From: mart <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Fw: Turkish Hunger Strike Update -2 more female prisoners die [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG. Visit our website: HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------------------------- Turkey is a 'Bright Crown Jewel' Of Human Rights, Peace, Ethnic Harmony" and "a special friend of the U.S." Republican congressman Curt Weldon, yesterday in Ankara, Turkey. 1 October 2001 Turkish Hunger Strike Update In addition to the two hunger strikers who died last Thursday - Ali Riza Demir and Zeynip Arikan - we have received news that two more female hunger strikers died at the death fast house in Ankara on Friday. They names are �zlem Durakcan and Ayse Bastimur. Their funerals were on Saturday morning. The police attacked the funerals, arrested 100 people and took the bodies of the martyrs away. More information is expected soon. ================= PROTEST AT TURKISH EMBASSY in memory of Ali Riza Demir Zeynip Arikan �zlem Durakcan Ayse Bastimur Monday 1st October at 6pm Embassy is at 11 Clyde Road, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4 People are asked to make their best effort to attend. NOTE: Next Saturday (October 6th) there is a big march in Dublin to mark the anniversary of the H-Block unger Strikes. 'Solidarity with Hunger Strikers in Turkey' will have a banner and delegation on it. eet at Parnell Square, at 2pm Website: http://www.geocities.com/turkishhungerstrike ============= DHKP-C Statement: 369, 27 September 2001) The death fast is now in its the 4th season. 69 MARTYRS. There is no INSIDE OR OUTSIDE the whole country has turned into an F Type. WE'LL ESIST!" ZEYNEP ARIKAN BECAME IMMORTAL ON THE 343RD DAY OF THE DEATH FAST ACTION WITH A SMILE ON HER FACE. ZEYNEP ARIKAN IS THE BEST EXAMPLE OF BELIEF AND WILLPOWER. SHE CHALLENGED DEATH BY MARCHING TOWARDS IT ON THE 343RD DAY. ZEYNEP ARIKAN; LOST HER LIFE TODAY AT 04.15 AM She was born in 1968 in Malatya/Hekimhan. She was studying at the university of Istanbul to be a librarian. She joined the struggle in her youth. She actively participated in the struggle for democratic universities; she was always in the front line during boycotts and occupations. In 1996 she was arrested and sent to Umraniye prison, Istanbul. She joined the first team of Death Fast fighter's on 20 October 2000. After 'operation return to life' on 19th December, she was brought to hospital for forced medical intervention but she refused to accept the treatment. She was released as part of the release game that was put forward by the state in their attempt to bribe the prisoners but she continued her Death Fast action in Armutlu, Istanbul. Zeynep Arikan's husband Kazim Gulbag sacrificed his life abroad with an act of self-immolation outside a prison in Hamburg. Zeynep Arikan, the Sunnite girl and Alevi bride became a symbol of dignity and honour for 343 days. Zeynep Arikan has shown once again that this resistance will continue. This resistance won't be broken. It will grow even more. It will continue until our just and democratic demands are fulfilled. Program of the funeral: The ceremony will take place at 11.00 a.m. at her family's house in Armutlu. After a second religious service performed at the Ulu mosque in the Gazi neighbourhood of Istanbul at 3.00 p.m. she will be buried in the Cebeci Cemetery. 70 MARTYRS (Statement: 370, 27th September 2001) ALI RIZA DEMIR HAS LOST HIS LIFE ON THE 343RD DAY OF THE DEATH FAST ACTION. Ali Riza Demir was born in 1973 in Adiyaman. He was of Kurdish nationality. He was imprisoned in 1994, while studying at the textile engineering section of the engineering faculty at the Technical University of Istanbul. He was a prisoner in the DHKP-C trial and was tried and given the death penalty. After the operation of 19th December he was transferred from Umraniye prison to Kandira F-type prison. When he was brought to the State hospital of Izmir for forced medical intervention he resisted and refused the treatment. He was released during the conditional discharges that have been applied by the state in order to finish the Death Fast action. He continued his death fast action in Armutlu, Istanbul. With the death of Ali Riza Demir the number of those who have lost their lives, inside and outside of the prisons, against the F Type prisons has reached 70. In these days when the 7th team of Death Fast fighter's has started in the prisons, the demands have to be fulfilled without delay and deaths have to be stopped. Funeral arrangements: The ceremony will be held today, the 27th of September 2001 at 8.30 p.m. He will be brought to the morgue of the Alevite religious house in Armutlu. Tomorrow, the 29th of September 2001, he will be brought to the hospital and from there accompanied to his town Adiyaman. Notice: According to our information the ceremony of Zeynep Arikan in the Gazi neighbourhood of Istanbul was attacked by special police forces and panzers and at least 20 persons have been arrested. Among them are two journalists from the weekly magazine Vatan. URGENT 2 MARTYRS MORE THIS MORNING Whilst the two Death Fast resisters Zeynep Arikan and Ali Riza Demir lost their lives yesterday on the 343rd day of the death fast action, we received the news about two other martyrs in the resistance house in Ankara. �zlem Durakcan and Ayse Bastimur, who were continuing their Death Fast in the same house, both died this morning. �zlem Durakcan, who was on a solidarity Death Fast action outside prison as a member of TAYAD, had been on death fast for 74 days. Ayse Bastimur participated in the 1st Death Fast team in Canakkale prison. She was later transferred to Kutahya prison. After being conditionally released she continued her Death Fast in Ankara, next to �zlem Durakcan. Ayse Bastimur had continued her Death Fast action for 341 days. Around 100 persons have been arrested in Ankara. According to the information the police have captured the dead bodies of both Ozlem Durakcan and Ayse Bastimur. ================ 30 September 2001 Long Kesh 1981- Turkey 2001 from the Derry Journal AT THE tender age of eight Michael Devine watched his father fade into death during the 1981 hungerstrike. His father was the last of ten republican prisoners to die in that watershed year. Twenty years later in 2001, thousands of miles away in Turkey, he sat by the bedside of a dying man he had never met before. He would die while the Derry man was there last weekend. Michael Devine Junior had an uncomfortable and emotional revisiting of the dark days of the 1981 hungerstrike. He has a natural empathy with the group of Turkish prisoners currently protesting against isolation prisons in Istanbul. But unlike Ireland's 1981 experience, the deathfasters in Turkey have already sacrificed more than double the number that died in the confines of Long Kesh. Young women are also among their number. One of the oldest forms of protest, the fast to the death, is being followed through to the end, without any resolution in sight. Michael Devine Junior joined a delegation of republican activists from across Ireland on a fact finding mission to Istanbul last week. What he found would affect him deeply. "The whole experience in Turkey affected me deeply. I would have a deep understanding of hungerstrikes and what they are like but visiting these people in these houses really brings it all home to you. It is important that people like me who witnessed this in 1981 show solidarity with these people." The Turkish deathfasters are housed in an area called Armutlu, a place closely monitored by the Turkish authorities. Michael says the area is around the same size as Carnhill in Derry. "There is a great sense of belonging to one another there. The spirit that we found there was immense." One deathfaster, Arzu Guler, a young woman, made an impassioned plea to the people of Derry earlier this year to support their cause and oppose the Turkish regime in whatever way possible. She now has very little time left. "They came out and supported us when we had our hungerstrike in 1981," Michael stated. "I saw it as my personal duty to do the same for them. They appreciated our visit and I really felt that their struggle was our struggle. These people, the poorest of the poor felt that they were not just fighting for themselves, but setting a benchmark for oppressed people elsewhere. "When the hungerstriker died at the weekend, I got very upset. After his funeral we went to visit the deathfast house where the women stay. This was very upsetting. I felt like going home, but they were going to get on with it, so we felt that we had to do the same. I was angry and emotional." Michael said that meeting the families of the dead hungerstrikers sparked an immediate sense of affinity. "I knew how they were feeling. When I met the families I knew that they were feeling very emotional, but they were also very determined." The Turkish authorities have attacked the funeral corteges of the hungerstrikers. They deploy a gas which burns the skin of mourners. "There is no dialogue taking place at the moment, so the onus is on us all. These people need international pressure brought to bear on the government. "I feel it is the duty of the Irish people to come out in their support. It may be far away, but the plight of these people is something which is close to my heart." On Saturday, October 13, Derry activists committed to highlighting the plight of the Turkish hungerstrikers, will hold a rally in the Guildhall Square. _________________________________________________ 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] __________________________________________________
