Background: On the hunger strike and the events of the last days in Turkey

On Tuesday, 19 December, at 5 am in the morning, special units of the police and the army began to attach 20 prisons and the hunger strikers in these prisons. The aim was to transfer the prisoners to hospitals and "type F" prisons and to bring the hunger strike to an end. In this article, we document the events and do a first evaluation.

Last resort is to burne yourself

All expectations which saw the Turkish state on the road to democratisation were painfully disappointed. With the use of emergency regulations, special units and building machines the Turkish government tries to break the hunger strikers' resistance. The last weapon the hunger strikers see for themselves in their "death fast" is to burn themselves. Up to now the number of people dead according to official figures reached 17.

The life of even more prisoners is under threat. Until the storming of the prisons 280 prisoners participated in the death fast, and more than 800 in an solidarity hunger strike. Those who were transferred to hospitals so far refuse to take any nourishment and are resisting forced feeding.

The state's stroke is not only aimed towards the prisoners; human rights associations, parties and trade unions were raided. The association of relatives of the prisoners, TAYAD, was closed.

The instruments used by the state during the intervention called "Return to live" make a mockery of any state of law regulation, and in fact are a stroke against all civil society groups, which react in joint declarations.

Good prospects for a revolution

Until Monday last week, the hunger strike and death fast had a good chance to achieve a workable compromise with the government. The prisoners resist against their transfer to new prisons with 1- or 3-person cells. The prisons, which are named Type F, also allow for a total isolation of the prisoners, which would result in deprivation. In the smaller cells prisoners are less protected from attacks by the gendarmes and from torture. The breaking up of the existing groups of 30 or 40 prisoners into much smaller units weakens the social and political cohesion.

Until last Monday the public opinion continuously increased in favour of the demands of the prisoners and supporting civil society groups. The Turkish Chamber of Physicians spoke out against forced feeding, because this would be in opposition to statements by the World Chamber of Physicians (1975, 1991). In an highly visible action, which was documented on TV, four isolation cells were built after the model of Type F prisons. Artists went into these transparent cells and improvised, talked about their feelings, kept silent, recited poems.

Attemps to mediate

Well known intellectuals started attempts to mediate, the government appointed the human rights commission of the Turkish parliament (HR-commission) as a mediator, and following this the Turkish Minister for Justice, Türk, on 9.12. agreed to postpone the transfer to the new Type F prisons. He also said that a new arrangement of the cells with 12 + 6 or 9 + 9 beds, which is possible from the side of the building, is a proposal worth investigating. But the hunger strikers did not want to accept only vague promises, and demand a written agreement.

Attack on the police

An armed attack on a police bus by the marxist-leninist TKP/ML on 11.12. marks the public turning point of the conflict. The shots from rifles by 2 or 3 TKP/ML activists on a mobile police unit in Istanbul kills two police men, 11 were wounded and many suffer from a serious shock.

The following day in many cities the police demonstrates and demands the removal of police chiefs and ministers from their posts, whom they see as responsible for taking much too weak measures against "terrorism".

The legend of the weappons

It seems the state had waited for this turning point, and if TKP/ML wouldn't have provided the reason, then the state would have had to invent one. After the attack on the police legends were increasingly spread that some of the large cells in the prison of Bayrampasa were not entered by the gendarmes since 1991 and were controlled by the Mafia. The public prosecutor who were responsible for this prison at that time unmasks these legends in an interview he gave to CNN on 19.12. He said he visited the cells several times in the last years and had invited the press to document how these cells were searched. Until now only a small number of primitive self-constructed weapons had been found. Kalashnikovs, with which the special units claimed were fired at, couldn't be found. Gendarmes of the prison Bayrampasa reported in an interview on 21.12., that the violence of the special units was unnecessary and only served to justify the transfer of the prisoners to Type F prisons.

Speeding up the escalation

After the attack on the police and the police's demonstrations the events were speeded up. Although the delegations still attempt to mediate and a compromise seems to be close, the course for attacks on the prisons is set. The State Security Court issues a press censorship. From 14.12. on every report on actions in support of the prisoners and protests outside of the prisons is prohibited. The media in its majority accepts this censorship and so the conflict is focused on the prisoners themselves. Leading politicians such as premier Ecevit and president Sezer were quoted with sharp words against the prisoners. The attempts to mediate were presented as having no chance and success. A memorandum is issued to the city governors responsible for the prisons, which prepares them for the attack. In this week the hunger strike reaches its 60th day. The experience from past hunger strikes and death fast's tells, that from the 60th day on the first people will die. Simultaneously on the weekend the human rights week, with a lots of events which could have provided the core for protests, if the intervention would have started at that time, ends.

Emergency rules come into force

With this attack the ministries responsible for this (Justice, Health and Internal Affairs) put the so-called protocol of three into practise, which was worked out after the hunger strike in 1996. The protocol of three doesn't have any legal base and limits the rights of physicians, lawyers, prisoners and journalists seriously. Two kilometres of "security zones" are introduced around the prisons. The public prosecutors, who are normally in charge of the prisons, are freed of their responsibilities, which are transferred to a crisis management group. Following this, the lawyers for one day were not allowed to visit the prisoners. Those prisoners who participated in the death fast and until then only took water with sugar, from then on also refused to take any fluids. The defend their rights putting their lives into the line. A hunger strike or death fast can lead to permanent damages from the 30th day on, depending on the constitution of the fasting person. Those who participated in the 1996 hunger strike were reported to suffer from damages to their sight, extreme difficulties with speaking up to the permanent loss of speech, damages of inner organs and being crippled. Then the death fast lasted 62 days. 12 persons died. The hunger strike was ended, after the prisoners succeeded with their demand not to be transferred to the new Eskisehir prison, the prototype of the Type F prisons.

Importance for the left

For many leftist groups and individuals this struggle is very important especially as it is about defending their already very limited rights. "Even after the coup d'etat in 1980 the state didn't act as strong against 20 prisons at the same time. If they also take the hunger strike away from us, we loose are last effective means for struggle", says Coskun Üsterci, activists with the War Resisters Association. But the mood at the demonstrations wavers between a fighting mood and hopelessness. The left's weakness is obvious for years and on demonstrations you can hear the sentence: "Why were we born exactly in this country? No matter what we try, nothing changes."

On participant in a demonstration describes the deep hopelessness of the left as follows: "The worst thing is, to loose sense. You are living in this country, and you have an image of how you want to live. Both images depart from each other like a pair of scissors. How can you bear this split? There is no time when you can say 'We achieved this success'. Just the opposite: there are always new strokes and setbacks. After the capture of Öcalan we experienced with an unbelievable presence of the fascist MHP and many attacks on left party buildings and associations the last stroke against the left, and now one more. What is lying between these strokes, the seemingly normal times, are misleading. The talks about EU are misleading. The state could have chosen a different path here, but he chose the hard one."