Gülbahar Celilova was born in Kazakhstan. Starting from 1997, she engaged in commercial activities between Kazakhstan and China for twenty years. In 2017, she was detained when she went to East Turkestan/Urumqi to buy goods. Although she wasn't guilty, she was thrown into Chinese dungeons and tortured.
Celilova, told Milli Gazete daily about the days she suffered under the Chinese persecution.
Can we get to know you? How did you meet the Chinese persecution?
Salam alaikom. I'm Gülbahar Celilova. I was born in Kazakhstan. Since 1997, I have been engaged in business activities between Kazakhstan and China for twenty years. When we arrived in 2017, I went to Urumqi to buy goods, settled in a hotel in Urumqi, and three policemen came to pick me up. It was China's National Security staff who took me away from the hotel. I was picked up from the hotel at eight in the morning, and they did a phone call for about six hours. When nothing came out of the phone, they took me down to the basement and interrogated me. It was like a police station. During the interrogation to me, 'Why did you go to Turkey?' they said. They constantly ask me about it, 'What are you doing in Turkey, when and with whom you meet?' As. I told them, 'I was doing only trade between Kazakhstan-Urumqi by going to Turkey. I told them that I had nothing to do with Turkey I go to other countries too. Then they asked me, ‘Do your parents, your children perform pray?’ Then they brought me a Chinese paperwork. I didn't speak Chinese and Uighur. I studied Russian. I said, 'Bring me Russian documents so that I can understand them.' And I said I wanted to hire a lawyer. If I need to sign after consulting a lawyer, I said I would.
Did the police tell you why you were detained after you were detained? They also asked you questions like, Do you pray? Do they consider praying as a crime?
I was later informed in the documents that were given to me that I was asked to sign and accused me of terrorism. They tried to get me to sign a paper saying I had a terrorist connection and I confessed.
Were you taken to the concentration camp after they questioned you, or was there any other process?
It was around 11:00 a.m. After they got nothing, they took me straight to jail. It is very famous in Urumqi, there is Senken Prison, in fact they had to send me to concentration camps, but because they could not fit people because the camps were full, I turned a part of Senken Prison to camp. There were women and men there. When we left, they robbed me naked. They did a blood test, a urine test. They went through a check in every way from the tip of my hair to the tip of my nail. I understand they're doing a pregnancy check. Because if anybody's pregnant, they drop the child in the belly and put them in jail. I was directly imprisoned because I wasn't pregnant.
"I shouted when I got there, I could not believe what I saw"
You stayed in the part of Senken Prison, which was turned into a concentration camp, what did you experience there, and how long did the persecution last?
They locked me up in room 704 at Senken Prison. The guards who took me there were very strict, very hard. They pushed me violently into the room. There was a lamp in the room. It was very uncomfortable. Very little lighting. There were people from 14 to 80. There were only forty women in my ward. In a small room, forty people and twenty of them lay straight like a needle. I screamed when I got there. I couldn't believe what I saw there. Those who were standing with one hand were handcuffed to each other.
That was the handcuffs at the concentration camp. I stayed there for a year and three months. They tied these to my feet. Every day we were sleeping and eating with this handcuff, weighing five kilos. We lived with it.
I cried a lot, shouted, I couldn't believe it, I questioned why I was there, I started screaming and crying. There was a prisoner called Yipo. Because he speaks Chinese, he communicates with the prison guards. Yipo said to me, 'Sister, don't shout or cry. If you shout and cry, they will impose harsh punishments on you.'
"THEN, I HAVE BEEN RECOGNIZED THAT DRUGS THAT CHANGED WOMEN HORMONES"
They gave us medicine every two days. They made me drink. It was not clear what medicine this drug was. They gave us shots every ten days. I didn't understand it in the early days, but later I realized that it was drugs that changed female hormones. Our brains seemed to be damaged. Some things were too heavy. We started not to feel the pain. We started to lose our femininity.
Four people came in once a month. Three men and one woman… Men had guns. The men were at the top of the room with a gun. The female guard came and robbed us naked. He put our hands on our heads, sit and get up. Our armpits, etc. whether something was written or something was being checked.
"WE WERE HARDLY SINGING THE SONGS PRAISING THE COMMUNIST PARTY"
There was a dark room to punish the prisoners. From 9am onwards we were singing the anthems of the Communist Party and singing songs praising the Communist Party. We had to say that. If we didn't say, they wouldn't give you the simplest breakfast. Noon and noon were the same. We do it every day.
The interrogation process was also going on in Senken Prison. Some questions were asked to us, like, 'What have you done in the past?' 'Who can you turn us in?' There were two places to query. Someone was in the basement. The ward we were in was the basement. There was a floor beneath it. In fact, a few times more... That's where the interrogation was. There were cameras in the interrogation rooms. There were four or five cameras in each room... and there was a place outside. There was no camera there. They didn't question me within 89 days of being there. I was finally interrogated on day 89. There were those who were interrogated and arrived 24 hours and 72 hours later. We saw traces of assault on those who went to the interrogation. At night, there were prisoners who put their heads on our knees and wanted compassion. When we put our hands on their heads, they seemed to have no bones in their heads because of the blows. Some of them had their nails ripped off, there were those who couldn't raise their hands. There were too many assault marks on their bodies. They wanted to shout when we held them, but they shut their mouths with their hands and shed tears from their eyes silently.
When they contacted you, did they say anything about why they persecuted you? Was this cruelty caused by their hatred for your religion?
I didn't see a woman who said, "They brought me here because I did this." Almost all of us have persecuted us because we are Muslims and because of our ethnic identity.
They made us move around the wards. I wrote the names of around 200 women in the wards where I stayed for a year and three months. Just in case. I wrote that I'd lose my mind and forget. I have memories one by one.
What has been done in the concentration camp for you to give up your religion, to get away from Islam?
There was a public toilet in the room and that toilet had no glass or door. We all had to focus on one point. And the point we had to focus on was towards the toilet. The cameras were there. If we leaned to our right, to our left or to our front, they would come and say to us, "What are you doing, praying?" In addition, every day for twenty minutes, they showed a photo of Chinese President Xi Jinping, 'Who is this' they were asking? In response to this question, they wanted us to say 'our head of state'. And every week they wrote us something like Regret petition. 'I regret not to know Chinese', 'I regret not to give my children to a Chinese school'.
Were there children in the concentration camp?
There was no distinction between men and women, no age discrimination. There were only women in my ward. Women between the ages of 14 and 80. What I was most impressed with at the camp was the introduction of women who were newly born. A woman who gave birth in a hospital in the morning was brought to prison in the evening. What happened to the newborn? Neither her mother nor us knew what it was. One day a woman brought me to sit with her breast was still dripping milk. Then they gave me medicine. The milk stopped immediately. With chemical drugs. This thing had a huge impact on me.
They didn't even let us wash our hands after we met our needs when we went to the toilet in the camp. They did not allow us to touch the water in any way with the idea that we would perform ablution when we washed our hands.
We couldn't use water and we had lice in our hair from morning to evening, and we started to have wounds on our hands and body. At first, we didn't understand what was happening, we thought if it was the effect of drugs. We told the guards that we wanted to use the water. Then they shortened all of our hair with a machine and put it back in the room. They shaved all the women's hair.
Interview: Bekir Şirin Photo: Kemal Sala