This business ends in a Turkish ‘black arm’

This is a “chicken translation" that roughly means “This incident will end up at the police station.” Go and ask a Turkish-speaking friend if you don’t understand “chicken translation” and/or “black arm.”
 
“This business” I will write about has happened in a Turkish police station at Sultanbeyli, a conservative, low-income neighborhood on Istanbul’s Asian side. It is an infuriating story. It just shows there is nothing new about the “New Turkey” and that the same old police methods remain in place since they shot the film “Midnight Express.”

According to Doğan News Agency (DHA), it happened Monday night this week. The person at the center of the story is 26-year-old auto-dealer Ş.Ş., who went to the Sultanbeyli Fatih Police Center to pick up a subpoena. While he was walking out he saw two groups who had been in a fight and were at the police station. One of the sides asked him to mediate. Ş.Ş. talked to them briefly and went home since they were already at the police station.

About half-an-hour later he received a phone call from the police station inviting him to mediate between the two groups again, so Ş.Ş. returned to the station.

Take a break

Speaking to DHA, Ş.Ş. said: “They took me upstairs. One police officer said: ‘Who are you to mediate between them? Who do you think you are?’ He hit me. Then they wanted to send me to the hospital but when they saw that my relatives and friends were outside, they took me upstairs again. Without me understanding what was going on, they started hitting me with batons, mineral water bottles and the butts of their guns on my head and hands. [Belgin’s note: I was short of breath here and took a few minutes off. Why don’t you do so as...