OK guys, & gals, I'm going to start another thread regarding the situation in Turkey. I have been hesitant because I'm not really an expert on the subject, but I do get alot of info on the plight of Turkish prisoners, so if nothing else I will pass it along for everyones interest.

There is currently a hunger strike going on in Turkish prison by men & women, & so far over 90 people have starved to death protesting prison conditions. I think that rises to the level of world wide attention. I refuse to let people who are willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for prison reform to be forgotten.---------Ken

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

August 22, 2002 (as received: presumably error for August 25 or 26)

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

ken ~ i think anyone who saw "midnight express" knows the horrendus conditions in turkish prisons. my bet is they haven't improved much in the last 25 years! how awful that these people are starving themselves to prove how horrible it really is....

THE 96TH LIFE IN THE DEATH FAST: FATMA TOKAY (KOSE)
=================================================
August 31, 2002

The torture of forcible medical intervention has taken another life… Fatma Tokay (Kose) lost her life in Ankara Numune Hospital on the 400th day of the Death Fast, after forcible medical intervention was carried out on the 395th day. She was born on September 14, 1967 in the mining area village of Engen in Elazig Province (in eastern Turkey). She was imprisoned as a DHKP-C Trial prisoner on June 5, 1994, while in the final year of studying in Hacetepe University's history department. She was sentenced to 17 and a half years
but was martyred when she had three years left to serve.

She was in Canakkale Prison at the time of the December 19-22 massacre (in the year 2000). Later she took part in the 6th Death Fast Team in Kutahya E-Type Prison. When her situation worsened she was moved to Kutahya State
Hospital and from there to Ankara Numune Hospital, and while in the last of these Fatma Tokay (Kose) lost her life on the 400th day as a result of the torture of forcible medical intervention.

Here is a document about forcible medical intervention…

It was on the 399th day of the Death Fast and forcible medical intervention had been performed. This is a request to TTB (The Turkish Union of Doctors) from the older sister of Fatma Tokay (Kose).

TO THE CHAIRMAN OF THE CENTRAL BOARD OF THE TURKISH UNION OF DOCTORS

My sister Fatma Tokay (Kose) was on the 395th day of the Death Fast and for this reason was in the emergency wing of Ankara Numune Hospital.

My sister was hospitalised about 20 days earlier, while she was in Kutahya E-Type Prison. Afterwards she was transported to Ankara. After being held for a time in the ward for prisoners, on Monday August 26, 2002, after fainting for a short period (even though she came round shortly afterwards)
she was taken to the emergency department and intervention was carried out while her hands and feet were shackled. Despite all my attempts, in the first two days after intervention was carried out I could not find anything
out about her situation.

On August 28, 2002, I received permission to see her for 15 minutes, but the view that greeted me was so horrifying that I could not prevent myself from falling. Because my sister Fatma and two men on the Death Fast, Serdar
Karabulut and Talat Sanli were in the same room (note: in the culture existing in Turkey this is even more objectionable than it would be in Western countries). There were two soldiers at the door and one in the room. My sister was stripped naked and the sheets and blankets over her were damp with vomit and blood. The cloths I had applied to her three days previously were still there.

A blood bag was attached to her left arm. Some devices or other were connected to her right arm. Moreover, her right arm was tied to the bunk with a green cloth. A hole was pierced in her arm as a way of opening a vein. In her right hip there was an open wound. Three days before I had
applied a dressing but no dressings had been applied after that.

My sister's feet had become very swollen some time before. Moreover, she was completely unable to stretch out her legs. In spite of this, she was chained most tightly by the swollen part of her legs and was chained to the bunk. The swellings where her legs were chained were matched by the chains cutting into her flesh.

My sister was naked and the sheets over her were damp, and she was lying in front of a window while the door was also open, and the air was continually circulating. So my sister was also catching cold.

My sister continually said that she was cold and wanted to get dressed and that she felt bad, especially after blood transfusions. She said she didn't want medical intervention and wanted to be taken back to the prisoners' ward where her friends are. At the end of 15 minutes the soldiers said the visit was over and made me leave.

I went to talk to the doctors and found no less than five of them sitting in a room. When I asked them about my sister's situation I was manhandled and told to clear off. I said that her conditions are inhumane and I'm not allowed to change her clothes and when I demand to be allowed to change
them, they said that the necessary things will be done and that if I have other complaints I can make them wherever I wish (ie. they don't care). Later they drove me away and threw me out.

Later the staff told me that my card giving me permission to be a refakatci (a companion who looks after a hospitalised person) was cancelled and I would not be able to visit my sister again.

The doctors did not get back the pneumatic bed they wanted from me.

I am very anxious about what I saw and experienced and the negative things in my sister's life and what she might experience. Moreover, I am also concerned that on the basis of the doctors' attitude, while the doctors will not carry out intervention on my sister on health grounds or with her
approval, there is a possibility that they might use her for medical experiments and this is why I can't see her. For this reason I am troubled.

On account of the reasons I have cited above, I request with all due respect that my sister's situation be looked into, the nature of the intervention carried out on her be determined, that my sister is protected from doctors whose attitude is in no way humane, that the necessary steps be taken against doctors who have no respect for medical ethics or any rules
whatsoever, and that you do what is necessary to determine the situation of my sister so that we can make use of our legal prerogatives.

August 30, 2002

Halime Tokay
Older sister of Fatma Tokay (Kose)
(signature)

our e-mail address: hucreiskencedir@hotmail.com
Tel: 0 212 534 3151
Fax: 0 212 534 3811

oh, how sad.... :( thanks for the "update", ken. this is just really heartbreaking!