TO THE PRESS AND PUBLIC OPINION
Our DEATH FAST resistance created an earthquake; it will destroy the isolation cells and those who are behind their construction.
WE ARE CONTINUING TO ADD NEW PAGES TO OUR HISTORY OF RESISTANCE WITH HONOUR
Today the attack of the fascist state targeting the revolutionary prisoners and aiming to put the “F” Type isolation prisons into operation has entered a new stage.
Since the beginning of the year 2000, the fascist state declared that it would put the isolation cells into operation, and is speeding up its preparations to this end. Since May 2000, because of the activities of those close to the prisoners and various democratic and sensitive sections of our people to support the revolutionary prisoners, and the stepping up of their actions against the cells, they have not been put into operation. But this postponement did not mean an abandonment of the attacks aimed at putting the cells into operation. The collaborationist and servile authorities who could not face up to the reaction of the people tried to appease them with demagogy and lies about changing the Anti-Terror Law, forming Prison Supervisory Associations, talking about “amnesty”, all in order to legitimise the cells. By saying that, as soon as parliament opened, these regulations would be the first paragraphs of legislation on the agenda, they aimed to break down the sensitivity that had been created and render the opposition ineffective. These paragraphs had no clarity and contained
nothing definite, and they did nothing to change the essence of the attacks to implement the isolation cells; on the contrary their aim was to be nothing other than a cover to conceal the practice of repression and torture. On every side this cover was pierced with holes and it did not suffice to conceal the truth. The fascist state is not abandoning its efforts with the “F” Type Prisons. Almost every day for months now, this reality has been clear to everyone. Thousands of relatives of prisoners, intellectuals, revolutionaries, democrats and progressives were detained and subjected to torture. Our old mothers who went on the road to Ankara or out into the city squares of Istanbul to protest against the cells were beaten
nearly to death. As a matter of routine those who took part in protests in front of Galatasaray High School (in Istanbul city centre) were dragged along the ground and arrested. Despite all these fascist practices, our families and sensitive public opinion did not abandon us. Almost every day there were actions in support of us and against the cells, and appeals were
made to the Justice Ministry and the government. These appeals said, “the cells are death”. The only reply they received was torture, beatings and detention.
The fascist state has continued its display of resolution. “The cells absolutely will be introduced”, “The ‘F’ Types are modern and conform to human rights standards,” they say.
They openly stated that they would not abandon the cell-type prisons. Everybody has spoken. Everybody has said something. Those who are against the cells and those who are for them have spoken and will speak. Now the time has come for we prisoners to utter a word.
Since the beginning of this period, we have said that this attack by the fascist state can only be repelled with a line of struggle, with resistance, which can endure paying the price. This was the only language comprehensible to the fascist state, which for decades has bowed down before the resistance of the revolutionary prisoners in the prisons of our country. Today once again, we declare that we will reply to imperialism and its collaborationist servants in the language that they understand.
Just as the September 12, 1980 junta’s attempts to make prisoners surrender were beaten off;
Just as the August 1 circular was torn to shreds;
Just as the Eskisehir coffin prison was closed down;
Just as with the 1996 Death Fast caused the Eskisehir coffin prison to be closed down again and it became a barricade which protected our people from the attacks;
Today, we, the revolutionary captives who are undertaking the same duty, will continue to follow the path which our martyrs blazed without hesitation, and once again we will make the people’s enemies bow down.
Those who are making such a display of determination will once again be made to bow down, and we revolutionaries on the other hand will declare our victory to the rest of the world.
We are determined.
We will not hesitate to pay whatever price is necessary, but we will not enter the isolation cells. They can massacre all of us, we may fall martyr in Death Fasts, there may be only one of us left in the prisons, but even then they will not be able to put that single captive into the cells alive.
We will smash the isolation cells over the heads of those responsible for ordering their construction. We will be loyal to history which has been written with the blood and lives of our fallen comrades who resisted during Death Fasts, or in Buca, Umraniye, Ulucanlar, Burdur, Bergama prisons. We will form a barricade with our own bodies, blocking those who wish to put us into cells. From now on the loud voice of the resistance will echo in the prisons of our country. Today, once again, we are calling on imperialism, its collaborators and their servants in front of the whole world; VICTORY IS
OURS. COLLABORATION, SERVILITY, DEFEAT AND SURRENDER ARE YOURS. We neve blackened our history and never will do so. We will continue to add new and honourable pages in the history books. With this belief and determination, against the political attack of the servile collaborationist authorities which target our people in the form of the cell-type prisons, we are starting an Unlimited Hunger Strike which will be converted into a Death Fast in due course, starting from October 20. As the DHKP-C (Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front) and TKP(ML), (Communist Party of Turkey(Marxist-Leninist)), we bear the enthusiasm and morale of starting such a period of historic resistance, and we know in declaring the start of our resistance that from this moment we will achieve victory.
THE DEMANDS OF OUR RESISTANCE
1 – The ongoing construction of the “F” Type prisons, which have actually been put on the agenda in the framework of a policy of isolating and putting revolutionary prisoners on their own, making them surrender with torture methods and depersonalising them, must be halted.
2 – With the demagogy of “terrorism”, an entire people have been accused of being “suspects”; torture, massacres and executions legalised, and the torturers and murderers are under the protection of the anti-terror law (Article 3713); not only its Paragraph 16 on which the “F” Type isolation cells are based but this entire Article is clearly anti-democratic and must be abolished, along with all its provisions.
3 – The protocol signed by the Justice, Interior and Health Ministries and known by the people as the “Tripartite Protocol”, which includes the denial of the captives’ rights to a defence and medical treatment, and which forces the legal representatives to be subjected to dishonourable searches, must be abolished.
4 – The State Security Courts which, with the reason for their foundation and their practices since 1984, are special-extraordinary courts, must be abolished, along with all the provisions for which they are responsible.
5 – Prisons must be periodically checked by the lawyers who are entrusted with the task by the Bar of the relevant city, the doctors who are selected by the Medical Chamber, lawyers and relatives of prisoners who are selected by the captives, the representatives who are entrusted with this by the organisations of captives, NGOs on the issue of human rights, and the Union of Prison Staff. These checks should not be arbitrary but must be carried out under the protection of the law.
6 – Those who are responsible for massacring three of our friends in Buca Prison on September 21, 1995, four of our friends in Umraniye Prison on January 4, 1996, ten of our friends in Diyarbakir Prison on September 24, 1996, ten of our friends in Ulucanlar Prison on September 26, 1999, and for the injury of hundreds of our friends during attacks must be judged and punished as expeditiously as possible, and this must take place in a way accessible to the public.
Those who attacked our friends in Burdur Prison on July 5, 2000, who severed arms, raped, tortured and those who gave the orders for it must be judged and punished, and this must take place in a way accessible to the public.
Our friends named below were imprisoned alive at different times. The state was responsible for the security of these friends’ lives. As is well known, the acceptability and legality of the prisoners’ status is based on the state’s guarantee of the security of their lives. These friends, on the other hand, were massacred by the state. We want our friends back. Their names are: Uğur Sarıaslan, Turan Kılıç, Yusuf Bağ, Mecit Seçkin, Rıza Boybaş, Orhan Özen, Gültekin Beyhan, Aygün Uğur, Berdan Kerimgiller, İlginç Özkeskin, Hüseyin Demircioğlu, Ali Ayata, Müjdat Yanat, Ayçe İdil Erkmen, Tahsin Yılmaz, Yemliha Kaya, Hicabi Küçük, Hayati Can, Ümit Altıntaş, Halil Türker, Abuzer Çat, Mahir Emsalsiz, Ahmet Savran, Aziz Dönmez, Habip Gül, Zafer Kırbıyık, Önder Gençaslan, İsmet Kavaklıoğlu, H. Hüsnü Eroğlu, Mehmet Yalçınkaya, Kalender Kayapınar, Yunus Yaman, Mehmet Batuge, Kadir Demir, Edip Direkçi, Nihat Çakmak, Erkan Perişan, Rıdvan Bulut, Hakkı Tekin, Mehmet Sabri Gümüş, Cemal Çam, Ahmet Çelik, Polat İyit, Engin Huylu, Murat Dil, Uğur Hülagü Gündoğan, Mustafa Kaya, Kazım Tunç.
7 – All our friends who have suffered from permanent illness, whose health problems have continued since the 1996 Death Fast, who were injured during state operations and denied medical treatment, must be immediately released.
8 – Those who tortured us during detention must be dismissed from their jobs and must be judged and punished quickly and in a manner accessible to the public. The protection of the torturers with “verdicts of immunity” must be abolished.
9 – All anti-democratic laws against the struggle of the peoples for freedom and democracy must be abolished, and the oppression of the Kurdish nation and the other national minorities must be ended.
