years of torment in solitary confinement, intolerable surveillance and humiliation. It will provoke Divine wrath. It will put this country to shame. I am reminding you. Our firmest refuge and shield is:

For us God suffices, and He is the Best Disposer of Affairs.1 * God suffices me, there is no god but He; in Him do I place my trust — He the Sustainer of the Throne [of Glory] Supreme!2

***

In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate.

And from Him do we seek help

[This petition, which after eighteen years’ silence I am compelled to present to the court and a copy of which I am sending to Ankara, comprises my written objections concerning the indictment, which I am obliged to put forward.]

This is a summary of a short defence speech: it should be known that it is exactly what I twice told the public prosecutor and police inspector, and on the third occasion the police chief and six or seven inspectors and police, who three times came to search my house in Kastamonu; and what I said in reply to the questions of the public prosecutor in Isparta, and the Courts of Denizli and Afyon. It is like this:

I told them: I have been living alone for eighteen to twenty years. I lived for eight years in Kastamonu opposite the police station, and in other places for twenty years, under constant surveillance and supervision, and the place where I was staying was searched on several occasions, but not the slightest hint or sign of anything related to this world or politics was found. If there had been anything irregular on my part and the police and judiciary did not know, or they did know but ignored it, then surely they are answerable to a greater extent than me. And if not, why, although