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Hope dies in Turkish prison hunger strike
45 lives lost as both sides spurn compromise
Owen Bowcott in Istanbul
Saturday January 19, 2002
The Guardian
Lale Colak was released from her prison sentence on her 27th
birthday, but never returned home to the family's cosy basement flat.
When she died, emaciated but smiling, she weighed less than six
stone. Her hair had turned white.
Earlier this month, after 222 days without solid food, she became the
45th self-inflicted fatality in what may already be the longest-
running hunger strike, or "death fast", in history.
Despite pressure from the Council of Europe this week for a
compromise in Turkey's prison regime, to prevent further deaths,
neither the country's justice ministry nor the Marxist revolutionary
groups which orchestrate th
e hunger strikes appear prepared to back down.
At least 140 inmates and a handful of sympathisers outside the jails are slowly
starving themselves in a protest against what they claim are "isolation cells" in
Turkey's new F-type prisons. One prisoner survived for more
than a year on water, sugar, salt and vitamin B1, but is said to have been left with
the mind of a child.
As prisoners slip into comas, state doctors are called in to assess whether they
should be freed temporarily on grounds of ill health. But seven teams of hunger
strikers have successively taken up the campaign, preferring
ideological martyrdom to political surrender
Colak's last days raised her family's hopes that she could be persuaded to abandon her
protest. Her mother, Gulsum, 53, had visited her in an F-type prison in Kartal and
pleaded with her. "She loved chocolate and I tried
to smuggle it in," Mrs Colak said, sitting cross-legged on her living room floor and
blinking back tears. "But the guards always found it and confiscated it.
"We talked about her coming home so we could have breakfast together. She didn't want
to die; she was very brave. She said: 'You don't know the terrible situation in
prisons, mother. We do this to make life better for all
humanity'."
Mrs Colak believes that the state delayed the release of her daughter on purpose.
"Eventually Lale was transferred to Bayrampasa prison hospital in Istanbul. We thought
she would be freed soon and stop the hunger strike.
She told me: 'Mum, if I'm released by December I should live. After that, I won't.'
"They didn't release her in time. When they said she could go on December 20 - her
birthday - she was virtually in a coma. The injections they gave failed to save her.
Even the doctors in jail were sad. Her body had shrun
k so small and she had been so beautiful."
Lale's 28-year-old sister, Dilek, was with her at the end: "She never thought she
would die," she said. "We'd talk about going to Rumeli castle, her favourite place in
Istanbul. In the last days she couldn't speak, her mo
uth was ulcerated. Her mind was going and her last movement was a slow smile."
The revolutionary groups organising the death fasts claim a political precedent in the
IRA's 1981 hunger strike. The immediate cause of the confrontation was the Turkish
government's determination to reassert its authorit
y. The justice minister, Hikmet Sami Turk, alleged that the old dormitory-style
institutions - with up to 60 people in overcrowded, communal quarters - were
controlled by "terrorist" groups who enforced their own discipli
ne. Members of the far-left organisations, which intermittently carry out gun and bomb
attacks, refused to be transferred to the new jails, claiming that the one or
three-person cells amounted to penal "isolation".
The first death fasts in protest at the move began on October 20 2000. A month later,
soldiers and police stormed 20 jails. By the end of the operation, 30 prisoners and
two prison gendarmes had been killed. Inmates alleg
ed that prisoners had been beaten, raped or tortured.
Forcibly removed to the F-type jails, the various revolutionary groups coordinated
teams of volunteers. Turkish political activists make a distinction between hunger
strikes, which may last only a week, and death fasts, w
here the intention is to continue to the bitter end. After a similar protest in 1996
they refined their tactics.
The 10 republicans who died in Northern Ireland's Maze prison in 1981 lasted for up to
70 days without food. Turkey's revolutionaries have devised a more protracted decline:
tea, water, vitamin B1 plus a little sugar and
salt are now permitted.
Lale Colak's political involvement stretched back into her teenage years. She was
arrested at 15 for taking part in a protest about the education system and, despite
being shot in the arm by police, was sentenced to three
months' detention. Jail sentences followed, culminating in six-and-a-half years for
alleged membership of a Maoist group. "But she wasn't a member of any party," her
mother insisted.
Some of those released from prison continue their fasts to the grave. Sevgi Erdogan,
of the Revolutionary People's Independence party, died last July after 264 days
without food.
In Gazimah, near Istanbul, another young activist this month restarted his death fast
at home. Deniz Bakir, 23, was jailed when he was 16 for membership of a Marxist party.
After 174 days without food, he was released las
t July after he had lost nearly half his body weight."If they don't find a solution",
he said, "I will fast until my death."
Hopes of a compromise have stalled. The Turkish Bar Association suggested allowing the
inmates to share a common area. The hunger strikers accepted the proposal, but the
government said no. This month, the justice ministe
r offered to allow "prisoners to associate in groups of no more than 10 for five hours
a week in areas determined by the prison administration". The prisoners rejected it.
No further talks are planned.
Cell-block martyrs
· Turkish government designs "F-Type" prisons with small cells to replace old jails
with dormitories which it says are run by terrorist groups
· First death fasts begin on November 20 2000. More than 40 inmates start refusing
food as a protest
· Police and soldiers raid jails on December 19 killing 30 prisoners
· Transferred leftwing groups order new teams to join hunger strike every few months
· In April 2001, first hunger strike deaths
· Lawyers suggest allowing prisoners in each block of three three-man cells to be
unlocked together, allowing better association rights. Prisoners accept idea
· Justice minister rejects compromise and makes alternative offer which prisoners turn
down
· Lale Colak dies in Bayrampasa prison hospital this month
· Council of Europe calls on Turkish government to allow prisoners
more time together outside cells
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2002
End<{{{
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