As Turkey joins Pentagon crusade
Police launch attacks on political prisoners
By Cemile Cakir
Boston
A right-wing Turkish newspaper reported on Nov. 4 that
members of a "terrorist organization" had occupied a small town
near Istanbul--Kucukarmutlu. In fact, political prisoners who
had been released from jail because of bad health had gone
there to continue a hunger strike to the death.
The next day, the Turkish police attacked the hunger
strikers and their supporters, killing four and wounding more
than 10. On Nov. 5, around 2:30 in the afternoon, 300 police
started the operation using CS gas, concussion grenades,
machine guns, tanks and bulldozers. The police attacked the
houses in which the hunger strikers were staying with bullets
and gas bombs.
After the first house was attacked, Ali Haydar Bozkurt
reportedly set himself on fire to protest this operation. The
police shot and wounded him. After the attack police took out
four bodies. They were hunger striker Arzu Guler and three
supporters: Sultan Yildiz, Bulent Durga and Baris Kas. Their
bodies were burned by the police and dragged on the ground.
Yildiz, Durga and Kas were killed by gunshots. A gas bomb
killed Guler. The police also arrested many people.
After this bloody operation, Police Chief Hasan Ozdemir said
the police hadn't killed them; they burned themselves. But
autopsies showed these people had been killed by gunshots.
After this massacre, some organization members sent
delegations to Kucukarmutlu to learn the truth. Delegations of
the Istanbul Office of the Human Rights Association (IHD) and
Contemporary Journalist Union (CHD) reported that police killed
the hunger strikers and supporters without any warning.
After the police attack, three prisoners--Kemal Ayhan, Nail
Cavus and Mahmut Ozturkmen--burned themselves in the repressive
F-type prisons to protest this bloody operation. Ayhan and
Cavus died.
The longest hunger strike
This longest hunger strike in world history started on Oct.
20 last year to protest the F-type prison system that means
isolation for political prisoners.
Before this system, inmates in Turkey used to live in
dormitories. The dormitory-type prison system provided them
solidarity and the possibility to resist. Resistance was very
high in the prisons. The Turkish government wanted to break
down this resistance and so it adopted an isolation system
created by the United States during the Cold War and used
against communists in Third World countries.
In the year 2000, the Turkish government started to build
F-type prisons. Even though there has been a lot of resistance,
the Turkish government hasn't given up on this system.
On Oct. 20 of last year, 780 prisoners went on a hunger
strike; 205 vowed to strike to the death. Three leftist groups
carried out this hunger strike: Revolutionary Popular
Liberation Army/Front, Turkish Revolutionary Communist Party
and Turkish Communist Party/Marxist-Leninist.
When many people started to support the hunger strikers, the
Turkish government made a plan to avoid negotiating. They
attacked the 20 prisons using machine guns, gas bombs,
bulldozers and unknown chemical agents. The government named
this bloody massacre "Return to Life." Thirty of the hunger
strikers and two soldiers were killed in this operation. Many
prisoners were seriously injured.
After the attack, all the political prisoners were put in
F-type jails. There they were threatened not only with
isolation but also with torture.
Numbers grew despite massacre
The hunger strikers haven't given up. After that massacre
their number increased to 2,000. They have been continuing to
hunger strike. As a result 41 have died--24 in the prisons and
nine others after their release from jail because of their
weakened physical condition. Eight were relatives of prisoners
who went on hunger strike outside the prisons in support.
Most of the strikers lost their mental ability and got
Wernica-Korsikoff syndrome. The Turkish government hasn't cared
about the prisoners' deaths. Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit and
Minister of Justice Hikmet Sami Turk said they would never
change their policies. The only thing they did was release the
prisoners whose health conditions were the worst.
Right now there are six F-type prisons in Turkey and five
more are being built. Only leftist political prisoners have
been put in these prisons.
Since the hunger strike started, oppression has increased,
especially against organizations supporting the strikers. These
include human rights organizations like the Istanbul Doctors'
Union, lawyers' unions, radio stations, newspapers and
magazines that have written about the hunger strike. Just
writing about the hunger strike was forbidden by the State
Security Court. Some 147 people have been arrested and put in
jail for demonstrating in support of the hunger strike. The
police closed six branches of the Human Rights Association.
This appalling situation is being virtually ignored in the
imperialist-dominated world media, especially since Turkey
agreed to commit troops to the U.S. war against
Afghanistan.
The political prisoners in Turkey are resisting the
F-system, not only for themselves, but also for political
prisoners in the U.S. and the entire world.
But the price is so high. It costs their lives.
Reprinted from the Nov. 22, 2001, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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