İSTANBUL - Components of Monitoring Hunger Strikes Marmara Coordination called on for the humanitarian and legal demands of the protesters to be heard before the hunger strikes causes worse consequences.

 

The hunger strike initiated by the prisoners demanding an end to the ongoing isolation imposed on PKK Leader Abdullah Öcalan in İmralı High Security Type F Closed Prison for the last 22 years and against the increasing human rights violations continues on its 137th day. One of the components of Monitoring Hunger Strikes Marmara Coordination, Turkey Humans' Rights Foundation (TIHV) İstanbul Represantative Ümit Efe spoke to Mesopotamia Agency regarding the reflection of the isolation on the society and the hunger strikes.

 

METHOD OF TORTURE

 

Pointing our that the prisons have a concept of violence stem from capitalism, TİHV Represantative Ümit Efe said the prisons are established in a way that can be controlled from a single center. Drawing attention to the fact that isolation was imposed against opponents in Europe, America and Latin America in the modern ages, Efe said prisoners all over the world stand against isolation systems. Efe said: "Isolation is a method of torture. By keeping a person in a place where their emotinal and perceptipnal communications are minimized, they are trying to accelerate their obedience and eventually destroy the resistance once and for all. For this reason, isolation is defined as psycho-terror."

 

HISTORY OF ISOLATION

 

Underlining that isolation is torture and torture is a crime, Efe said isolation was designed as a torture method by the CIA. Pointing out that researchs were made by neurologists and psyhciatrists and they came to a conclusion that it can control human behavior, Efe said this system came into effect in Turkey during 2000's with the Type F Prisons. Underlining that the transition to Type F Prisons was bloody, Efe told that 30 people 2 of whom were guards, were killed during the resistance in prisons.

 

'UNACCEPTABLE'

 

Mentioning the ongoing hunger strikes in prisons, Efe told that they are looking for a solution-orianted outcome that would be implemented without the need to hunger strike. Efe said: "Isolation continues in İmralı and in all of the prisons in Turkey. We think that the isolation in İmralı is proprietary. This is a special and rare kind of isolation. The social isolation imposed on a person for years, preventing family visits and attorney interviews  and phonecall rights is unacceptable. The isolation is also imposed on a spatial level too. "There is a practice of isolation that reduces communication to non existant."

 

A DINIFIED HUMANE LIFE

 

Underlining that the prisons are in a rotating hunger strike which can be understood as a warning, Efe said they are recieving dozens of letters notifying them of the violations of rights in Human's Rights Association İstanbul Branch. Noting that the hunger strikes are spreading to all prisons, Efe said: "This is a huge demonstrations. We know that all prisoners except the minors, pregnant women and sick prisoners are participating and we are trying to follow up the situation. We hope that it doesn't exceed the limits of a warning demonstration. The demands of the prisoners are legitimate and acceptable. There must be dialogue in terms of human rights. This country have gone through terrible things. We think that the minimum humane living conditions for the prisoners should be ensured and the policies that make the prisoner a human being should be followed and the method of isolation should be abandoned."

 

HEAR THEIR SCREAMS

 

Pointing out that the pandemic have deepened the isolation in prisons, Efe said that the prisoners demand their basic legal and humanitarian rights with the hunger strikes. Underlining that they know that the isolation and human rights violations continue in prisons according to the data they reached, Efe said: "In general, the number of sick prisoners is gradually increasing and, apart from the right to access health care, they should be released and not kept in prison conditions. The right to access health should not be denied. Rights of family visits, lawyer interviews, books, access to health care and social time should be provided. These are legal and basic human rights. There is no need to use the word law, these are humanitarian fundamental rights. This demand of prisoners has to be seen. We usually only hear about the prisoners when screams are coming out prisons. And therefore, we have to hear their voice before that happens. Everyone must hear this voice before the nunger strikes causes worse consequences."