(Below is a statement by revolutionary captives in Umraniye Prison, Istanbul, Turkey. See additional note at the end of this statement, added by the DHKC London Information Bureau.) TO PUBLIC OPINION: For years, the intifada has continued on the soil of Palestine which is under Israeli occupation, and it was born, developed and progressed as a child of the decades of armed struggle which preceded it. When the intifada became dangerous for reactionary states and imperialism in the Middle East, imperialism presented the people of Palestine with an imperialist and reactionary solution. Under the cover of peace, they wanted the Palestinian people to surrender. But as is shown by the most recent examples, every attack Israel makes on the Palestinian people meets the response of a renewed and strengthened intifada. Dozens have paid the price of death at every encounter but would never surrender, and have showed that they would carry the fight to victory. They gave the appropriate reply to the imperialist policy of surrender. For revolutionary movements to spread in the Middle East, for the revolutionary struggle to develop, there must be solidarity in action with the Palestinian revolution. In the Middle East, which has been a hotbed of revolution for years, the successful advance of the Palestinian revolution will affect the peoples throughout the region and push them forward. For years, our peoples and all revolutionary forces have given the Palestinian people either active or moral support and shown solidarity with them; we are making an appeal for active solidarity with the Palestinian people to be taken to new heights, for they are standing up to the reactionary forces of the entire world. It must not be forgotten that a people which fails to perform its international duties can never defeat an enemy that is united with all the world's reactionary forces, nor will it be able to look victory in the face. We are announcing that on October 2, 2000, in order to be on the side of the Palestinian people in their anger, their vow of vengeance and their rebellion against imperialism, Israel and all the reactionary forces in the region, we refused to take part in the evening roll call. UMRANIYE PRISON'S DHKP-C, TKP(ML), TIKB, TKP/ML, TKEP/L, MLKP, MLSPB, TKIP, TDP, TKP-Kivilcim Trial prisoners (Note: Umraniye Prison, on the Asian side of Istanbul, is designed for prisoners awaiting trial. In Turkey's judicial system, sometimes prisoners wait for years before coming to trial. Such trials of political prisoners there, whether or not they have actually taken place, are carried out according to the "illegal organisation" to which the prisoners supposedly belong. So there will be references to "DHKP-C Trial prisoners", "PKK Trial prisoners", "TKP(ML) Trial prisoners" and so on. Refusing to take part in the roll call is a more serious step than might at first appear. It, and actions like it, are refusals to comply with prison regulations, and the guards may respond by launching organised attacks on certain groups of prisoners, attacks which sometimes result in deaths. Umraniye Prison was itself the scene of one such massacre in January 1996. Four DHKP-C prisoners were murdered. Last month we sent out a note giving details of what the Turkish initials of organisations mean, plus a few details of their politics. All of the organisations mentioned above were described in that note, with the exception of TKP-Kivilcim. This means "Communist Party of Turkey-Spark", and it is a split from the TKP.)
