On February 19th 2020, two revolutionary political prisoners Didem Akman and Özgür Karakaya from the Şakran isolation prison, located near city of Izmir, western Turkey, have announced that they are starting a hunger strike till death(Death Fast) to protest the strengthen isolation on political prisoners, the severe conditions in prisons, the use of “protected witnesses” by the fascist oligarchy in Turkey against all revolutionaries and progressive people who oppose to its politics.
The two, are members of Marxist-Leninist movement People’s Front-Turkey, which is waging struggle against the fascist oligarchy in Turkey and its masters – the US imperialist, for 50 years, aiming to overthrow the fascist capitalist system in Turkey, and to enstablish a Democratic People’s Power, which will build up an Independent, Democratic and Socialist country.
As of today two revolutionary prisoners are on the 91st day of their Death Fast resistance, and in recent telephone conversations with their relatives, they stated that will continue the action until their demands are fulfilled by the fascist oligarchy. Below is the rough translation of the application of Didem Akman, which she have sent to the Ministry of Justice of Turkey, at the beginning of the Death Fast resistance.
Didem Akman’s application to the Ministry of Justice
To the Ministry of Justice;
Subject: The start of my Hunger Strike till death(Death Fast), against ongoing injustices across the country and prisons
All people in this country are thirsty for justice! Millions of people, women and men, workers, and unemployed, from civil servants to farmers, all want justice. The poor, working people set themselves on fire, shouting, “My children are hungry.”
While a minority lives in palaces and sinks in luxury and extravagance, 80 million shouts that they are hungry for bread and thirst for justice. Anyone who wants wage for their work, anyone who demands freedom becomes a victim of either police or judicial terror. The judiciary has become a weapon in the hands of the AKP, against the people, through which it oppresses and crushes them.
In prisons, the same injustice and lawlessness continue with complete impunity. The attacks, the backbone of which are the policies of total isolation of political prisoners, are legitimized by court decisions.
I have fought against all these injustices for years with all possible methods and means. Today, of my own free will, and of my own free will, I begin the Death Hunger Strike. My demands do not only concern me but millions of other people. Where there is no justice, it is legitimate to fight for justice by all methods and means.
My demands:
1- Justice cannot be expected from the courts that violate their laws and legal norms. The judiciary was used by the fascist oligarchy as a weapon against the people. While the courts are used to protect the interests of the capitalists, the government of the AKP, they doom the people to injustice, and they are used as a legal “umbrella” for murderers and thieves. All court decisions that do not provide justice for the people must be overturned.
2- Laws and law have become a toy in the hands of the fascist government. The practices that are used to cover up their unfair court decisions must be put an end to. “Protected witnesses” are an ideological and physical attack against the people. All “protected witnesses” whose identities have been revealed to date have been either police officers or people who have been turned into protected witnesses by the police through threats, blackmail, torture, and bribery. While, on the one hand, basic principles in the administration of justice are removed as concrete evidence proving the guilt and responsibility of the investigation to prove its thesis, thus creating millions of criminals and fabricating crimes, on the other hand, the government seeks to turn the people into an army of informers.
Protected witnesses must be removed as a position in the judiciary! The attacks aimed at turning the people into an army of informants must end!
The system of video conferencing used in the conduct of court proceedings is practically a deprivation of the right to defense of the accused. A fair trial cannot take place on a small screen without coming face to face with the judge. The video conferencing system must be abolished because it deprives the right to a fair trial and protection, thus creating injustice.
3- The terror lists published by the Ministry of the Interior, in which all oppositionists are marked in a certain color and presented as terrorists, contribute to the legitimacy of the mass killings, executions, and mass arrests of the AKP. By trampling on the principle of innocence in the judiciary, these lists pave the way for “witch-hunting.” Terrorist lists must be removed.
4- Grup Yorum is a music group with traditions in Anatolia. Grup Yorum is with the people, in joy and sorrow, in mourning, in the holidays. Although for many years it has been the target of attacks by the oligarchy, because of its art for the benefit of the people, Grup Yorum in the soul, heart, songs, and dances of the people. Both in prisons and on stage, the Grup Yorum has always inspired and continues to inspire faith, hope, and the fighting spirit of the people. The requests of the Grup Yorum must be accepted.
5- The people’s lawyers became a shield, against the attacks against the people, standing against the executioners in judge gowns in the courts of the AKP, they used their lawyer gowns in the name of justice for the people. Without bowing their heads, they fought for justice for the labor of the people, for its right to life, education, health care, for the killed children of the people, for the “missing” revolutionaries and progressive people. They were at the forefront of the struggle for rights and freedoms. Defending the rights and freedoms of the people is not a crime, the people’s lawyers must be released!
6- Mustafa Kocak was brought as a defendant in a case with which he had nothing to do, using the testimony of a “protected witness” in close cooperation between the AKP police and her executioners in gowns, prosecutors, and judges. Executioners in judge gowns sentenced Mustafa to life imprisonment. This sentence, issued without any evidence, without allowing him to defend himself in court, that is, without respecting the basic principles of justice, must be set aside. Mustafa Kocak must be tried again, in compliance with all the basic principles of law.
7- The regime of serving life sentences under a strict regime is practically a slow death sentence and execution for the person. It aims, in conditions of severe isolation, slowly and procrastinating, to liquidate the person, his personality, and his ideas. A life sentence under a strict regime is torture that lasts until the person dies. The regime of serving life sentences under a strict regime, which is a special method of torture, must be abolished.
Under the strict regime of life imprisonment, people are kept in solitary confinement. Their right to go out in the yard next to the cell is limited to 1 hour. Persons serving life sentences under a strict regime are not allowed to visit other political prisoners. Persons serving life sentences under a strict regime are prohibited from visiting more than 1 (one) person, so they can practically never see their family together during a visit. This regime of serving sentences, in which, aggravated isolation is applied, is torture and a violation of the right to receive and transmit information, preserve family relations, work, access to health care, and education.
The political prisoner can be released from prison only if he/she has to be treated in a hospital, the practice of transporting him in a single isolated armored car began to be applied to spread and strengthen the isolation and to make it continuous. Being part of the same torture. The use of single isolated armored vehicles in the transport of political prisoners must be stopped.
WE WANT JUSTICE!
19.02.2020
Didem Akman
