Devrimci Halk Kurtulus Cephesi
Date: September 1 | 2002 Statement: 271
Fatma Tokay Kose has been martyred as a result of the torture aimed at saving lives
WE ARE CONTINUING TO REPORT IT!
Fatma Tokay Kose was subjected to force-feeding on the 395th day of her fast after being transported to Kutahya State Hospital and subsequent transfer to Ankara Numune Hospital. She was martyred on August 31 after five days of force-feeding practised on her by the heirs of the Nazi doctor Josef Mengele.
The resistance war was in its 681st day when Fatma was martyred. With Fatma, the number of martyrs in the resistance war rose to 96.
The numbers are rising; and in the same way they are increasing, so is the HEROISM of the resistance and our resisters.
The RESPONSIBILITY of those who remain silent about the resistance is growing in line with the rising numbers of deaths.
The GUILT of those who are continuing a policy of torture, isolation and force-feeding against the resistance is growing in line with the rising number of deaths.
We are continuing to show and to report the truth about Turkey.
Fatma Tokay Kose was one of the resisters in the 6th Death Fast Team. She started the fast on July 28, 2001. On December 19-22, 2000 she experienced the massacre in Canakkale Prison. After being severely tortured at the end of the notorious attack called Operation Return to Life, she was transported to Kutahya Prison.
There the repression, isolation and threats continued.
But the torturers were unable to break her will after months of trying. Then in the last five days of her life they tried to apply the same inhuman and humiliating methods, as a result of which she lost consciousness and fainted. But again they did not succeed. The torture of Fatma Tokay Kose proceeded under the guise of saving lives.
All this was not happening in Nazi concentration camps, but in prisons connected to the Justice Ministry of Turkey and hospitals connected to the Health Ministry of Turkey.
Her sister has described the last time she was able to see Fatma Tokay Kose:
“On August 28, 2002, I received permission to see her for 15 minutes, but the view that greeted me was so horrifying that I could not prevent myself from falling. Because… there were two soldiers at the door and one in the room. My sister was stripped naked and the sheets and blankets over her were damp with vomit and blood.
A blood bag was attached to her left arm. Some devices or other were connected to her right arm. Moreover, her right arm was tied to the bunk with a green cloth. A hole was pierced in her arm as a way of opening a vein. In her right hip there was an open wound. Three days before I had applied a dressing but no dressings had been applied after that.
My sister’s feet had become very swollen some time before. Moreover, she was completely unable to stretch out her legs. In spite of this, she was chained most tightly by the swollen part of her legs and was chained to the bunk. The swellings where her legs were chained were matched by the chains cutting into her flesh.”
OUR PEOPLE,
This scene is not in the Nazi concentration camps but the prisons and hospitals of the Republic of Turkey which have been turned into concentration camps.
“My sister was naked and the sheets over her were damp, and she was lying in front of a window while the door was also open, and the air was continually circulating. So my sister was also catching cold.
My sister continually said that she was cold and wanted to get dressed and that she felt bad, especially after blood transfusions. She said she didn’t want medical intervention and wanted to be taken back to the prisoners’ ward where her friends are. At the end of 15 minutes the soldiers said the visit was over and made me leave.”
… Look, what was the intention of this rescue attempt?
This is the same kind of rescue that occurred on December 19-22 (2000).
This is the state of the Republic of Turkey. These doctors, these soldiers, the prison officials are the OFFICIALS OF THIS STATE.
Everything these state officials do is known to and approved by the whole government from the ministries to the National Security Council and the General Staff.
We are continuing to show the reality of Turkey and the way to rights, freedoms and liberation.
In the period from July 30 to August 31, five resistance fighters have been martyred. As in all great clashes, this is a war of wills and a war of resolve. And each of our martyrs is proof of the invincibility of our will and our resolve. This willpower is willpower in opposition to the policies of imperialism and the oligarchy, policies which seek to make all our people surrender, policies which seek to turn the entire country into an F-Type prison. At this point, invincibility is important and defining.
This strength of willpower is that of the revolution in opposition to the system. It is the hope that is invincible at this point. In this country, the struggle for rights and freedoms demands heavy sacrifices. Each one of the letters from our martyred comrades, in which they describe their readiness to join the Death Fast, have the value of a resistance manifesto. We publish these because on the one hand they give the lie to the demagogy of the oligarchy, and on the other they provide lessons for us.
The knowledge and self-confidence arising from the total opposition to oppression that both our sympathisers and our cadres have shown when they join the Death Fast have made clear both the truth about Turkey and the tasks of revolutionaries and democrats. Nobody is able to object to the views expressed in these letters which underline the greatest self-sacrifice and resolve in our history.
If those who profess to believe that steps towards democratisation are possible with Europe, TUSIAD* and the General Staff are capable of feeling a measure of political shame, then they ought not to present themselves before the people. If they felt the slightest degree of responsibility, they would tell the truth when confronted with so many martyrs, they would see that in this country the struggle for rights and freedoms and for independence and democracy is conducted in such a manner and they would cease ignoring the resistance.
We are continuing our resistance and our struggle against the transformation of our entire country into an F-Type prison. In the final analysis, the true patriots and democrats will be on our side. Of that we have no doubt. Fatma’s call will find an echo among the patriots and democrats, among the young girls and women and among the people of this land.
The name of hope and victory is the Party.
Our comrade Fatma Tokay Kose was born on September 14, 1967 in the village of Catakli, Alacakaya District, Elazig Province. She belonged to the Kurdish (Zaza) nationality (Translator’s note: Zaza is a major and distinct dialect of Kurdish. It is particularly widespread in Tunceli or Dersim Province to the south of Elazig, but it is found elsewhere. Zaza is quite different from Kurmanci, which has the most speakers of all Kurdish dialects spoken in Turkey. Kurmanci is also spoken by many though not all Iraqi Kurds.) She attended elementary and middle school in Alacakaya and then went to the Kurtulus (Liberation) high school in Ankara. She began studying history at Hacettepe University. In the same year she got to know the revolutionary movement. Between 1987 and 1990 she worked in the Dev-Genc (Revolutionary Youth) committee on Beytepe campus. From 1989 to the end of 1990, she was imprisoned on three occasions for her role in actions in the academic and democratic struggles of youth.
In 1990-1991,she continued the struggle for rights and freedoms with Ankara TAYAD and Ozgur-Der (Freedom Association) in Ankara. After this she continued the revolutionary struggle among the impoverished working people in the shantytowns. She took on responsible roles in the Mamak and Altindag districts (in Ankara). She was also detained on a number of occasions at this time. Conditions prevailed which made it impossible to pursue the struggle in the legal democratic sphere on a major scale, so she continued illegal activities. She took on responsibility for the struggle and organising in the towns of Kirsehir, Nevsehir und Kirikkale.
In 1993 she was sworn in as a Devrimci Sol (Revolutionary Left) member. At about the same time she married our comrade Ali Osman Kose. She was detained on May 19, 1994, formally imprisoned on June 4, 1994 and put in Ulucanlar Prison. From Ulucanlar she was moved to Sakarya, and after the August 17 (1999) earthquake she was transferred to Canakkale Prison.
At the time of the 1996 Death Fast she was one of the volunteers for the Death Fast.
In 2000, when the F-Type attack came on the agenda, again she volunteered. At that time she said the following:
Under conditions in which they are trying to take away and destroy all our values and not even a fragment of justice, morality and dignity is to remain, I see no other way than for us to resist and struggle.
For she said:
“Our people, our land. Fighting for them is the reason we live. Next to the sufferings of millions of our people, the things that we will confront are scarcely worth mentioning. At a time when millions of our people are dying. And where it is a matter of being able to die for what I believe, namely that in this way a contribution can be made to ending the suffering of our people. What is one life?
Because the ideological, cultural and political strength, that is, resolve that we show will play a historic role in turning this period towards revolution. And we as the Party-Front possess this strength. In an atmosphere in which the legitimacy of revolution and revolutionism is open to discussion, the strength we show in dying for our people and land will strengthen hope.”
So for hundreds of days she endured hunger with resolve. She defended these beliefs in the face of massacres, solitary confinement and torture. She was a revolutionary for 15 years and throughout this period she held true to her beliefs. She became immortal for her beliefs. For her the name of hope and victory is the Party.
The Party was the brilliance in her eyes, the sun shining into her isolation cell and the future.
She became immortal by strengthening hope and bringing victory nearer. Our promise to all our martyred, struggling and resisting comrades is: these beliefs will live on, and people like Fatma will live on!
Devrimci Halk Kurtulus Cephesi
(Revolutionary People’s Liberation Front)
*Employers’ federation in Turkey
2002.09.01
