ibrahim on his personal profile, went viral on social networks and became a symbol of a Turkey that unjustly and violently "eats" its own children.
The photo shows the couple sitting cuddled on a bench and gazing at the Leander Tower on the Bosphorus, perhaps planning a better future for their lives.
The comments, not many, but critical, of Erdogan's Turkey, seeking enemies everywhere, persecuting and driving Turkish citizens to their deaths, with the suspicion - sometimes - that they were simply followers of Gulen.
The satirical magazine LeMan, a red rag for Erdogan and the ruling AKP, dedicated its last page to the young couple who died while crossing the Aegean Sea to seek political asylum in Greece. In the picture, which refers to the last photo taken on the Bosphorus, there are two roses in place of the two young people. The caption underneath reads: "Prosecutor Ibrahim and wife Nurdan, expelled by government decree, died when their boat capsized while trying to cross to the island of Kos in Greece."
The offices of LeMan , one of Turkey's leading satirical magazines, have been occasionally attacked by supporters of President Tayyip Erdogan over criticism of him.
İbrahim Gündüz, who was arrested in September 2016 as part of the Gülen Movement investigation, was released after 15 months in T Osmaniye press prison. Gündüz, who was on trial for allegedly using Bylock, was sentenced to 6 years and 10 months in prison. His file was in the Supreme Court. Nurdan Gündüz, the clerk of the legislative decree, had decided not to prosecute.
Source: First Issue
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