The political prisoners and convicts who on October 20, 2000 started an indefinite hunger strike action have turned it into a DEATH FAST since November 19, 2000. The political prisoners are marching toward death, body cell by body cell, in order to have the Cell-Type Prisons closed, and say that “before all else I will resist the isolation cells for the sake of
honour and my moral values. I think that morality is a matter of resisting the cells. I cannot conceive of a life alone and separate from human beings and those I love. I will not go into the cells even if I die here.” The following words belong to them.

“WE ARE NOT ONLY FOR CLOSING THE ‘F’ TYPE PRISONS BUT TO BE THE HOPE AND
FUTURE OF OUR PEOPLE.”

Ahmet IBILI: ” (.) Today the prisons are a focus of the war of our people with imperialism and collaboration. The ‘F’ Type prisons are a symbol of this war. For this reason we are not only for the closure of the ‘F’ Type prisons but will be the hope and future of our people. (.) The duty falls to us to repel this attack that imperialism and the oligarchy are directing at our people and our revolution. The duty will be performed by approaching death day by day.”

Muharrem GENC: ” (.) I have been through many acts of resistance in the prisons up to the present. While living through that I learned that we would win every time we resisted. We will win today as well. This victory is very valuable and important for us. Yes, there will be manoeuvres by the enemy, and this resistance will be very difficult. But the enemy is not strong enough to prevent our victory. We will win the victory by shaking the enemy with our martyrdom. I will not hesitate to fall a martyr when my time comes.

Ali Riza DEMIR: ” (.) In this action, I am aware of being on a mission in Turkey today. Against the liquidation offensive of bourgeois ideology, we are holding firm to our position and marching on our path directly onward. When the enemy in the prisons shouts, “Surrender,” our comrades proudly shout back, “We will die but we will not surrender.” With the banner of our Death Fast attack we will once again pull down the enemy’s towers. (.)”

Ahmet IBILI: ” (.) At the same time, this is a period of purification. Whoever is or is not revolutionary, whoever is or is not waging the struggle of the people, whoever does or does not want revolution and socialism will come to light, and the hypocritical masks will fall away. Everybody will be placed in the right category. I am not writing as someone for whom these facts are external to myself. I am writing as someone who has a place in this war and will have a place in this war. (.)”

Ahmet OZDEMIR: ” (.) And of course the form this action will take will be the Death Fast. Our action will be a powerful resistance of long-term and historical importance. The oligarchy said that ‘without order in the prisons there can be no order in Turkey,’ and built the ‘F’ Type coffin prisons to say ‘surrender’, preparing them as a comprehensive attack, and with our resolution to sacrifice ourselves and belief in victory, we will deal them another blow and force them to their knees. This is the only thing that is certain. (.)”

Ergul ACER: ” (.) This time the form the attack takes is the isolation cells. This attack is on the people and the revolution. Those who want surrender are those who want to wear down the people. The revolutionary struggle is what they want to destroy, eliminate, force back. It is an attack on the homeland. This is a fight for honour and justice. (.)”

Gulay KAVAK: ” (.) The contra-guerrilla state is trying to make us abandon our political identity and beliefs. With the cell-type prisons they have prepared a strategy of the offensive. They are trying to make us surrender, they are trying to destroy the hopes of our people for liberation and hopes for socialism. They will never succeed. (.)

Osman OSMANAGAOGLU: ” (.) The cell-type prisons policy is a strategic step towards an offensive by the Susurluk state to make an entire people as a whole surrender, and especially the revolutionary captives. (.) The cell offensive is not only limited to the revolutionary captives in the prisons, the aim is to make the entire people surrender. (.) We will smash the cells which are the means to make the revolutionary captives and the people surrender, smashing them over the heads of those who ordered them built, and we will do this by laying down to die, by our martyrs, our people and our families (.)”

Veli GUNES: “(.) In order to make the masses of people surrender, the oligarchy is trying to strengthen its rule by making the revolutionaries surrender with these ‘F’ Type prisons. While on the one hand it carries out massacres in the prisons, on the other it is attacking the most basic demands of the people. In order to abolish these policies of the enemy, I completely agree with my comrades that we will achieve it through the Death Fast as far as the prisons are concerned. (.)

Yildiz GEMICIOGLU: “(.) They are trying to bring about the surrender of our revolutionary identity, our honour, our humanity, our personality. In order to hold our heads high, no matter what the cost, to hold our heads high in front of our families, our people and the history of humanity, all this depends on now repelling the state’s offensive which is using the cells. We will demand a reckoning with our deaths for our massacred and tortured comrades in Ulucanlar, Burdur and Bergama. (.)

Zeynep ARIKAN: “The policy of the cells has been on our agenda for a long time. We have been discussing it. The idea of the Death Fast has been on my mind for a long time. The enemy thinks that their policy of going on the offensive will succeed. (.) As happened in 1996, we will defeat the enemy while the enemy are preparing for victory and while he has gone to work filled with the hope of victory. I believe this.”

Suat KARABULUT: “. Now I am very close to our martyrs and also to victory. However, until now I kept our martyrs alive in my heart and in my life. My comrades will do the same for me. I will be buried in the hearts of my comrades during this magnificent struggle. What a happy thing for me and all of us. How fortunate for revolutionaries who rush towards immortality in order to make life flow as it should…”

Irfan ORTAKCI: “. As part of this, the model they call the ‘F’ Types is being kept on the agenda. Certainly this is not the first time we have confronted such an attack. We encountered it during September 12 (the 1980 military coup), we came up against it in the 1990s, and each time we emerged triumphant. (.) Drawing lessons from past defeats, they are taking pains to make their attacks more comprehensive and more organised. They are maturing their use of all means of communication like the press, television and radio, and are trying to subjectively make the cells appear justified. From our point of view this will not be an easy victory. We will pay new prices and create new traditions. No victory is won without paying a price.”

Cihan SEKER: “. A very difficult period lies ahead and the reality is that we will pay a heavy price. For years the enemy has dreamed of a policy to bring about surrender, and today this takes the form of the ‘F’ Type cells. The enemy will attack in a more comprehensive fashion, angered by past defeats. Whatever form it takes, we will experience a wave of attacks. As in the past, at the price of our own bodies, today we will make the enemy taste defeat again. (.)”

Ozgur SONER: ” . I am conscious of what calculations have been made by the enemy concerning the Free Captives and the revolutionary movement in Turkey, and this policy of the cell-type prisons, and I am conscious of what this attack means. (.) The resistance and our victory over the offensive of the enemy will not only be the gain of ourselves, the captives. Our victory will be the victory of the Anatolian people. (.) I believe in the excellence of cheerfully running towards death without hesitation whenever dying is required.'”

Temel CAGIRTEKIN: ” . We know the real aim and target of the coffins which have continuously been on the agenda for a long time and been presented before public opinion as a ‘cell-type’ and ‘room system’. They have already taken the first step with the Tripartite Protocol. The conditions to attack the prisoners have been created and brought on to the agenda on a continual basis. (Amnesty, new cell systems, etc.) We revolutionary captives know the dimension and the targets of this offensive. (.) Also today, I believe in historic duty such as the Death Fast, I believe it will be on the agenda iM the forthcoming period, and with this consciousness, I believe in accepting it as my duty and with such an offensive, we will smash the cell-type coffins of the enemy. ”

Hasan GUNGORMEZ: “We are in a new period. The enemy hopes to make us surrender and once again places the cells on the agenda. He is preparing more seriously and comprehensively. We also know the importance of the period. We are aware of our mission of being the leadership, and we have prepared ourselves in accordance with this. No matter what the form of the offensive will be, we will win. We have no other alternative.”

Esma ARSLANBOGAN: ” . Again since the beginning, I have been feeling that they can never put us into the cells.”

Murat OZTEN: ” . Of course, we will achieve victory at great cost and by raising the revolutionary will comprehensively. I am conscious of all of this. I know that the period calls for determination and self-sacrifice on a limitless scale, and I am ready to provide this with my mind, my heart and my body, with whatever I have.”

Sinan EREN: ” . During the time I was involved in the struggle, we took part in many acts of resistance and we achieved victory by defeating death. This resistance will be the most magnificent and I am proud to be part of it (.) We completely believe that we will achieve victory. We will display the kind of resistance created by the Death Fast, Ulucanlar and all our other martyrs. Everybody should know for certain that we will not hesitate to look death in the face, like Berdan and like Mujdat.”

Zehra KURTAY: ” (.) I feel no hesitation on the subject of victory. I can see the victory now. We will show everybody that we will pay the price but they will not finish us off, they will not finish off revolutionism on the soil of this country. Everyone will learn this truth once again. Again we will create a legend with our blood and our lives.”

Umut SAHINGOZ: “(.) Before all else I will resist the cells for the sake of honour and my moral values. I think that morality is a matter of resisting the cells. I cannot conceive of a life alone and separate from human beings and those I love. I will not go into the cells even if I die here.”

Hasan PINAR: ” (.) Fundamentally everything is very clear. The enemy says that to be able to continue in power he will destroy you, if he could not he would try to weaken you. That is, to continue his own authority he makes use of every form of oppression, trick and demagogy. Although he is neither just nor legitimate he is trying to appear resolute. (.) I volunteer to repel the attacks which take the form of the cell-type prisons.”

Mehmet ZINCIR: ” (.) The enemy seems resolute but we too are resolute. Once again we will defeat them. I believe in victory. I believe we will defeat them.”

Ali SANLI: ” (.) I say, hello victory, welcome death, to say more is unnecessary, we will win.”

“WE WILL NOT ACCEPT ANY FORM OF MEDICAL INTERVENTION WITHOUT OUR DEMANDS BEING GRANTED.”

The political captives and convicts carried out an Indefinite Hunger Strikeaction for 30 days, have turned this is into a death fast and have declared in a formal statement to the Justice Ministry that unless their demands are granted they reject any kind of medical intervention. In the political captives’ formal statement to the Justice Ministry it is said:

” (.) On October 20, 2000 I started an Indefinite Hunger Strike resistance and have continued it since then with the demands given below. Within the Indefinite Hunger Strike and Death Fast resistance, if I lose consciousness or am in a condition where I am not able to express my own will, so long as the demands for which our resistance has been waged have not been accepted and our resistance has not yielded a result, I refuse to accept any form of medical intervention. At the moment of writing this text I am in full possession of my faculties and am in full command of my own will (.)”

In saying this, they yet again stressed their own resolution.