Subject: Letter of Protest Delivered to Turkish Embassy in London Irish Republican Socialist Party 9 May 2001 Press Release Letter of Protest Delivered to Turkish Embassy in London ======================================= Terry hEarcain, Coordinator for the Irish Republican Socialist Party on the island of Britain and co-Secretary of the International Department of the IRSP presented a letter of protest to the Turkish Embassy in London today. The IRSP Ard Comhairle member was accompanied by Tony O Hara, brother of INLA hunger strike martry Patsy O Hara and himself a former blanketman. Mr. O Hara led a group of several ex-prisoners of war and members of the ten hunger strike martyrs' families. The presentation was a joint undertaking of the Hunger Strike Commemoration Committee (HSCOM) and the IRSP. The IRSP joined in the protest as a demonstration of its ongoing solidarity with the political prisoners of the DHKC-P and other Left parties in Turkey presently engaged in their own hunger strike. The Turkish hunger strike has already claimed the lives of 22 socialist prisoners. During the protest presentation, Tony O Hara delivered a statement which read: "This month marks the 20th anniversary of the H Block Hunger Strike, on which 10 Irishmen died in an attempt to end the criminalisation policy imposed on them by the British government. Ironically, there are still 41 prisoners undergoing the same criminalisation attempts, two decades after the ten died. I have come to this embassy today in solidarity with the Turkish people who have been undergoing imprisonment, torture and murder in the various Turkish prisons. As Turkey prepares to enter the EEC, through my actions today I wish to highlight the numerous atrocities inflicted on the people of that country by the same government that wishes to join this confederation. Mr. O Hara continued: "We ask this from a humanitarian basis, as it is a terrible thing that people must go to such lengths to die on hunger strike, and this amid the torture, deprivations and deaths already inflicted on them as defenceless hostages under incarceration. "In this modern world, such actions are not acceptable, and are viewed as crimes against humanity. We ask you to act now before any more lives are lost due to your intransigence and barbarity. The world is watching." The hunger strike being waged by the Leftist prisoners was prompted by the Turkish government's decision to force the political prisoners into so called 'F-type prisons,' which render impossible the level of self- organisation political prisoners had previously be capable of within Turkish prisons. The initial drive to force the prisoners into the new prisons reached a flashpoint in December of last year, when Turkish solidiers stormed the prisons, killing over twenty prisoners and wounding many more. The IRSP has maintained relations with the DHKC-P for a number of years now, having hosted a delegation of DHKC-P members on a tour of Ireland in 1999, which included a visit to the graves of hunger strikers Patsy O Hara and Mickey Devine in Derry and Kevin Lynch in Dungiven. ENDS ________________________________________________________________________
