Our comrades from Anadolu News Blog translated a letter from the architect Alev Şahin, imprisoned in Turkey, to the human rights fighter, HDP deputy Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu.
Şahin has been in resistance for several years in Düzce, hand in hand with the resisting public servants on Yüksel Street in Ankara, against arbitrary mass dismissals based on emergency decrees of the AKP.
Alev demands her work back, the work of hundreds of thousands of dismissed workers in the public sector and she extended her struggle for job to a struggle for justice for all peoples.
Daily arrests, harassment, torture and detention could not stop her from taking to the streets for the rights, for the disenfranchised. She’s being kept in prison with 5 other resisting public workers.
This letter also testifies to their indomitable nature and to the need to stand up unbendingly for human rights:
**
Dear Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu;
Since the first day of your mandate, we know that you have fought a hard battle for human rights, that you have fought a relentless battle against rights violations and torture, regardless of religion, belief, language or race, and that you meet the requirement of being a “human being” with a courageous and honorable attitude. For this reason, we are angrily following the news that you have been targeted and harassed for a while now.
The discomfort you cause some by not being on the side of lies but on the side of truth, by not being on the side of the oppressors but on the side of the oppressed, and by not being on the side of the strong but on the side of the people, leads you to be subjected to attacks ranging from insults to threats. This is the only way the repressive and violent regime in which we live can survive. It actually prepares its own end by deterring, intimidating and instilling fear. And it forces those who protect their dignity, justice and country to surrender.
We know your appreciation of the law and justice, we believe in you with the trust you have created along the way. We want you to know that we are on your side wherever and in whatever conditions we find ourselves. We want you to know that just as you supported our struggle for bread, we also support you in your struggle for justice.
Not in return; but because being “human”, “staying human” is part of our struggle. I greet you with the poem of Enver Gökçe:
“This pomegranate flower will bloom”…
Dear Gergerlioğlu, whatever they do, “We will also celebrate festivals on our streets”.
***
Write letters and post cards to the imprisoned YÜKSEL RESISTERS:
Mehmet Dersulu
Bolu F Tipi Hapishanesi
Bolu
Turkey
Nazan Bozkurt
M Tipi Kadin Hapishanesi
Gebze/Kocaeli
Turkey
Acun Karadag
T Tipi Kadin Kapali Hapishanesi
Kayseri
Turkey
Alev Sahin
T Tipi Kadin Kapali Hapishanesi
Kayseri
Turkey
Sibel Balac
Sincan Kapali Kadin Hapishanesi
Sincan/Ankara
Turkey
Nuriye Gülmen
Silivri 1 Nolu Kapali Kadin Hapishanesi
Silivri/Istanbul
Turkey
Translation: Anadolu News Blog
