Catherine and Monica: Two friends share their stories

My friend and I were on the night bus to Antalya. At the dinner stop I left my bag in the bus and when we got back it had been moved. One of the bus attendants had moved my bag back a few seats. We asked why but since we don’t speak turkish and he didn’t speak english so we just sat down. I after a few hrs he told my friend she could sit on seat behind me. I move around alot so i told her to do it so she could sleep. I can’t sleep on buses so i just listened to music with my eyes closed. I noticed he moved a passenger on the seat opposite me to another seat. At about 3am i had turned to face the window when i felt something on my lower back. He had pulled my top up a bit and was rubbing. I turned to see what it was and saw the attendant who quickly removed his hand and walked to the back of the bus. A while later my frind moved to the seat next to me because someone had been touching her hair while she slept.
We didn’t say anything until we got to the bus stop where we put in a complaint with the bus company. Unfortunately they were no help at all. They just made us feel worse. I was taken into the bus on my own and the four men (two bus attendants and two from the bus station) were almost shouting. He told them that he had been asking me if I wanted tea. He hadn’t. I tried to tell them what happened but the man in charge who seemed annoyed that i couldn’t speak turkish just pointed to the seat and asked “sex?” I said no and he said something about writing it up and that was it. By now we were all a bit loud. They just didn’t care at one point one of the attendants made a comment that made them all laugh. That made me so angry i just told him to do whatever they wanted and that i would just tell my side on trip advisor and anywhere else i could. Written by Monica.

Hi, catherine writing now. Firstly we have loved almost all of my time in Turkey. The acheological sites around urfa were amazing, gobekli tepe and the mosaic dig in central urfa, I would not like to put people and myself off travelling in turkey due to one creepy and violating experience. What happened to me wasn’t as sexual or violating as what occured to my friend, nor does it make me as furious as i am for her. After being moved to sit in the seat behind monica (allowing more legroom) sometime in the early hours of the morning i felt a prodding in my side, half asleep i thought it was a child throug the seat gap so i pulled my ski jacket that had keeping my legs warm further around me stuffing it down the sides and did not feel much more for awhile. As you do with annoying children and youths I ignored him and hoped he would get bored and fall asleep so i would not have to wake up completely and move. I had the hood separated from my jacket resting over my eyes to block light, then I remember coming slightly out of a doze with my hair irritating my face. Later around four in the morning i became completely awake when I felt a hand stroking accross the side of my face and hair. I saw the hand was not a childs. I moved accross the isle to the seats accross from monica. I was a bit stunned. And awake I realised that the back row with mr creepy hands was used by the bus attendents to sleep on. I did not speak any turkish besides hello and thank you and did not know who to make the complaint to. I did not tell monica until she told me she wanted to make a complaint. I know these creepy hands was one of the bus attendants but did not know which one. I have a suspicion that it was both that covered for each other.

This expience sucked and I hope that karma bites them in the arse.

On a last note. We have met so many other friendly people in Turkey. We have covered up, enjoyed local food and culture been nice to all we meet and have had many great exchanges in conversations english, spanish, sign language, diagrams, broken german and with our handful of Turkish words. Goodluck to all. And if anyone knows how to put this complaint into the bus company “has diyarkabir” can you tell me how. Also should we put the complaint into the police or the tourist police?

Dina’s Story: It happened half an hour ago

It happened half an hour ago (it’s Feb 15 00:07 Istanbul time). I was coming home from my friends place. It’s a 15 min walk, on the 5th minute of which I noticed a guy walking behind me. When we approached a park he suddenly came up to me and said something in Turkish. The street was well-lighted, but no people around. I ignored him until he came even closer and said he wanted to become my “arkadaş” (making friends at midnight?). I noticed a car coming in our direction and when it neared us I yelled at the guy as loud as I could (so that the driver noticed us) to leave me alone. He did not. He kept following me. Then I entered a “bakkal”, where I usually buy stuff, and asked the cashier for directions to the nearest police station (I should have called them instead). I followed the directions, but in Istanbul it’s impossible to find a place you’re looking for. Besides, by then I lost the stalker from my sight. I returned home and waited for somebody else to enter my apartment building with.

Hollaback Istanbul in Radikal!

Interview w/ founder Kacie Kocher and 2 page spread on our organization. Turkish-only.