More deaths in Turkey

national | miscellaneous | news report

Monday August 26, 2002 18:18

by Mags - Solidarity with Hunger Strikers in Turkey

thsireland at hotmail dot com

Two more women die on Hunger Strike

The Hunger Strikes against Turkey's F-Type prisons continue. The past three weeks have seen the deaths, after prolonged fasts, of four young women. **************** A protest will be held at the Turkish Embassy (11 Clyde Road, Ballsbridge) at 6pm on Tuesday 27th August. The protest will mark the deaths of Gulnihal Yilmaz and Birsen Hosver. **************** Below are profiles of Gulnihal Yilmaz and Birsen Hosver. Information on the prison struggle and the hunger strike at http://www.geocities.com/turkishhungerstrike

Gulnihal Yilmaz

"The resistance is continuing… 95 martyrs… Let us tear down the walls of the cells and give life to human beings"

THE 95TH LIFE IN THE DEATH FAST: GULNIHAL YILMAZ

Gulnihal Yilmaz started resistance to the F-Type isolation prisons on June 3, 2001 in Kutahya Prison, as part of the 5th Death Fast Team. On August 25, 2002, the 449th day of the resistance, she was martyred in Kutahya Prison.

Gulnihal was born in 1965. She was the child of a family in Sivas (central Turkey) which was Cherkess by nationality. (Note: The Cherkess or Circassians are a minority mainly found in the Caucasian part of the Russian Federation, but a number of them moved to the Ottoman Empire after the Caucasus came under the domination of Tsarist Russia in the 19th century. They remain a distinct group in Turkey.)

She came to know the revolutionary struggle during the years 1988 and 1989. During that time she was a student in the law faculty of Ankara University. She took part in the academic and democratic struggle of student youth. In July 1993 she was jailed as a DHKP-C Trial prisoner. First she was put in Ankara Ulucanlar Prison, and from there she was transported to Sakarya Prison. After the August 17 earthquake (1999) she was removed to Canakkale Prison. She experienced the December 19 "Operation Return to Life". Her friends were murdered before her eyes.

After December 19 she was transported to Kutahya Prison. Gulnihal Yilmaz continued the Death Fast resistance to her last breath with determination and devotion, demanding that the inhuman conditions in the F-Type Prisons be removed. Gulnihal's was the 95th life taken by isolation.

THE BALANCE SHEET OF ISOLATION:
Up to the present, 95 human beings have died. As a result of forcible medical intervention, hundreds of human beings have been left handicapped. How many more will die, how many more will be left handicapped?

NO TO ISOLATION!!!
STOP THE DEATHS!!!

THE TAYAD FAMILIES
------
Birsen Hosver

Our comrade Birsen Hosver was born in 1970 in Istanbul. Her family came from Pazar, in Rize Province (on Turkey's eastern Black Sea coast). She was a Laz, and Laz was her native language (the Laz are a distinct ethnic group in Turkey's eastern Black Sea region, and their language is related to Georgian). She went to elementary and high school in Kartal (Istanbul, on the Anatolian side of the city), then she studied in Ankara University's faculty of languages, history and geography. She had already taken part in the struggles and organisations of young people.

During this struggle she was detained and spent months in jail. After she was released she devoted herself completely to the struggle. She left university in 1995. In the youth organisation she took part in the struggles of the different strata of the people, and in all these areas of the struggle she encountered torture and detention.

After she decided to become a people's liberation fighter, she became a guerrilla in 1997. She joined an armed propaganda unit of the rural guerrillas in Dersim (a Kurdish area officially called Tunceli). She was arrested on February 5, 1999, eighteen months after joining the guerrillas.

Her captivity opposing the torturers and mass murderers was a new phase of the struggle.

Everything else is explained in the letter she wrote when she volunteered for the Death Fast.

"On the days around December 19 the days passed differently for me. I saw myself and the situation more clearly. We are part of a mighty and glorious resistance. Nobody would have believed it, but we are achieving it. All that gives me great strength. Above all, our martyrs outside the prisons are beyond powers of description… At this time there is no alternative to resistance. We are dying, one after the other. I am very sad for them. They sacrifice themselves and there are very many of them. When the very young as well as old men and women can be so selfless and die, there is not much more to discuss. I should take part in this resistance.

Many of them are so young, they are in the prime of their life. Perhaps in other countries they would be seen as children, but they are so mature that they can take on this responsibility. I can imagine what outstanding people they are and it makes me very unhappy...

The resistance had entered a quite different phase, there is great determination. Right up to the last one. That shows very great strength. I have unshakeable faith that we will win. Both in victory and in revolution. In short: human beings should defend their honour and dignity. I am ready, and I ought to do it."

And like hundreds of comrades, when her turn came, she lay down to die on September 26, 2001 as a resistance fighter in the 7th Death Fast Team. While she was in Malatya Prison she was seized and put in with ordinary (non-political) prisoners in an effort to break her resistance, and finally she was placed in total isolation. But they could not break her.

On August 22, in Ankara Numune Hospital, she became immortal as one of the heroines of the great resistance.

save preference

Comments (3 of 3)

comprehensive listing of death fasters?

by Seamus McCann

Mon Aug 26, 2002 21:00

Does anyone know where one can find a comprehensive listing of death fasters who've died in Turkey since the strikes began? I think we're talking since 1995 or 1996, if not before.

I've not found a complete listing anywhere, even Tayad. Names, dates, ages, time on strike, etc.

Coverage

by Des

Mon Aug 26, 2002 23:19

If it were not for the fact that I have internet access, I would not be aware of these depressing and tragic events. The coverage in the establishment media has been nil. Has our beloved government made any comment? Has Mary Robinson made any statements on the issue?
What can we do from such a long distance?

Some answers

by Mags

Tue Aug 27, 2002 13:30

I'm not sure if there is a complete on-line listing of all those who have died. There are some from the current struggle on the website at
http://www.geocities.com/turkishhungerstrike
Also if you go into Ozgurluk in the links you will find comprehensive documents about the death fasts, which may be of use.

In reply to Des' question, I have a pain in the face contacting journalists and the papers, who rarely (once every six months?) bother to cover anything. The current position of Turkey vis-a-vis the US - as a Nato state, head of the international forces in Afghanistan and needed for future attacks on Iraq - ensures the Western media keeps quiet. We got a fair bit of coverage of the 'reforms' in Turkey last month, but no mention that the hunger strikes continue.

In relation to what people can do, the first is to join the protest at the Embassy- there is one this evening. This is quite important. The pickets really upset the Embassy staff, who go mad calling the Guards. They also have to report the protests to the government back home.
If people are unable to make the Embassy please ring or fax your protest to the Embassy. Again the contact details are on the website.

Upcoming Events

New Events

Other Press

User Preferences

Feeds

Blog Feeds

The Saker

Public Inquiry

Human Rights in Ireland

Lockdown Skeptics

More deaths in Turkey

Comments (3 of 3)