Shirin Vossoughi Vossoughi is a
third-year history and American literature and culture student.
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On December 19, Turkish security forces stormed 20 prisons at
4:30 a.m. to end a 60-day hunger strike organized by prisoners. The
1,200 prisoners on strike, many of them on a death fast (taking
water but no sugar), were protesting against plans to move them to
smaller prisons with worse conditions, ideal for isolation and
torture. The storming was called “Operation Return to
Life” by Turkish officials, but resulted in at least 78
injuries and 30 deaths.
Haven’t heard about it? Don’t be surprised. The
prisoners on strike are political prisoners and the U.S. media has
kept relatively quiet about the story. Those that have addressed
the situation paint over the facts and do no justice to the
prisoners who are struggling and dying daily at the hands of a
U.S.-supported government.
The hunger strike began on October 20 by inmates from three main
political groups, including the Revolutionary People’s
Liberation Party (DHKP-C), the Communist Party of Turkish
Marxist-Leninists (TKP-ML) and the Communist Worker’s party
of Turkey (TKIP). Their demands include justice for those killed in
Turkish prisons in the last decade and an end to law #3713, which
obstructs any struggles to organize. The strike and death fast,
however, are mainly aimed at resisting a move to more isolationist
prisons where physical and mental abuse run rampant.
 Illustration by JASON CHEN/Daily Bruin Senior Staff
They’re called “F-type” prisons and according to
Cemile Cakir, a former political prisoner in Turkey, they are
modeled after U.S. maximum-security, behavior modification systems
that impose high-tech total isolation in order to break down
prisoner moral and control political organization.
Although many human rights organizations, including Amnesty
International, have spoken out against such prisons and the violent
repression implemented by the Turkish government, the United States
remains quiet or supportive of Turkish government forces, as
reflected in the mainstream media.
Douglas Franz, in his December 25 New York Times article titled,
“Behind Rage in Prisons of Turkey: Radical Bands,”
states that “the roots of violence lie in the
government’s lack of control over prisons, for the last
decade, political organizations and criminal gangs have routinely
run prison wards as independent fiefs.”
Never mind why political organizers, who make up about 17
percent of Turkey’s 70,000 prisoners, are in prison in the
first place; according to the article, the government needs to have
even more control. It goes on to say that the troops encountered
stiff resistance from inmates with weapons. Turkish Professor Belge
of Bilgi University in Istanbul added further that the government
simply did not try hard enough to maintain order.
But if we listen to what the prisoners themselves are saying, we
will hear a different story altogether. The New York Times fails to
mention that the troops tried to stop the hunger strike armed with
bombs, machine guns, nerve and tear gas.
Ayla Ozcan, one of those on death fast, gives his own account of
what happened on December 19th. “(The police) told us they
came here to kill us. While our comrades were burning alive, they
had the water hoses but were not shooting water into the burning
dormitory … the state massacred many of our comrades under the
pretext of intervention, its aim is obvious, to make us surrender
… but we will never accept surrender.” Contrary to what
Professor Belge stated, not only did the government try hard, they
succeeded in killing or injuring over a hundred people.
Now imagine for a moment that such violence and murder of
political prisoners at the hands of the state was not occurring in
Turkey, but instead in a country like Cuba, Vietnam or North Korea.
Because these countries struggle to resist economic dependence and
domination by the United States, any political oppression or
government control is trumpeted loudly as a human rights violation
and such governments are subsequently demonized.
If one person were to be killed in any of these countries for
anti-government beliefs or organization, it would be front-page
news here for days. Thirty have been killed in Turkey, but because
these people are struggling against U.S. imperialism in a country
that is a strong American ally, their human rights apparently
don’t matter.
Today, Turkey receives money from the United States and provides
the Pentagon military bases. Turkey’s location is strategic
as it lies at the crossroads of the Middle East, Africa and Europe.
As Cemile Cakir and Frank Neisser point out in their Independent
Media Center article “Turkish Repression made in the
USA,” not only are these bases used to bomb Iraq but the
money also helps the government fund their high-tech torture
prisons instead of much needed schools and hospitals. Turkey is a
member of NATO and just last month, received a $10 billion loan
from the largely U.S.-controlled International Monetary Fund. Now,
it wouldn’t look so good if such violence were occurring in a
country where the United States so strongly funds and supports the
government, would it? Better to keep quiet or to make it look as
though the prisoners are crazy radicals who need to be
controlled.
Since the December 19 massacre, Turkey’s
Parliament’s Rights Panel met to discuss the prison raids and
concluded that the actions taken were justified. Although 30 are
dead and hundreds more continue to be tortured each day, Commission
Chairman Huseyin Akgul, member of the far-right Nationalist Action
Party, stated, “We have met as a commission since the
operation and concluded that there have been no violations of human
rights here.”
I am not attempting to demonize our media or government, nor do
I agree with everything those on strike in the Turkish prisons
stand for. I am simply asking you to think about the use of the
words “human rights” and how we must define and defend
such rights. If it is wrong to imprison, torture and kill someone
because of their beliefs in one country, it is wrong in every
country, regardless of the economic or strategic benefits the
United States gains by supporting that government.
Instead of blindly supporting violent repression of political
prisoners such as those in Turkey, we must at least listen to what
they are saying and defend their human rights if such rights are
what we supposedly value. The Turkish prisoners were on hunger or
death strike for over 60 days. But it was not until 30 were killed
that the U.S. media thought their struggle worth mentioning. In
Turkey and all over Europe, people are protesting the actions taken
by Turkish officials and showing their solidarity with the struggle
of those in prison. By believing all that we read in the mainstream
media or passively ignoring the human rights violations that our
government obviously supports, we too are guilty.We have a
responsibility to defend the rights of not just some, but all human
beings.
When a prisoner is thrown into a small cell with his or her
hands and feet tied and denied access to others, including a
lawyer, the final form of resistance to such cruel oppression is
often a hunger strike, a way to use one’s ultimate strength
to defend oneself. Turkish forces are attempting to take even this
right away from the prisoners and we who can, must come to their
defense.
To take action now, go to www.indymedia.org or www.amnesty.org and write to Turkish
officials or learn more about organizations attempting to fight
against such human rights violations in Turkey and all over the
world.