Shocked to be accused of being a spy in Turkey

I was in Izmir, taking pictures of sights. At lunch, suddenly, four plain-clothed policemen appeared. They asked what I was doing. They thought I was a spy.

Smyrna

Early in the morning, I wanted to visit Smyrna, the ruins of a Greek and Roman ancient city from the fourth century BC. Foundations inspired by Alexander the Great. Today you find this sight in the middle of Izmir. The basements with the arches are fascinating, but the ancient area is not so large. I carried on finding more sights to see. I managed to take all the pictures for this post in Izmir before the interrogation.

 

Even a spy needs food.

At the fish restaurant

At lunchtime, I found a fish restaurant in the tourist shopping streets; even though this was off-season, there were crowds of people in the street, not so much in the restaurant.

After I had made my order, I went to the restroom. I came back and sat down to look through the pictures I had done this morning. I like to sort and delete photographs when it is fresh.

The food appeared, and I was eating when someone suddenly pulled the chair opposite me. My first thought was that someone wanted to move the chair to another table. But the man pulling out the chair sat down, and then I noticed three more men standing around me. They were all plane-clothed, and the man on the chair presented a police ID.

Thousands of thoughts went through my head, but my main concern was that I had the Grindr app on my phone, a forbidden app to use in Turkey. Not one of the police officers could speak any English. They talked to me in Turkish, but I did not understand. Then they tried to translate through a translation app, but still challenging to understand what they wanted. They were asking what I was doing. I am just a tourist that was walking and taking pictures. I showed them my passport, and they wanted to see my phone and the images I had taken.

My biggest worry was that someone should send me a message on Grindr while they were studying my phone; you never know what kind of pictures you receive. After much back and forth, I got my phone back. This thing lasted probably about fifteen minutes. They shook my hand and went off.

This experience was horrible, and I did not understand why they had targeted me. It was an open kitchen in the restaurant, and one of the chefs could speak some English. He told me the police officers had thought I was a spy. It was first later I realized it must have been the people in the restaurant that thought I was a spy and reported me?

I don’t know what was that suspicious with me, maybe because I went to the bathroom, looked at my phone, or kept my cap on indoors? Anyway, it must be suitable for president Erdoğan to know he has such dedicated citizens that report anything suspicious.

Izmir may be a lovely city in the summer, but this experience did not make me want to return. Maybe it could happen anywhere in Turkey, but it gives a sour taste to the mouth. However, there are some beautiful places in Turkey, like Cappadocia, Pamukkale, and Ephesus.