From: Press Agency Ozgurluk <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Mon, 20 Aug 2001 23:07:13 +0200 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [Ozgurluk] Hunger strike in Solidarity with the international struggle PRESS RELEASE - FRIDAY 17TH, AUGUST 2001 Dijon, France : Hunger strike in Solidarity with the international struggle of political prisoners in Turkey Today, Friday 17th, August 2001, 12:00pm, we reply to the call of the Solidarity Association of Prisoners' Families and Friends (TAYAD) and are going on hunger strike for 3 days. On the 8th of August in Istanbul, turkish police forces assaulted the central office of the paper Vatan -which is closed to one of the organizations whose some members are on hunger strike in the prisons. With the same violence as during the assault carried out against prisons in December 2000, walls were broken down with sledgehammer and offices completely trashed, and several dozens of people were arrested as well. Being known for such practices, there's no doubt that they will be tortured for days by turkish police forces prior to end up in an isolation cell or simply being declared as dead or as "having disappeared". This new police operation is one more step in the struggle run by the turkish State to break down the hunger strike that started 295 days ago in turkish prisons (on August 10th) and the solidarity shown by families on the outside. The district of Kucukarmutlu (Istanbul) was sealed off for 4 days by police forces to take out prisoners' families running a solidarity hunger strike. They threatened to assault their houses but had to retreat because families threatened to sacrifice. On the outside, there are currently several dozens of prisoners' relatives who are between life and death, embarked on a death fast in solidarity their relatives struggling in prisons for over 100 days for some of them. This political repression is also hitting directly political militants by executions : on the 6th of July, Ismael Karaman was murdered into the street in the district of Avcilar (Istanbul). Aside from this violent policy, the State is attempting to split up the movement by releasing a number of prisoners on hunger strike, betting on their stopping of the hunger strike once on the outside. Nevertheless, this strategy doesn't really works because some prisoners released have continued to show solidarity and have started over their unlimited hunger strike by joining the families. Inside prisons and hospitals, the situation is dramatic. Several dozens of them are in a hopeless condition in hospitals. They suffer from heavy brain, kidneys and lungs confusion but are maintained alive by forced perfusion. Indeed, the turkish State had ordered some doctors -who then accepted- to contravene international treaties (Malta and Tokyo) and to force-feed prisoners needing it. Since then, they are maintained alive artificially so as to minimize the impact which the loss of a human life would cause, if moreover added to the casualties of this struggle that has already caused 58 ones since the 19th of December, 2000. 28 prisoners who were then on hunger strike deceased during the assault carried out against 20 prisons throughout the country and 30 additional strikers have died since then. On tuesday 14th, August 2001, Osman Osmanagaoglu, a prisoner on struggle who was recently released along with others, deceased in a district of Istanbul on the 299th day of the death fast. He's the 59th casualty of this struggle. This movement against the introduction of cellular confinement in turkish prisons doesn't weaken, as well as the refusal of the State to accept prisoners' claims focusing mainly on the closure of confinement prisons (F type) and the abolition of anti-terrorist laws that allow the incarceration of anyone being suspected of having any link with an organization classified as "terrorist" by the State. During the few discussions that took place between the government and representatives of Human Rights associations, some minor concessions were made but were judged insufficient by those associations as well as by prisoners on struggle. Since then, the State is retreating in its uncompromising position while european States remain silent faced with the current situation in turkish prisons. Even worse, they subsidize the turkish government with 101,8 million euros, at the same time as they require from it to humanize and modernize its prison system. In the scope of integrating Turkey within the European Union, this normalization is aimed at introducing a clean and "democratic" way of torture : white torture by isolation. Suffering and fighting against this practice for numerous years already, prisoners detained in european jails have shown solidarity with this resistance by multiple actions, amongst hunger strikes by rota. In the meantime in Europe, several prisoners' families and friends are on hunger strike in solidarity with the resistance going on in Turkey : - in Switzerland : Cemile Ayyildiz has been on unlimited hunger strike since the 10th July. - in Austria : a hunger that started on the 4th of August will last 45 days. - in The Netherlands : a hunger strike that started on the 11th of August will last for 45 days. - in Germany : a hunger strike that started on the 11th of August will last for 45 days. - in Paris (France) : 14 people are on hunger strike since the 15th of August and will last for 12 days. - in Salon-de-Provence (France) : one person started a hunger strike on the 17th of August and will continue until the 21st. - other hunger strikes are going on in the cities of Bordeaux, Toulouse and Lyon (France). By going today on hunger strike for 3 days, we intend to relay this resistance beyond the prison walls and beyond the borders. SOLIDARITY IS A WEAPON ! Anarchist Black Cross - Dijon c/o Maloka B.P. 536 21 014 Dijon-cedex France Email : [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web site : www.chez.com/maloka Comite de Lutte Contre la Barbarie et l'Arbitraire 777, Bd. Nations unies 13 300 Salon-de-Provence France [EMAIL PROTECTED] _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________
