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(This was read out in an auditorium of the University of Brussels or ULB yesterday, which is why it starts off in the first person. Steve K.) STATE TERRORISM AND THE PEOPLE’S RESISTANCE IN TURKEY I would like to speak to you about a “scourge”, which, to quote from the words of Prime Minister Ecevit, or Foreign Minister Ismail Cem, has “devastated Turkey, our country, and made our people suffer” – namely, terrorism. However, we, the oppressed of this country, do not assign the same meaning to this word. As far as the authorities are concerned, every kind of protest for the the most elementary rights is a subversive act which threatens the sanctity of the constitution and the territorial integrity of the country and must be combated with all means available. So demonstrating against the war, for a pay raise or even to demand bread requires you to risk your life. Even a hunger strike, one of the most passive forms of resistance, is considered to be a terrorist act! Recently, doctors who have refused to carry out forcible medical intervention against hunger strikers on the grounds that it causes them to lose their memory have themselves been put on trial by the State Security Courts. To understand the scale of state terror which rages in Turkey, you only have to go through the report on the violations of human rights committed in the course of the last nine months: 762 people were tortured or ill-treated. 1,921 have been accused for the opinions they hold and are threatened with 3,758 years in prison. 91 have been jailed for the opinions they hold for a total of 125 years. There have been 43 extra-judicial executions, and 124 have been killed by persons unknown. 135 democratic mass organisations, including trade unions, have been raided by the police. 180 publications have been confiscated. Censorship equally affects radio and TV. In fact, the Superior Television and Radio Council has stopped 3,465 days’ worth of broadcasts. The terrorism of the F-Type prisons But without doubt the most sophisticated and formidable torture is high security F-Type prisons which consist of isolation cells. Without any social contacts, the prisoner is left to himself, which gives rise to mental and physical illnesses. But above all they are at the mercy of jailers who have never hesitated to kill even when the prisoners were in dormitories in the former prisons. You can imagine the risks run by prisoners in small individual cells. On October 20, 2000, after more than a year of protests aimed at informing the public and to put pressure on the authorities to halt the construction of the F-Type cell prisons, 99 revolutionary prisoners from different prisons went on a hunger strike called a “Death Fast”. Today, after 14 months of the Fast, after assaults in the prisons and massacres, after intravenous feeding by force which has caused memory loss among more than 300 resisters, after various lies and slanders, after various manoeuvres aimed at dividing the prisoners such as conditional releases of some prisoners in order to weaken the strike, after the death of 82 prisoners and their supporters, 172 prisoners are still on hunger strike, more than ever to make the fascist authorities give in and respect their right to live in dignity, to resist and to organise. The war in Afghanistan and terrorism in the Armutlu district of Istanbul Since the attack on September 11, it could be said that the authorities have the wind in their sails. On November 5, profiting from the international climate, the police and various sections of the armed forces invaded Armutlu, a part of Istanbul where a number of recently freed resisters and their supporters were on the Fast in order to break the silence. The Istanbul chief of police Hasan Ozdemir spoke of an “operation by helicopter if necessary to restore order in the district”. Rooftop snipers shot people, and armoured cars charged at the barricades of youths who were protecting the “houses of resistance” where the hunger strikers were. During this attack, four people died, burned or asphyxiated by the tear gas and incendiary bombs thrown at the houses of resistance. On November 13, the day Kabul fell, Armutlu was raided a second time. One of the houses of resistance was turned into a police station and other houses were destroyed. Behaviour typical of Israel in the Occupied Territories. Economic terrorism by the IMF Acting in this way, the fascist regime wants to send a clear message to an entire population condemned to poverty and hunger by the draconian programmes of the IMF and international capitalism. Today the IMF proposes to make 150,000 workers redundant in order to “put the economy right”. The people are exhausted and grumbling. But by criminalising all movements of protest and using F-Type prisons, the authorities want to stop the workers from struggling for their livelihoods. The price of bread never stops rising. The trade union Turk Is found that there was an average price rise of 64.2 % for basic foodstuffs. The price of medicine has risen by 98|% and lozenges and pills have to be sold one by one because they are so expensive. But this disaster only affects the people. Things are getting even better for the rich. The bank of the industrialist Sabanci (the Akbank) has had the greatest profits. While the minimum wage in Turkey is 107 million lira (81 Euros), the breakfast of the economy minister Kemal Dervis, former no 2 of the World Bank, costs 170 million lira (130 Euros). This revolting injustice and massive gulf between rich and poor is a declaration of war on the people and in fact is terrorism. People’s resistance fights fascist terrorism We have no choice to resist in order to oppose this terrorism. Revolutionary prisoners whose only weapon is their own bodies and their faith in victory show that it is possible to live free and undefeated. With their sacrifice, they are shaking the fortresses of tyranny. This extraordinary long-term resistance must inspire all those who resolutely oppose imperialist globalisation and its ideology of “everyone for themselves”. Our resisters know that after their deaths, their spirit will live on in the struggles of all the oppressed and exploited of the entire world. Today they salute you with pride and enthusiasm. PUT A STOP TO STATE TERRORISM AND WAR! LET US TEAR DOWN THE F-TYPE PRISONS! DHKC Information Bureau, Brussels _________________________________________________________________ Chat with friends online, try MSN Messenger: http://messenger.msn.com ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
