DEVRIMCI HALK KURTULUS CEPHESI
PRESS BUREAU
June 17, 2001 | Statement Nr: 191
55th Martyr of the Resistance, 24th Death Fast Martyr: Uncle Veli of the resistance has fallen.
He defeated the murderers who wanted to intervene forcibly.
He defeated the murderers who said, you will not have the willpower
He defeated the murderers who said, you cannot have your own thoughts
OUR RESISTANCE WILL DEFEAT BOTH THE MURDEROUS POWER WHICH IS TRYING TO DESTROY BELIEFS AND THE MURDERERS WHO CARRY OUT FORCIBLE MEDICAL INTERVENTION
WE WILL HAVE THE LAST WORD, VELI GUNES WILL HAVE THE LAST WORD
The GREAT RESISTANCE, the most extraordinary resistance in the history of Turkey and the world, has given its 55th martyr. This is a resistance in which heavy costs have to be borne and in which the enemy is attacking in a cowardly way. This is a resistance, which has lasted for three seasons and is now entering a fourth.
Veli Gunes fell martyr at midnight of June 16 in Kocaeli state hospital where the forcible medical intervention is taking place and which consequently has been turned into an abattoir. He was the Uncle Veli of the Free Captives. Our comrade Veli was the oldest fighter of the death fast. He was in the first team of volunteers from Umraniye prison. A mountain, an oak has fallen. He has fallen over the murderous state and its partners and collaborators with a big bang.
The mobs of murderers who wear white shirts (doctors) and who were saying, let’s wait till he has lost consciousness then we will sort him out wanted to intervene on many occasions. His arms and legs were bound with chains. He resisted with his gigantic heart and shrunken and starved body. The resistance is at the same time a war of willpowers. Veli Gunes has won the war.
OUR RESISTANCE IS THE WAR OF WILLPOWER!
This resistance is against those who want to destroy our willpower.
This resistance is against those who want to destroy our beliefs.
This resistance is against those who want to destroy the right to self-defence.
Veli Gunes raised our resistance by becoming immortal.
Massacres, bullets, bombs did not work. Isolation cells, deception, bribery, threats did not work.
It does not work! A lion is still a lion even if it is in the cage. Even if you bury them under the soil, our free captives will continue to be organised. They will continue to protect their beliefs, continue to resist and die for their beliefs. Our resistance is a great complication for the oligarchy. Neither ignoring it, nor trying to make people forget about it, are working. People like Veli Gunes are becoming a bomb which is exploding in the middle the of silence. They will not be able to get rid of this complication
It is revolutionary willpower exploding against tyranny like a volcano. Our enemy knows this willpower very well now. Our friends are in great sympathy with this willpower and they all confidently believe in it.
This willpower demands an independent homeland against imperialism.
This willpower demands democracy against fascism.
This willpower demands socialism against capitalism, the regime of robbery and exploitation.
No force can beat this willpower which possesses the power of thousands of years of history of the people!
THOSE WHO LEAVE OUR COMRADES HANDICAPPED WILL NOT GET AWAY WITHOUT FACING A RECKONING, REGARDLESS OF WHO THEY ARE!
While Veli Gunes was resisting forcible medical intervention, the director of Kandira f-type prison who came to Kocaeli hospital said, if you are released, I will not let you go without being subjected to serum…. This is the vision of the government on medical intervention! Whoever witnesses these facts and still claims that they are carrying out their profession by aiding the government to break the resistance, is deliberately committing a crime and destroying the right to self-defence.
The murderous power says you will not possess your own willpower and beliefs.
The doctors who are carrying out the medical intervention are saying your beliefs and willpower are not important, my command and conscience will make the decision.
Hospitals are not hospitals anymore. They have been converted into an abattoir and torture centre. The hospital rooms where captives are kept are full of blood, bed sheets, clothing and the bodies of captives are bloody. With the each medical intervention our friends were left handicapped. The Justice Minister, the gendarme, the anti-terror branch and the intervening doctors are working hand in hand like mobsters. They are side by side trying to break the resistance. The doctors who are carrying out medical intervention while the captive is chained to the bed and still conscious and the other doctors who say I carry out medical intervention when the prisoner has lost his/her consciousness are PLAYING THE MOST EFFECTIVE ROLE WITHIN THIS MOB.
Medicine, which is supposed to serve the dignity of human life, has become a tool for tyranny. MORE THAN 50 OF OUR FRIENDS HAVE BEEN LEFT HANDICAPPED.
They possess no memories anymore. Their wives and husbands, brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers and their thoughts do not exist anymore.
THERE ARE MORE THAN 100 CAPTIVES WHO ARE WAITING FOR THEIR TURN TO FACE THE SAME CONSEQUENCES.
They have started to intervene against the 4th team of Death Fast volunteers. Serdar SALMAN was subjected to forcible medical intervention. HE WAS LEFT HANDICAPPED. And whoever explains these as ETHICAL, aids the Justice Minister to break the resistance and deliberately ignores the volunteers wish and willpower saying, when they lose their consciousness, my conscience is valid is not a doctor but a MURDERER. There are these MENGELEs in hospitals who hide their identities and work with gendarme and the anti-terror branch police. All these guilty ones will not get away without facing a reckoning. The Turkish Doctors Chamber (TTB) has kept completely silent. There is not a single statement concerning the torture in the hospitals. The TTB must reveal how many captives have been subjected to intervention and how many of them have been left handicapped. Being silent means admitting the crime is being committed.
THIS IS OUR APPEAL TO DOCTORS!
NO DOCTORS can even medically treat a human being whilst they are handcuffed and chained, never mind apply forcible medical intervention!
NO DOCTORS can replace the will of the resister with his/her own!
NO DOCTORS can carry out the orders of a state, which terrorises its own people.
NO DOCTORS can be the cause of leaving dozens of prisoners handicapped!
NO DOCTORS can be the accomplices of the ruling power in breaking the resistance, which aims to protect rights and liberties.
Stop washing the bloody hands of the state!
Stop forcible medical intervention and leaving the captives handicapped!
THE RESISTANCE WILL CONTINUE TO SPREAD BOTH INSIDE
AND OUTSIDE THE PRISONS!
DESPITE THE MARTYRDOM OF DOZENS MORE VELI GUNES AND THE PHYSICAL IMPAIRMENT OF HUNDREDS OF US, OUR COMMAND WILL WIN!
We are resisting against the IMFs prisons. We are resisting with our new teams of death fast volunteers. Our comrades, who have been released by the Justice Minister to break the resistance, are continuing to resist outside the prisons. The families of captives have become the greatest symbol of support and solidarity and are taking on the matter as their own.
The state is hopeless. The architects of F-type prisons are hopeless.
Their masks are broken and murderous faces are exposed.
This resistance should become the flag of all those who are against imperialism and fascism and defending rights and liberties. To support this resistance is to support ones own thoughts.
VELI GUNES: Either victory or death. We will win. Our party, our people will win!
We are laying before you a 45-years-old life, which was concluded on the peak of heroism. This is the life of our comrade Veli. This life belongs to the Uncle Veli of the captives. Our comrade who has been carrying the experience and maturity of 45 years was like a huge oak amongst the fighters. He was born on January 1, 1956 in Ibis district of Kocakoc in Dersim. His family was poor, Kurdish (Zaza) and Alevite. He came to Istanbul when he was 13 years old. He worked in several jobs. When he was a teenager his mind was already occupied with Mahir Cayan and his comrades. He read about the actions of Devrimci Sol (Revolutionary Left) in the newspapers and became a sympathiser of the revolutionary organisation in 1977-78. In his own words, he became a Devrimci Sol supporter spontaneously.
Because of a non-political incident he was imprisoned between 1974 and 1983. He describes those years as follows: when I was in prison I had a goal. As soon as I was released I would be a guerrilla in the mountains. When I was released in 1983 I went to my village. There were torture centres in villages and the people were subjected to torture continuously. Because in almost every household someone was either a prisoner or sought by the state. Since those who are sought did not give themselves up, torture was carried out continuously. But he was not able to contact Devrimci Sol during those difficult days. During an operation in his village he was detained and sent to do military service. After finishing the service he went back to Istanbul in 1986. And in 1987 he finally established contact with Devrimci Sol. In 1989 he was on the managerial committee of Zeytinburnu Halkevi (Peoples House). There was no limit on the sacrifice he was willing to make.
Just one event in that period is enough to explain his contribution. One day my friends from the movement came to see me. They said they would help some of comrades to escape from prison and asked me whether I would enter the prison instead. I accepted without hesitation. I did not know much about the organisation and organised life as I do now, but since those who would be free could organise the masses and become more useful than me, I accepted without questioning. But there was one thing I was sure of, if you want to struggle you need to face all the consequences.
He was arrested on many occasions and imprisoned for short intervals. In 1990 in Esenler / Istanbul, he was arrested during the demonstration against the Imperialist war. He was kept in Bayrampasa Special type prison for 4 months. After being released he carried out revolutionary work in Umraniye, Sarigazi, Samandira and Sultanbeyli districts of Istanbul. He never forgot the promise he gave in prison and finally his wish became true. He was appointed in the rural area of Malatya. Together with our martyr Maksut Polat he took part in activities in this area. Later on, while continuing to carry out revolutionary work in poor shantytowns, he was arrested one more time. During the 1996 Death Fast he was a captive in Umraniye prison. As could be expected, he was one of the death fast volunteers. His turn to wear the red headband did not come. But he was at the front of every resistance. When the 2000 Death Fast resistance was on the agenda, his volunteering letter to our party was a repeat of his letter in 1996. Nothing had changed in my mind. In his mind there were the people, the homeland, revolution and socialism.
On November 19, 2000 he wore his headband as a member of the first team of Death Fast volunteers. During the last visit he told his last wish to his family:
“I hid my red headband in my coat. I was able to manage to hide it from the enemy. When I fall martyr put it on.
After being selected as a death fast volunteer the letter he wrote to the party is the summary of his life story: TO MY PARTY. You taught me to live as a human being and in dignity. You taught me to love our people and to die for the homeland and the comrades. You taught me to protect our values. You gave me power to live in dignity and and to be trustworthy. You expended effort for me. You taught me the meaning of the new man. By creating victories you let me share the feeling of being victorious. You became my hope. You made my wishes come true. You have done everything to make me happy. Now, you have given me this honourable duty and made another of my wishes come true. You have given me the greatest of all happiness. I will be worthy to my party in this duty as well. I am grateful that my party has given me the chance to contribute to the victory which will be achieved by my party. It is a happiness for me to add new traditions to the traditions of my party. I greet this victory of my party with my revolutionary ebullience.”
November 12, 2000. Veli GUNES.
DEVRIMCI HALK KURTULUS CEPHESI
2001.06.17
