Feridun Yucel Batu is proof of how tyrannical the F-Type prisons really are, and is proof that there is no alternative to resistance.
When Feridun Yucel Batu was resisting he was no longer a prisoner belonging to our organisation. But it is an unmistakable fact that even someone who does not belong to an organisation feels compelled to resist the F-Type prisons even to the point of death. Feridun Yucel Batu was born in Mus (in the east of the country) in 1969. He actually came from Antalya-Finikeli (in southern Turkey).
In 1990, when he studied at the teachers’ training college of Uludag University, he took part in the November 6 boycott of YOK because its demand seemed right and just to him (YOK is the Higher Education Council set up after the 1980 coup by the state to supervise schools and universities in Turkey. The November 6 boycott is a traditional protest against it). This was his first step towards the revolutionary resistance. He got to know people from Dev-Genc (Revolutionary Youth). Then he took an extensive part in the democratic-academic resistance by youth. In 1991 he was the representative of UL-DER in his faculty. Later he took part in a TODEF meeting (TODEF is a students’ organisation) representing UL-DER. As a result of his just and legitimate struggle he was expelled from the faculty in 1994. He continued to resist in other sphere.
He was arrested in September 1994. He was put in Bursa High-Security Prison, then in Bayrampasa Prison and finally in Umraniye. During the December 19 massacre he was a prisoner in Umraniye. He resisted along with the other prisoners. Then he was put in Kandira F-Type Prison. He was released in 2001 but imprisoned again a short time later and put in Kiriklar F-Type Prison. In December 2001 contact between Feridun Yucel Batu and our organisation was broken off. But nonetheless he started the Death Fast against isolation in Kiriklar F-Type Prison and was martyred.
Despite the unpleasantness which led to contact with him being broken off, Feridun Yucel Batu preferred to resist tyranny with his head held high, to waste away body cell by body cell and to become a martyr of the Death Fast rather than live in solitary confinement.
