9th Group Started With Deadfast

Statement by the DHKP-C Prisoners’ Organisation

ISOLATION WILL END!

WE ARE RESOLVED!

The Zehra Kulaksiz Death Fast Team started its action on November 30 as our 9th group. November 30 is the 772nd day of our resistance. Today the number of martyrs of our resistance rose to 100. Isolation, which aims at destroying our identity and thoughts, is continuing in the F-Type prisons. No lies or demagogy can conceal this truth. The fact that our resistance still continues is proof of that by itself.


We have named our 9th Death Fast Team after Zehra Kulaksiz who died on the Death Fast while outside prison. The resolve of Zehra Kulaksiz, who continued her death march against the F-Type prisons after her 19-year-old sister fell by her side is the same resolve that has marked every moment of our resistance. Our Zehra Kulaksiz Death Fast Team is a statement of how invincible our determination is.

Below we give the names of our people who have begun the Death Fast and the prisons where they are located:

Kandira F-Type: Kemal Gomi
Tekirdag F-Type: Umit Gunger, Erkan Bulbul
Sincan F-Type: Mursel Kaya
Izmir Kiriklar F-Type: Ali Kilinc
Kutahya: Ayse Sultan Yazici
Bakirkoy Women and Childrens Prison: Eylem Goktas
Manisa Closed Prison: Sibel Sahanoglu

Our demands are clear. The isolation cell means death by torture. Isolation is a Nazi practice. Continuing the policy of isolation means that murder in the F-Type prisons will continue. Those who claim to stand for rights and freedoms and for freedom of belief cannot continue such a Nazi policy. If they continue it, that will prove their words about freedom of thought and belief are just for show. Nobody should try to distort our resistance. Nobody should try to serve up old demagogy like (former Justice Minister) Sami Turk, who not for two months but two years repeated that they are doing it under pressure from the organisation, their aims are quite different…, demagogy that nobody other than the state listens to any more.

The conditions in the F-Type prisons and our demands are clear. We will see whether the government is in the hands of the MGK (National Security Council) or the AKP (Justice and Development Party, an Islamist party successful in Turkeys recent elections)!

We will see whether the AKP defends rights and freedoms! Your attitude to the F-Type prisons will be a decisive answer to this question. The patience and resolve we have shown over 772 days have rendered the lies of the oppressors ineffective. The lies no longer find an audience. Those who think that they can use these lies against us as a weapon should know that this weapon is useless. The resistance continues because isolation continues. This is the only reality. In relation to such a reality, which side will the AKP come down on? That is what it is about. It can continue its oppression or grant our just and legitimate demands. Whether or not your name enters the political history of Turkey depends on that.
An appeal from the Zehra Kulaksiz Death Fast Team:

THIS RESISTANCE, THIS DYING IS GOING ON IN THIS LAND!

This is the appeal of our Zehra Kulaksiz Death Fast Team to our entire people and to all organisations and institutions which support independence, democracy, rights and freedoms:

Yes, this dying is going on in this country. We are not in Africa, Asia or Latin America, but in this country. We are dying here near you, in this country. We are dying by putting up a barricade in front of the oppressors. You are killing yourselves by remaining silent. Set in motion your strength, your powers of organisation and sensitivity jointly with the Zehra Kulaksiz Death Fast Team. On your own front, in your own fashion, do something to oppose oppression. The oligarchy is under pressure from the resistance. Neither the MGK nor the AKP government can avoid this pressure. You see that neither censorship nor repression work. You cannot say that this problem is a small one. As long as isolation and resistance go on, as long as we are dying, whatever this or that government says about democratisation and adaptation to the EU and rights and freedoms will be of no importance. Our resistance will play a historic role, indicating every moment of oppression and removing the masks from those deceitfully claiming to defend rights and freedoms. Demand your rights from the new government. Demand an end to oppression in the F-Type prisons as the most basic yardstick today of rights and freedoms that there is. Let it be clearly revealed who the rulers are: are they the National Security Council or the AKP?

Only resistance can remove oppression. Many months ago we said: The number of our martyrs may rise further, more months may pass by, we will resist… Our promise remains valid today. We are continuing our resistance. We know for certain that we will win. We will destroy isolation and live with our thoughts and our beliefs.

DHKP-C Prisoners’ Organisation

November 30, 2002

2002.11.30