Ibrahim Suleiman, who is a faculty member in University of Aleppo, was tortured and oppressed for having given lectures not approved by the regime.
Ibrahim Suleiman En Nayıf-Abu Salah: I am from Maarra District of Aleppo, in Syria. I am a faculty member in the Department of Arabic Language and Literature at University of Aleppo. I am 48 years old. I have 4 children. My son is a student at University of Aleppo, and one og my daughters is Pharmacist.
ORSAM: Could you tell us about your experiences in Syria and the reasons why you came to Turkey?
Ibrahim Suleiman En Nayıf-Abu Salah: I was a Syrian nationalist, a good citizen and an objective academician. I was objective, because I knew that leaders were temporary and the homeland was permanent. If you entrust your country to someone, you have to keep an eye on it just like you entrust your property. If you are a good observer, don't worry. You can criticize and defend as you wish on the right way. However, you cannot be informed about the course of events if you do not know anything about observation. The country you entrusted safely slowly slips away from your hands. From this point of view, I started to give lectures against the injustices, mistakes and oppressions. I have never resorted to brute force. I have never taken part in actions. I only expressed my opinion. I have not adopted any will coming by force. Military men, administrators, ministry officials know me and people around me very well. They wanted me to change my attitude, and to give pro-Assad advices. These demands even turned into oppression. I resisted, I did not do what they wanted me to do. In the first place, they only warned me. Then their attitude changed. In the dead of night, they took me away from home and brought me somewhere I did not know and tortured me. I was kept at a place which looked like a prison. I heard the screams of people around me. I saw that 40-50 people were kept captive in 16-20 m2 rooms of 4×4. They showed all those in order to intimidate me. However, I did not change my way. They resorted to various torturing methods such as bastinado, strapping etc. They told me to leave the country. Finally I left my home, family behind, and came to Turkey. I had some savings. I live in Turkey without any problem also thanks to the financial support from the people around me. Homeland means everything to me. Nevertheless, I will go back to Syria as long as cruel people continue to stay in power.
* This interview was made by Feyyat Özyazar in Reyhanlı district of Hatay, on 5 November 2012.
