06/04/2023 | Writer: Aslı Alpar
Journalist Ajda Ender, who has been exposed to systematic transphobic discrimination by her neighbors, will be put on trial due to the complaint of her neighbors’ lawyer! Ajdar Ender spoke of the process.
Journalist Ajda Ender, who has been subjected to systematic transphobic discrimination, insults and violence by her neighbors for eighteen years, will now be put on trial due to the complaint of her neighbors, who violated her right to housing!
Ajda Ender, who was repeatedly exposed to psychological and physical violence by her neighbors and whose right to housing was violated, is being accused of insulting to lawyer Murat B. by her neighbors and their lawyer. Earlier on trial, which will be heard at the İstanbul 26th Criminal Court of First Instance in Çağlayan Courthouse on Thursday May 11, we talked her eighteen-year struggle with Ajda Ender.
How was the process, in which you were subjected to systematic violence and violation of right to housing over and over and continued for eighteen years, began?
In 2003, I left home and moved to my mother’s house in Şişli due to being exposed to violence by my father because of my gender identity. At the beginning, they were staring at me, soon after they started to keep an eye on me, and then it turned into harassment in time, they were always crossing my path saying “there is something wrong with you”.
Two years later, their harassment went up. They started to fling dirt at me by saying “We hear so much noise during your sex” just due to their hate against my gender identity. Claiming that I am acting as a prostitute at home, they spread this denigration in the apartment. Surely, sex working is work but I am not a sex worker. I told them that their speech doesn’t reflect the truth and also hateful.
Their harassment didn’t come to an end and went on increasingly… They hung a handwritten note to the entrance of the apartment in the same year; it was stated that some sexual noises were coming from my home and they would make the vice squad to raid my home within the context of the note. I took the note and told that I would make a complaint about the perpetrator. I was overtly exposed to slander and targeted.
The violence escalated gradually each time. They knocked at my door, hit the door with a knife, they cut my electric and internet cables. They continued this periodically for years. I had to call an expert in order to make them repair may times, I also had financial damage as a result of their attitude.
In 2011, R. T., one of my neighbors from downstairs, came to my door once again, he was banging on the door… I thought someone needed help and they were asking for help, however I encountered a catastrophic scene as soon as I opened the door; he attacked me, said “You fucking transvestite, I will kill you, you son of a bitch” and continued his insults. Their justification for coming to my door was “the men constantly coming to my home”… As if it was not enough that they were always spying on who comes in and out of my home, they attacked me by legitimating their behavior.
Did you go to the police?
Yes, I went to Feriköy Police Station after the incident. They didn’t take my statement there… I told my experiences to the police, the psychological violence, the financial and moral damage, the verbal harassment I was exposed to… I told them that my neighbors had been disturbing me for years and this psychological violence had turned into a physical attack on the day of the incident. And I added that I had wanted to make a complaint about them.
Police officer did not take my statement by saying “Well you are living in the same apartment building, don’t mess with them, they continue to disturb you”. I didn’t file a complaint, but that day I got the message of what I am going through today…
Police: “Are you aware that all these are because of your physical appearance”
However they filed a suit against you… …
Exactly right… These attacks went on from 2011 to 2019 with varying intensity. They even hung a photograph of me and my darling in the apartment,, I wonder from where they found it, to all floors. I went through all the floors and took them. Isn’t it violation of right of privacy?
Did you go to the police this time?
It passed through my mind but I changed my mind because they had not taken my statement before. Until the day when they filed a complaint against me… In 2019 they came to my door once again, this time in large numbers and banging on the door with knives… I called the police, I said that I was lack of security and was in fear of my life and demanded them to come and take the attackers. The police said that if they came they had to take me as well with the attackers and they didn’t come.
Meanwhile, the attackers also called the police claiming that I was engaging in “prostitution”. The police came, took my identity car as if I was the attacker and guilty, they tried to take me to the police station. I took my identity card back and told them that I would go on my own.
I went to police station with my mother in case something happens. N.A. and S.A, upstairs neighbors, continued to insult and swear at, when I went out to arrive the police station…
Did they take your statement this time?
Yes they did, but it was ridiculous…. Firstly I went to Public Relations Department of Feriköy Police Station. It was completely dark inside. I told everything from the very beginning. The police officer listened to me and said “Are you aware that all these are because of your physical appearance” in front of my mother. I felt really bad because my mother was also there. I demanded to talk after he got my mother out of there, but he didn’t let her out… He took my statement, I mean he pretended to take my statement. He noted the insult but he didn’t take battering and housebreaking into the written record.
Then my mother demanded to file a complaint because she was a witness of some incidents. While they were taking her statement the police officer said condescendingly “Sister, what are you going to complaint about?”
Did your complaint work? Were they called to testify?
They were called to testify one week later thanks to my insistence, I had to call them every day in a week and they called them to testify. The police officer said if they came, he would take their statements….
Can you imagine? I am talking about the people who threatened me with death, tried to enter my home with a knife, insulted me, slandered me and assaulted me… After all strings I pulled the police took their statements. They broke the lock on my door and I could not enter inside many times, they shout as “transsexual” when they see me… You have to see the knife marks on my door…
What are they accusing you of?
Insult…
Following the incident, I went to Çağlayan Courthouse and turned to prosecution. The prosecutor called them to testify, and they perjured each other. They said “She takes men in her home, she prostitutes, she is transsexual, transvestite and schizophrenic” within the context of their testimony. They also added “These are all against our common law, traditions and public morality. We don’t want transvestite in our apartment building and neighborhood” to their discriminatory statements against sex workers, transsexuals and people living with psychologic problems.
The prosecutor entered a non-prosecution decision regarding my complaint and launched an investigation claiming that I insulted their lawyer Murat B. and shared personal information unlawfully...
Their lawyer Murat B. is the person who attacked me and insulted me several times. I filed a complaint against the lawyer to the bar association. I issued restraining orders against both my neighbors in the same apartment who threatened me with death, and the lawyer until 2022, however the orders have been overturned many times…
“Transphobic and heteropatriarchal family values were placed above fundamental rights”
There was a period you could not enter your apartment during pandemic…
Unfortunately yes. They issued restraining order by false denunciations, I couldn’t enter my home due to their false reports issued by fabricating crimes.
As a result while I was waiting for the trial to begin I filed against them, I will be judged within the scope of the case filed against me by them on May 11.
What would you like to say for your trial on May 11?
In brief, I was repeatedly subjected to transphobia and hatred at every step of the process due to claiming to perform one of my fundamental rights, right to housing. Transphobic and heteropatriarchal family values were placed above fundamental rights. My right to life was threatened, law enforcement officers didn’t take my statement, the prosecutor entered a non-prosecution decision and I, who was subjected to systematic hatred, will be put on trial…
Being equalized with trans people isn’t preferred in the society. I am a journalist, I want to live in my dwelling like everyone else. However they don’t want to be equalized with me. They wish transgenders and LGBTI+s to be invisible, to disappear, not to able to shelter to be homeless. This hatred is too much.
Despite hate, I invite everyone to the İstanbul 26th Criminal Court of First Instance in Çağlayan Courthouse on Thursday May 11, at 11.15 am.
Translation: Selma Koçak
Tags: human rights, women
