------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the June 21, 2001 issue of Workers World newspaper ------------------------- 23 DEAD IN TURKEY'S HELLHOLES: HEROIC POLITICAL PRISONERS STARVE RATHER THAN SUBMIT By Cemile Cakir Behind iron bars, a heroic battle is going on in Turkey, deep in the hellholes of the prisons. Beginning last Oct. 20, about 1,000 Turkish political prisoners went on a hunger strike. They are resisting the imposition of a new, brutal, super-isolation prison system known as the F-type system. The F-type system isolates all prisoners and puts them in tiny cells. It is modeled on U.S. super-maximum behavior- modification/isolation prisons. The new system is aimed at breaking down the high level of solidarity and organization among Turkish prisoners, who have always been housed in large prison wards. The prisoners have been resisting with the only weapon they have--their lives. As of the second week in June, they have been on hunger strike for over 236 days. It is without doubt the longest resistance hunger strike ever. Twenty-three hunger strikers have already died. Fifty have lost their memory and mental faculties due to the hunger- associated Vernickle-Korsakoff syndrome. Of the 23 who died, four are prisoners' relatives who joined the hunger strike on the outside. In addition, 31 prisoners were killed in a bloody massacre when the Turkish army attacked 21 prisons with bombs and chemical weapons on Dec. 19. At the beginning most of the hunger strikers were from three leftist groups: DHKP-C--the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front; TKP-ML--the Communist Party of Turkey Marxist-Leninist; and TIKB--the Communist Workers Party. As the strike progressed, members of some other groups joined in. MASSACRE INSTEAD OF MEDIATION At first no one was able to hear their voices. By the time the hunger strike reached its 40th day, some organizations and progressive people began to take an interest in it. Outside support became very strong. Some writers, journalists, actors and other prominent people began to support the strike. There were demonstrations in cities around Turkey and throughout Europe. A group of famous progressive people--including the writer Yasar Kemal and the journalist Oral Calislar--tried to mediate between the political prisoners and the Turkish government. But even while negotiating, the Turkish government had a different plan. This plan--to attack the prisoners--had reportedly been in preparation for more than a year. By December, it was thought that a settlement was imminent and the hunger strike would end. Instead, on Dec. 19, soldiers and prison guards attacked 21 prisons with bulldozers, drills, bombs and chemical weapons. Thirty-one political prisoners and two soldiers died in this bloody massacre. After the massacre, all the surviving political prisoners were brought to F-type prisons. They were tortured. Most were wounded. Instead of being hospitalized, the wounded were put in tiny cells. After this bloody assault, the number of hunger strikers rose to 2,000. The strike continues to this day. WAR AGAINST LEFT AND KURDS Why all of these bloody massacres and deaths? The Turkish government has been waging a war against leftists and Kurdish people, whom it sees as its biggest enemies. While resistance has been very strong, so has oppression. There has been a succession of military takeovers. Each time the army took over the government, it put many leftists and Kurdish people in jail. But the prisoners learned to turn the jail into a school for struggle. Because of this, the prisons have been a big problem for the Turkish government. Whenever they wanted to break down the socialist resistance, they first attacked the prisons. Turkey has been known for its prisons' bad conditions, torture and killings of prisoners by prison guards and soldiers. For instance, in 1996, prison guards and soldiers attacked Kurdish political prisoners and killed 11 of them in Diyarbakir prison. Prison guards and soldiers attacked political prisoners and killed 10 of them in Ulucanlar prison last year. After prison guards and soldiers attacked political prisoners in Burdur prison this year, one prisoner's arm was cut off. It was later found in a dog's mouth. These are only a few examples of the government's bloody tactics. This isn't the first mass hunger strike in Turkish prisons. Political prisoners went on a hunger strike in Metris prison in Istanbul in 1984. Four died of starvation. The strike ended after 72 days. Their demands were to end torture in prison and not to have to wear prison uniforms. Before this hunger strike, prisons were torture centers. After the hunger strike the situation changed little. Another mass hunger strike took place in 1996. At that time, almost all the political prisoners in all the prisons went on hunger strike for the same demands. Twelve people died; most of the survivors became ill. That hunger strike ended on the 79th day. GOVERNMENT REPRESSES SUPPORT The State Security Court has made it a crime to write about the hunger strike. The organizations that had supported it were put under investigation. For instance, the Turkish Human Rights Association (IHD), the Turkish Doctor's Union (TTB), and the Istanbul lawyers' organization Barosu were targeted for investigation. The government closed six branches of the IHD. The state prosecutor sued the TTB and Istanbul Barosu because they showed interest in the hunger strike. To make people forget the massacre in the Turkish prisons, the Turkish government passed an amnesty law. But this law didn't cover the political prisoners. It was only for non- political prisoners. Before the amnesty went into effect there were 72,000 prisoners in Turkey. Some 12,000 were political prisoners, including leftists, Kurds, writers, journalists and members of fervent Muslim organizations. After the amnesty law, only the political prisoners remained in the prisons. Most ordinary prisoners were released. Now there is a big economic crisis in Turkey. Public interest has turned in a different direction, and the political prisoners' hunger strike has receded to the background. But the prisoners' struggle has far from ended. International support and solidarity are needed now more than ever. The group Justice for Turkish Political Prisoners is asking people to write to Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit demanding an end to the F-system and attacks on the prisoners. Forward letters to: JTPP, c/o International Action Center, 31 Germania St., Jamaica Plain, MA 02130. The IAC and Justice for Turkish Political Prisoners are holding a solidarity meeting with Turkish political prisoners on June 17 at 2 p.m. at the Community Church of Boston, 565 Boylston St. in Boston's Copley Square. Who knows how many more people will die or how many may survive without any memory? But world history will never forget this struggle, which has been written in blood and torture. [Cakir is a former Turkish political prisoner.] - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org) ------------------ This message is sent to you by Workers World News Service. 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