Artist Michael Dickinson reveals his Turkish jail hell

Jul 31 2009 by Neil McKay, The Journal

AN artist who was cleared of mocking the Prime Minister of Turkey by portraying him as a dog has told of being locked in a cell with murderers, having a police gun fired at him during a midnight pursuit, and telling fortunes on the streets of Istanbul to make ends meet.

The revelation unfolded yesterday when Michael Dickinson, 59, gave a talk at Durham’s Shakespeare Hall, having fled Turkey last month.

He had been cleared of mocking the Turkish Prime Minister in a collage but fled the country after hearing his acquittal had been overturned.

The English teacher, writer, actor and artist is now staying with friends in Consett, County Durham, after hearing a late-night TV report last month saying the acquittal had been quashed and a new trial was pending.

During his talk yesterday, Mr Dickinson described his 10 days in two Turkish jails by reading extracts from his diary made in prison. His ordeal was sparked by a collage he exhibited in 2006, entitled Best in Show, depicting the Turkish PM Tayyip Erdogan as a dog receiving a rosette from President Bush.

Wearing a stars and stripes leash, with a nuclear missile for a tail, the piece featuring the prime minister was called Good Boy.

He was locked up and remanded in custody in a jail in the capital, Istanbul, where he was placed in a “sweaty, cramped cell” with 11 other prisoners, including at least two who had been convicted of murder.

But he said they showed him “nothing but kindness, one even giving me his mattress”.

After three days he was told he was going to be released, but instead he was placed in a police van and taken to a jail in another part of Turkey.