LONG LIVE THE VICTORY OF
OUR DEATH FAST RESISTANCE
For 63 days resistance to German imperialism was witnessed both inside and
outside prison. Ilhan Yelkuvan resisted such German practices as solitary
confinement, attempts to make him surrender and to Germanise him, he waged
a battle using the cells of his own body by converting his hunger strike to
a Death Fast, which began on November 30th, 1999.
All the DHKP-C prisoners in Germany participated in this resistance with
solidarity hunger strikes for an indefinite period, and some non-political
prisoners joined in with solidarity hunger strikes. Also the Cephe (Front)
prisoners in Belgium and France joined in the resistance. More than 1,000
Party-Front prisoners in Turkey initially participated in 3-day hunger
strikes, and from January 24th 2000 they converted them into indefinite
hunger strikes with the slogan of "one for all and all for one". Also the
prisoners from TKP(ML), TKP/ML, TIKP, Devrimci Yol, TIKB, PKK-Revolutionary
Line Fighters were on 3-day solidarity hunger strike in several prisons.
Also our supporters and people participated fully in the resistance that
the prisoners extended on a daily basis. Thousands of fax messages and
letters were sent, posters were hung, press releases were distributed and
our resistance was announced to European public opinion. Demonstrations
took place in front of all German Embassies in Europe. The buildings of
Amnesty International and the Goethe Institute in England, as well as the
Goethe Institute in Holland, the Cologne cathedral and SPD offices in
Germany and the office of a trade union in Switzerland were occupied. The
Holland-Germany frontier was blocked for 3 hours, a 60 km-long tailback was
formed and the resistance was announced to the drivers. Marches were
organised in Hamburg, Cologne and London to support Ilhan Yelkuvan.
German imperialism wanted to prevent the activities of the DHKP-C by
forbidding it, by pressing charges against tens of Front supporters in
accordance with Article "129a" of the Criminal Law, by arresting people and
forcing them to co-operate with the authorities against the DHKP-C. All
this was not enough. They practised a wide-ranging policy of repression
against our prisoners in an attempt to make them surrender.
Ilhan Yelkuvan was placed in solitary confinement and all his rights were
taken away from him because he did not give up the thought of being a
member of the Cephe. He was banned from seeing the other prisoners by using
the pretext that he might spread propaganda among other people from Turkey.
This is clearly a denial of FREEDOM OF THOUGHT and is RACISM. This means
that you are not allowed to speak your mother tongue or continue to live
according to your own culture, you will be made to give up your political
thoughts and be subject to Germanisation. These practices are an insult and
an attempt to denigrate the peoples of Turkey. It is a lie to say that
there are human rights, freedom of thought, democracy, equality and justice
in Germany. The attacks against our people and prisoners in Germany are the
practices of the heirs of the Nazis. The decision to inflict arbitrary
confinement is a deliberate and politically motivated decision. This
decision was reached in the interests of fascism in Turkey. German is
co-operating with Turkey both economically and politically and therefore is
selling Turkey Leopard tanks and other weapons. Germany also supported
fascists of the MHP (Nationalist Movement Party) and the Hizbullah
supporters who are striving for a Sharia state. They are also responsible
for the Hizbullah killing fields. They are an accomplice of the Susurluk
state. The peoples of the world have not forgotten what the Nazis did.
Nazism is condemned by the peoples of the entire world. Therefore Germany's
current attacks will not be forgiven either. We represent justice, freedom
and democracy. We are waging war against the fascist regime in Turkey and
imperialism. Our struggle is not directly against the German state but
against fascism in Turkey.
In the Ulucanlar prison 10 prisoners were massacred just because they
demanded an extra ward. Ilhan also was denied his rights and left to die
over the last 10 months because he would not change his thoughts.
These attacks are a part of the policies of imperialist countries led by
the US to make the revolutionary movements surrender. They are in fear of
the struggle for revolution wherever it may be. The resistance of
revolutionaries, the hope of people's liberation, to all sieges and
policies of surrendering, make imperialism feel uneasy. This is the main
problem.
We did not choose to be refugees and to live apart from our country. Our
minds and hearts are always with the people in our country. We never see
ourselves as being outside of the war despite being behind the front-line.
They see us as "black heads" in Europe, make us work in the most menial
jobs, they denied us our cultures and values, they attempted to make us
forget our language and they tried to drag our children into the swamp of
drug addiction. For 30 years they tried to Germanise us, destroy our people
and their culture and applied a policy of assimilation. Today a large
section of our children cannot speak their own language. This is the result
of 30 years of Germanisation and of racist policies. It is the legitimate
right of the entire peoples of the world to fight against racism and
violation of freedom of thought.
We declare to the whole world that we will always sacrifice our lives,
whenever it is necessary, for the sake of our thoughts.
No matter what they have done, we will never give up seeing the problems of
our people in Europe as our own and fighting for our country and people.
Rather than living like a slave, rather than having no home and roots; we
prefer to fight for our freedom and to die for our thoughts.
Therefore we resisted German imperialism's bans, attacks and policies aimed
at making our prisoners surrender. Our resistance which was extended by our
prisoners and combined with those outside the prisons on a daily basis
ended in VICTORY.
- Ilhan Yelkuvan's isolation was ended and his demands were accepted.
- Ilhan Yelkuvan will be transferred to another prison and stay with two
other prisoners from Turkey in the same cell.
- He will have the same rights as the other prisoners.
- He will be allowed to work.
- He will be allowed to exercise and his cell door will be kept open for
two hours in the evenings.
The German state has realised how much power we have. For the last 30 years
no one could place a ban on our thoughts and neither can the German state.
>From now on, whenever there is an attack against our prisoners or Ilhan
Yelkuvan's gains are neutralised or the Germanisation policies are targeted
against our people, the German state will come face to face with the Cephe.
We will keep an eye on the gains Ilhan Yelkuvan has made. Our struggle
against the denial of freedom of thoughts will continue.
We thank all those who made efforts to crown our resistance with victory.
We thank those who were in solidarity with our struggle, those who took
part in occupations and demonstrations, our supporters, our people and
comrades from other organisations, our prisoners who were on hunger strike
and ready to sacrifice themselves, German revolutionaries-democrats and our
friends all over Europe who supported us with their internationalist
consciousness.
DOWN WITH IMPERIALISM, BANS ON FREEDOM OF THOUGHT, RACISM,..!
WE WILL RESIST TO THE DEATH, WE WILL NEVER GIVE UP OUR THOUGHTS
OR OUR PART IN THE REVOLUTION IN ANATOLIA�
LONG LIVE THE DHKP-C!
LONG LIVE OUR LEADER DURSUN KARATAS!
February 2nd, 2000
DHKC
EUROPEAN ORGANISATION
