THE REALITY IN THE PRISONS

In the last issue we had published documents about the ULUCANLAR MASSACRE. Ulucanlar was not the first, nor will it be the last.

Those in political power are continually putting the cell-type prisons on the agenda with the particular aim of killing the political

prisoners and taking away their revolutionary identity. It was said that the construction of cells, which is in full swing, would be

completed in May. New circulars are being published, protocols have been signed between ministries, and the military has also

participated. Public opinion has been told that all this is being done for the sake of the health of inmates. But the reality is something very

different. The medical treatment of captives is still being prevented on the days when it was previously announced it would be available.

The "silent destruction" continues. In our bulletin, a great number of examples are given and documents cited as to the health situation of

captives in various prisons, as are the ways in which treatment has been prevented. How will the Justice Ministry, which says it is

concerned about the health of the prisoners, explain itself for any of these things that are to be described. The truth is not in the slightest

how the politicians present it.

In this issue we have particularly concentrated on these attacks whose severity has particularly been marked in recent years, as well as the

results of them, the wounded prisoners and those who have lost their lives, and on their accounts of these attacks. We have also told of the

resistance of revolutionary prisoners to attacks, as recounted by themselves.

In Turkey there really is a "prisons problem". But this problem is not the one stated by the authorities and their media. The reality can be

found in our bulletin in the form of documents and statements by witnesses.

In these days of heightened attacks in relation to the cells, we have tried to tell the whole of public opinion about the reality in the

prisons, about the "prisons problem".

We hope to meet in issue No 4.

In today's world, our country has a special place in the list of those with the largest number of prisons and prisoners. According to official

figures, there are more than 500 prisons and about 70,000 prisoners.

Certainly even these figures suffice to show that there is a "prisons problem" in our country. Yet such a statement is inadequate and

therefore wrong. There is no "prisons problem" in the traditional sense. What is actually there is repression, massacres and attacks directed

against revolutionary captives, and their resistance. It is a "problem" for the state: the revolutionary prisoners who have protected their

beliefs and resisted for years will not let their resistance be destroyed. This is why for years the words which have come to the relevant

state authorities' lips are that the prisons are a "bleeding wound". But what a coincidence it is that, as in the Ulucanlar massacre, those who

bleed are the revolutionary prisoners and we who are their friends and relatives who are wounded or slaughtered.

For this reason it is necessary to pose the problem properly. The problem is justice ... The problem is democracy... The problem is a

problem of rights and freedoms... In sum, fascism is the problem. Not heeding this reality means not understanding the prisons of our

country. This is the crux of the problem.

For this reason, it is particularly advantageous to properly examine the prisons in our country...

THE REALITY OF THE PRISONS IN OUR COUNTRY

Since classes came into being, from slave society to today, prisons, prisoners and the policies of bringing about surrender have always been

a part of the class struggle. In the prisons too, the oppressors attack the representatives of the oppressed in the prisons, and continue their

war against those of the oppressed who take sides with them. In every period, no matter what the tactics and policies of the ruling class

are, for them one aim never changes: TO SILENCE AND COMPEL THE SURRENDER OF THOSE WHO STRUGGLE AGAINST THE

SYSTEM OF EXPLOITATION.

The torture and murder in the prisons, the attempts to bring about surrender, to destroy personalities, is aimed at removing the danger for

themselves. >From this viewpoint, the prisons are nothing more than a change of locale in the ongoing struggle between oppressors and

oppressed. Those who on the outside waged a struggle against oppression and for freedom and independence and then have been taken

prisoner have also continued the struggle in the prisons. It is not necessary here to tell the continuing story of this, which dates from the

time of slave society. It would both take a long time and also be unnecessary. Unnecessary, because in every epoch, while there are

peculiarities, the essentials do not change. With this aspect in mind, we will satisfy ourselves with various chapters in which we will

examine the policies of the ruling class in the prisons in the period beginning with the September 12 (1980) military coup.

We will concentrate on the laws, circulars and actions which cam into being as well as the results and effects that were produced. At the

end of what we say, it will be clear that in these processes nothing is isolated or unconnected. They complete each other or replace each

other. And again it will be seen that none of the policies applied in the prisons of our country over the past 20 years is unique to our

country. Wherever in the world a struggle is waged against imperialism and exploitation, in the prisons the ruling class in every country

practices the same policies with only differences in nuance. This also shows that the policies in the prisons are centralised at a point where,

on a world scale, the lessons arising in the light of experiments conducted are reproduced, developed and once again used in exported form

against the peoples of neo-colonial countries. The centre of all this is imperialism. Militarily and politically, the contra-guerrilla centre

consists of structures created and founded by imperialism. In countries like Panama, NATO, CIA, European Union and US imperialism

have opened training academies for inculcating torture and murder techniques. Today when the prison policies and their consequences are

discussed, the role and influence of the USA must be taken into account. Only then can we attain real, correct and scientific results. Only

thus are we able to find the answer to how to give our support from the outside to prisoners engaging in a just struggle in the prisons, and

who are dying, being tortured and are paying the price.

This congress can only fulfil its true function if it succeeds in this. Certainly it will not be sufficient by itself to deduce consequences and

find ways to achieve a solution. Then we can achieve as many realistic and correct results as possible;

if these are not brought to life then nothing has been achieved in practice; if they are restricted to words; and if what is correct is not

brought to life, then what the correctness of what has been said has no special significance. For years in our country, everybody said things

in the prisons and in practice displayed behaviour according to a particular line. But with every day that passes, saying things and not doing

them and failing to persist with steps that have been embarked upon merely prepares the way for new and intensified policies of

implementing massacres. During the Death Fast actions, the Yasar Kemals (note: Yasar Kemal is a famous writer in Turkey whose politics

are of a reformist nature) and those behind them in the Prison Observation Committee formed afterwards give the most striking example

of this.

Within the society we live in there is a war between the ruling classes and our oppressed people. If this struggle goes in what looks like a

physical sense, nevertheless it is essentially an ongoing war between two ideologies. In every battle into which they enter, two ideologies

seek to win victory for themselves. For the ruling classes themselves, the prisons are nothing other than a place where the armed/unarmed

opposition which is seen as dangerous spends a period of time. But here the issue in regard to a captive is not a matter of whether the

prisoner has been captured or physically destroyed, but whether or not the will of the bourgeoisie is accepted or rejected. This is where

victory and defeat lie. For this reason, in the prisons, the condition of winning victory in the war between two ideologies is to not

surrender, of being able to say "to the bitter end", even if it means death... Those who, to their last breath, refuse to accept the will of the

bourgeoisie, those who in the face of the executioner cry out their adherence to their beliefs and cause will not be defeated. You know that

from Socrates to Giordano Bruno, history is full of such examples, and if today what are called human rights are given general recognition,

it is because those who resisted refused to give up their rights. Those who generate history, are those who do not surrender and who resist

for the sake of their rights and freedoms.

Sometimes resistance in the darkness of night in prison dormitories is a lofty folk song or a revolutionary march. Sometimes it is calmly

walking along the corridors, people saying "merhaba" (hello) to each other and not letting truncheons prevent this happening. Sometimes

it is being able to say, "To live, you have to be able to die". Or, in acts of resistance by those who knew that death could not be escaped,

shouting the slogan "Bize olum yok" ("for us there is no death" ) in response to attackers using tear-gas canisters, iron bars and wooden

beams. The most honourable pages were written in the history of the prisons of our country in such a way. And these latest pages of its

history were written in Ankara, very near to here. And the congress gathered now will be the herald of these new pages which have been

written, for all the prisons in our country contain resistance within them.

The American Ecevit government which has issued new declarations which have nothing new in them, is sending the signal that it is

preparing new attacks on the revolutionary prisoners. "We will come up with a solution to the prisons problem," says Ecevit. Did not such

attacks on the prisons begin decades ago in the same way? "The prisons should be reconstructed," "The state must show its authority"...

Lots of things similar to these have been said. Years pass, governments change but the words do not. "The prisoners will be integrated into

society"... "For this, whatever is necessary will be done.."

All this was contained in the prisons of the junta, with their torture, massacres and exile. In the military prisons of the junta, on the door

of every ward was hung what was called "13/1" from the military regulations book.

"Every other day the beard area will be shaved, every 15 days a haircut to a length of three millimetres will be given. During counts,

prisoners will stand at attention against their walls. Only by number will prisoners be allowed to see visitors and lawyers. At night they

will go to bed at 10. The wards will not be established in a communal manner. All requests will be made on specially printed forms and in

military fashion, be addressed `To the commandant's office'. In the exercise area prisoners from other dormitories will not be spoken to,

nor will items be purchased from them. All grades of soldier will be addressed as `my commander', including privates, and they will

stand at attention in front of him with shirts buttoned up to the collar. In the dormitories, folk songs and marches will not be sung."

In this regulations book, cigarettes could not be smoked in the dormitories, private soldiers could not be spoken to and there were many

similar paragraphs. According to the junta, prisoners are "soldiers" and must be "soldiers". The conception is to make your life, your brain,

say "give an order, my commander". Giving No 3 haircuts and suchlike sanctions may not appear too important at first glance. The issue is

not one of special haircuts but one of getting prisoners to surrender by turning them into soldiers. It is aimed at creating human beings who

are cut off from the people, destroying their personalities and breaking their wills. To do this, prisoners were beaten right from the start

in the military prisons. In subsequent days they were beaten when they went to court or to hospital. What was the pretext? Any pretext

was possible. Anything in conformity with a paragraph from "13/1" sufficed. Torture and beatings were everyday events in the prisons.

The military prisons had the position that prisoners could be taken back to police stations, but in most cases not even that was necessary,

for repeated interrogations could be carried out in the prisons themselves, with the participation of the prison administration. In the

prisons in the first junta period, the junta put captives in the prisons through interrogations by torture under prolonged and severe

conditions in an effort to frighten them into abandoning their political convictions and the struggle. We want to lay particular stress on

this. Whatever method might be used, following arrest the prisons are the second stop on the road after arrest and are a way of

supplementing the practices in the torture centre: indeed, they complement each other. Secondly, the one is part of the other. The prisons'

interrogations through torture have the aim of making the prisoners surrender. In the first days of the junta this policy gave rise to heavy,

open and uncontrolled violence. They wanted the torture to result in hopelessness and immorality. When these policies were repelled the

junta, without abandoning repression and violence, continued to use new and more subtle methods. This policy, in the form of prison

buildings, has continued up to the present.

The "E-Type Special Prisons" came onto the agenda in 1982 in the form of a statute. these prisons were designed as dormitories. But in all

of them there were areas designed for isolation and observation and policy caused these to be used. As soon as prisoners came into the

isolation areas, they were subjected to beatings and torture and kept in these places for up to a month. Observations was only designed for

people who came from the cells. The prisoners were brought here from isolation and would be kept there until their good behaviour and

adherence to the rules had been proved. In cases of resistance, the punishment of being sent to a closed prison would be inflicted. This is

what the statutes said. The intention was to divide the prisoners and split them up. In the dormitories, the junta's statutes state that those

given heavy punishment were to be separated from those given lighter ones. We especially draw your attention that was said yesterday is

the same as what is said today.

In every place fascism has applied a common method. First do something, and then a convenient law emerges. Fascism praises repression

and torture to the skies in prepare a "legitimate" environment for it. In 1982 and 1983 comprehensive changes were made to the Turkish

Penal Code in relation to prisons. In those days the prison administration continued, with activities like the regulations book, to

legitimise repression and bans. What didn't they organise in this way? There was everything. They had everything in hand to institute bans

and enforce conformity to the regulations. All the prison governors had the same aim. To bring about surrender. To create a robot, a living

mummy, someone fallen and wretched, a slave without a tongue in his or her mouth. This is what they wanted to tell the people... those

talk to you of revolution and go in the vanguard are people who were subjected to dozens of pains, torture and looked death in the face.

Will these make revolution? Are these your hopes, your future? This was the mentality behind the policies in the prisons.

It was not an easy matter for the state to institute unbending discipline, irrational rules and regulations damaging to human honour and

personality. It is still not easy in today's prisons. This is the work of uninterrupted resistance. Because to resist is the fight of the just

against the unjust, the legitimate against the arbitrary, human honour against the inhuman practices. A sacred right has been practised. This

how the prisoners describe it: "Resisting in the dungeons has been able to bring political identity to life. Defending our human honour and

our personality cannot be oppressed or besmirched. The class war continues, the quest for freedom will not be interrupted. ... Resistance is

its own creator and finds its own forms. This has arisen both in theory and practice. The class struggle produces very different

characteristics in some areas compared to resistance elsewhere. Morale plays a very important role in this resistance... Resistance takes its

strength here from displaying moral and psychological superiority. The forms of resistance in prisons appear very simple and are often are

not to be understood dialectically. In many places, receiving visits or walking up and down in the prison exercise area has been a source of

moral strength, but the denial over periods of months or even years of the right to receive visits or walk in the yard and see the sun has been

echoed in the form of demonstrating moral and psychological superiority.(...). Here is only resistance in words; the forms of resistance are

connected to each other, resistance is created which like links in a chain. Psychology is displayed in moral superiority (...) It is continually

rising to one's feet. We rose to our feet by completely protecting our psychology of moral superiority..." (Foreword, "Resistance, Death,

Life," book on the 1984 Death Fast)

Traditions of resistance thus grew, extending their roots towards the future. With these in the prisons, traditional methods were turned

inside out, (...). The darkness of the prisons was sprinkled with light. The handcuffs on wrists, the fetters on ankles had no effect on the

contents of minds. Resistance was expressed in slogans at the foot of stairs or posted in corridors in defence of honour (...) "Performing

Torture Is Dishonourable" "The Torturers Will Not Go Unpunished", "Human Honour Will Defeat Torture". Prisoners were not allowed

to go to court, requests and letters could not be written. There were bans and sanctions imposed preventing visits by lawyers and families.

When the day came when the beards and facial hair were cut and people were shaved by force, growing a moustache became an act of

resistance. (...). Resistance while handcuffed to being forcibly dressed in the Prison Uniforms (...). Rather than be warm in the Prison

Uniforms, they wore underwear in the cold, in the rain, in the snow for hours on end.

The hunger strikes, especially where, like the prisons, the means of struggle were limited, became an increasingly important weapon in the

struggle. The hunger strikes became a political weapon to be used against the junta, over and above exceptional situations. In this period

the prisons were a centre of the people's opposition. Hunger strike resistance in various periods, which were only in the prisons and making

limited demands, also exposed the junta. Courage and moral superiority is an important struggle in a prison struggle in torture, bans and

sanctions sought to hem them in. From this aspect, the hunger strikes are of even greater importance and originality. In actions, whether or

not resistance was physical, the action was characterised by willpower and moral superiority. In this way, from the first days of hunger

strikes under the junta to today, they have used as an effective weapon. The ruling classes have had to take a step back in the face of hunger

strikes, and rights were won, but at the first opportunity they would be taken away. In a sense this is a natural occurrence. Firstly, those in

power are in conflict with one another. This is over whether to accept something or not to accept it, to surrender or not to surrender.

Implementing rights or taking them away is only one aspect of this war. If the weapon of the ruling classes is confiscating rights, the

weapon of the prisoners is resistance. This situation in the junta and the subsequent period will go on. With this resistance it was possible

to extend the implementation of rights.

The form of every struggle is gained as a result of "experiment". This principle was valid under the junta. And the junta carried out various

psychological and physical attacks in an attempt to undermine the prisoners' moral superiority and implement their own policies. For

example, the decision issued by the administration of Metris Prison on October 23, 1983 on tactics to defeat the resistance was only one of

these. "1. The files are to be found of those prisoners involved in actions. 2. In future in the case of executive reports, advantage is to be

taken of these files. 3. In the executive reports, prisoners taking part in actions like hunger strikes will have their punishment determined,

they will not benefit from laws on releasing prisoners (...). 4. In future prisoners and convicts like this will not benefit from amnesty

laws. They are hereby notified."

Prison Uniforms

The operation to collect civilian clothing began in E Block's "Siberia" on Saturday, January 14. By force, the prison authorities removed

civilian clothing, leaving only underwear. On January 16, 1984 the torturing prison administration began to forcibly dress in the Prison

Uniforms captives who were on the way to court or hospital. In this way, up to February 2, 1984 Metris went through a period of the

most extreme torture. Pyjamas were confiscated in this operations. For hours, the prisoners were left to wait in the exercise area in the

freezing cold. The torturers want to achieve a result with lightning speed. In other prisons these practices had been instituted earlier. The

particular aim of the Prison Uniforms was to make them accept their status as captives, to take away their own initiative with regard to

clothing, and create in them the psychology of being "criminal" by means of their clothing etc. etc... They were not able to accept it and did

not accept it. Prisoners who were not dressed in uniforms for years were punished in various ways. They were not allowed out into the

exercise area or for visits. They were not given other clothing or personal belongings. Food was not issued to them until it was spoiled.

They were not allowed use of the canteen. In winter they were left to freeze for hours in snow, rain and cold winds. They were not

allowed shoes or thick cloth material. They were not allowed books. Cultural activities were prevented. Paper and writing materials were

banned. Radio and TV were not allowed. Under the pretext of carrying out searches, their belongings were plundered, even their defence

documents were taken. Hot water for bathing, washing clothes or washing dishes was not allowed. There were sanctions on seeing

families or lawyers, and on court appearances and they were thrown out of court buildings. These were the prices of not surrendering. The

junta's real aim was not to make prisoners dress in Prison Uniforms, this was simply a method. As a matter of fact the true aim was shown

by the fact that in 1985 the state was not content with those political prisoners who did accept Prison Uniforms. Immediately after

accepting Prison Uniforms. Certainly sanctions forcing prisoners to wear guilt as a label did not stop there, the administration only

wanted to use the manner of dress that time. That is, those who resisted for years and did not accept sanctions also put pressure on those

who did wear Prison Uniforms.

The resistance to Prison Uniforms in the prisons of the junta from the point of view of quality and prestige, was of historic importance.

The resistance to Prison Uniforms became a symbol from then on. The prison administration located prisoners according to whether they

were accepting or rejecting Prison Uniforms. In the press, every kind of reactionary sanction and attempt to make prisoners surrender was

covered up in the official media. In this way the same techniques aimed at making prisoners surrender were used against the social

opposition, the signals of fear and intimidation were strengthened. In the prisons from this aspect, the effects and results were never

limited to between four walls. Both surrender and resistance were a touchstone in the people's struggle for rights and freedoms. There

have been many examples in the world how, if the revolutionary vanguard of the people in the prisons surrendered, the people's opposition

also retreated, and fascism moved forward. If the resistance grew, from behind four walls this wave transmitted itself to the people and

acted as a bridge to the people's struggle for rights and freedom. Despite everything, a tradition once again appeared of resisting and

extending the war with fascism.

The tens of thousands of captives in the jails had to turn into a furnace of resistance and opposition. The prisoners were confronted with

this duty. A period of rapid and decisive steps was necessary. There was no middle way. Either a programme of resisting to the death, or the

September 2 junta would get its way. Captives from the Devrimci Sol (Revolutionary Left) and TIKB (Union of Revolutionary

Communists of Turkey) Trials decided to go on hunger strike and Death Fast to repel the attacks on their own political identity in the

country as a whole which had begun with the attempt to introduce Prison Uniforms, to strengthen the centres of resistance further and

generalise them, to take in hand the economic and political rights, and to raise yet higher the banner of political opposition. From

henceforth death would be the target. The state encountered public opinion which during the junta years had never given such a rapid

response to previous hunger strikes. So much so that it tried to respond with demagogy that the prisoners were making amnesty demands

and seeking a stop to executions...

The real demands of the resistance were:

"An end to torture and repression in the prisons,

An end to implementation of Prison Uniforms,

The return of social and living rights,

To organise the executive system in favour of prisoners,

To abolish `Military Prisoner' status and recognise the rights of political prisoners"

The state continued to employ demagogy and lies in response to the prisoners' demands, according to which the prisoners' action was

"because the organisation put pressure on them to join the action", "they are eating food in secret", "those who are dying are convicts subject

to the death penalty anyway". There was no change in what was said in the Death Fast of 1996 compared to 12 years before. In a short period

the resistance did not immediately find support in all prisons of the country. In many prisons support hunger strikes began. Resistance

rises in the dungeons, prisoners' families rapidly become politicised and organised, and on May 19 in Taksim Square, Istanbul, they laid

wreaths and conducted petitions in an effort to raise their voice. The first martyr of the resistance shook the state. When the resistance gave

three martyrs the state authorities made a last attempt to break the resistance with an attack. But all attacks like this were fruitless when

carried out against those determined to look death in the face.

Four revolutionary prisoners, Abdullah Meral, Fatih Oktulmus, Haydar Basbag and Hasan Telci, were martyred. It was a torch of

resistance which will never be extinguished. It was a tradition. It carried a message that oppressed people would resist junta terror and

proved that even in these conditions the junta could be resisted and forced back. Victory was won with the martyrs. Friend and enemy were

shown that a revolutionary, a captive could maintain his beliefs and cause while, if necessary, heading towards death...

The revolutionary prisoners in the resistance expressed it like this:

"Our resistance won partial rights and temporarily ended physical torture, very clearly showing friend and enemy in the prisons,

revolutionary and progressive prisoners on remand and convicts, our labouring people and world democratic public opinion why we are

waging our struggle and that we know it can lead to death. With our resistance, we protected our human values and raised high the torch of

our struggle as political prisoners without fascism being to get to us and destroy us... Our action to protect our political identity was an

important step in our struggle to protect our political identity, and to strike a blow at the demagogy of the September 12 fascist junta

about " Turkey's transition to democracy". Our resistance pushed back the Prison Uniforms measure which the civilian junta was using to

try and give legitimacy to itself and clarified before public opinion that the measure was illegitimate and damaging to human honour and

the personality. ... The Death Fast was a key point in frustrating the prison plans of fascism aimed at "rehabilitation" (remoulding people),

which it still continues up to the present.

Depersonalisation Is Now To Be A Matter Of The Laws

After September 12, the prisons policy of the junta can be recognised as one of the "carrot and stick". Within this period, the necessary

policies were applied, force if need be, and the junta found repression, violence and torture to be valid in any period. From the start, if any

method was found to be insufficient by itself, others would be put on the agenda in its support. Especially since 1983, to achieve their aims

a more obvious programme has brought onto the agenda, one more detailed and careful. The laws on operations, the use of doctors of

psychology, announcements aimed at blackening revolutionary leaders, using the press as a demagogic tool for carrying out campaigns of

ideological attacks, every method, every tool was brought onto the agenda to break the ties between the masses and their leaders, to make

the masses look down on revolutionaries and make them think the authorities' own measures are just.

While trying to implement these policies rather systematically, the necessary laws were introduced. On the one hand, those prisoners who

resisted and defended their political viewpoints under all conditions were subjected to the most severe torture, while those who show

themselves weak in the face of pressure and torture are induced to return to the system and presented with every possibility so they can be

used against the revolutionaries. Torture and attractive possibilities were put on offer at the same time. In particular, those seeking

individual liberation were set free under the most alluring conditions. Those who sold their personality and their honour were set free.

With the adoption of the "law on repentance" No 3216 of June 19, 1985, collaboration, turning informer and actions connected to them

were continually encouraged. In short, work was done to make weak people leave their organizations - they were told "Repent" ,

"Collaborate", "Take the state's side", "Escape". In this way the policy of pressure and torture would meet its successful culmination. Such

successes would actually strike a socio-political blow at the liberation struggle by organisations, these fickle people were used to make

revolutionary organizations look bad, to blacken them and harm people's confidence in the revolutionaries. The demagogy of theories

about "repentance", "going down a mistaken route", "deception", "historic duty", "debt to humanity" and so on were used to legitimise this.

However they were afflicted with the spectre of fatigue. Out of thousands 100 or 200 benefited from the law, exposing what they were

before the eyes of the people. The law only remained as a kind of legislative monster, a means the state had used to defend itself.

Immediate Instructions Implemented Late

The August 1 Directive On Prisons Not Implemented Because Of The October/November Resistance

In July 1988 the Justice Minister Mehmet Topac published a directive, to come into force from the August 1 date of signing.

With the directive:

The Prison Uniforms were once again brought on the agenda,

Visits and consultation with lawyers to be restricted.

Hours in the prison exercise areas to be reduced.

Limitations on correspondence

Bans on receiving food from outside, and on the use of tubes, hearths and heaters inside the prisons.

Bans on growing hair, beards and moustaches.

Radios, tape cassettes, typewriters, music and pictures banned.

Restrictions on receiving property during visits.

Major restrictions placed on receiving magazines and books.

All these were to be worked into the system in a way to make captives accept their guilt and impose a new penal discipline. Not to wear the

Prison Uniforms, to engage in hunger strikes, to shout slogans, sing marches, engage in silent resistance... everything would be subject to

disciplinary punishment. The aim was an open one. The oligarchy was not going to abandon its programme of making the prisoners

surrender. This programme has been conducted at various periods with different methods, but the aim of making resistance retreat has

never been abandoned. From the junta to its civilian extension the ANAP (Motherland Party) government, and now the democracy game,

it has been necessary to create an environment of legitimacy for attacks. And the August 1 Directive was a legal cover.

The authorities in Gaziantep and Eskisehir started off this directive with attacks, which proceeded to become generalised. The same day

prisoners started hunger strikes. Attacks and resistance became widespread. In 12 prisons about 2,000 captives began to wage the struggle

against the August 1 Directive with their own bodies through hunger. For the first time the relatives of captives joined them in resistance.

From the start the youth, various DKO (Revolutionary Mass Organisations) and unions also took their places in this struggle. The

resistance to the August 1 Directive grew to the same scale as the original one in the 1984 Death Fast. The Death Fast was an appeal for

struggle. This appeal made to the people for resistance and struggle had been made since 1986. With their deaths in 1984, the captives

proved their courage and proved that they would not surrender. Now the courage of the resistance, both inside and outside as shown in the

form of mass actions, continued to draw a line of resistance. The acts of resistance of October and November 1988 which immediately

spread to all prisons and secured broad support from the people, once again made the enemy take a step back. The directive was officially

cancelled and the actions connected with it were not implemented. The October/November 1988 acts of resistance show us, even today,

what it is necessary to do in the face of steadily increasing fascist attacks.

After every setback the authorities prepared new attacks, but the attacks aimed at implementing the directive did not stop, along with the

resistance to it, from this period onward. The circular provided all kinds of attacks with a pretext. The authorities lacked the ability to

mount an attack on all prisons, only individual attacks took shape. Pretexts to apply pressure connected with the circular sometimes were

to do with a tunnel, sometimes another reason was given...There was a great deal of searching for excuses connected with attacks. And

sometime they were about taking rights away...

"Postponement" Or "Law On Conditional Release"

A Screen For The Anti-Terror Law

Eleven years after the September 12 junta, thousands of revolutionaries were still paying the price of the laws established by September 12

in the prisons. During this period, many campaigns were organised to alert domestic and foreign public opinion to the legislation of

fascism and practices in the prisons. The oligarchy's policies in the prisons were shown to be bankrupt, and the prisons were the place

where the system's statements about democratisation were shown to be lies. They were forced to do some things. The ANAP government

which came into power in 1991 brought three basic themes onto the agenda in order to isolate the prisoners and wash its hands of repression

in the prisons; it abolished paragraphs 141-142 and 163, partly legalised the Kurdish language and reduced the penalties of political

prisoners. The abolition of 141-142 and the postponement of the Anti-Terror Law caused the reaction from the people to decline. The

bogus democratisation package was put forward in the framework of discussions before public opinion, and because no opposition arose to

the Anti-Terror Law, it came into force together with the package.

Simultaneously with the Anti-Terror Law, various things began to be implemented with regard to the prisoners. On the one hand this

comprised legal decisions. As opposed to the normal 2/5 executive system, sentence passed under the anti-terror law, that is, against

revolutionaries, came under the ¾ executive system. This comprised using the Anti-Terror Law in a different way in the prisons.

According to this, the achievements of struggles conducted over years were to be openly taken away but the real aim was also to create a

legal basis for filling the "individual cell-type prisons" with revolutionaries. This is what Paragraph 16 of the Anti-Terror Law said: "In

the case of those found guilty of crimes comprising this subject, the building of individual cells or a three-person room system is to be put

into effect."

The Ruling Classes' Prison Policies Are Derived From Imperialism

"We must hurry up the policy in the prisons of isolating relations and carrying out rehabilitation. Either changing their beliefs, or

death..." This was the decision taken in 1988 by the NATO Anti-Terror Committee. The concept behind the decision was the following:

cell-type prisons, that is, coffins and death cells... At a period in the people's opposition was growing and revolutionary actions were

spreading, various policies were created to undermine this resistance. Disappearances, massacres, repression, emptying villages, all these

would come to mind. This policy in the prisons was the "cell-type prisons". Moreover the oligarchy saw it as an effective weapon during

the period of the "democracy game" when it was trying to make the revolutionary prisoners surrender as well as the people.

To do this experts from the USA prepared projects. With the help of information derived from experiments throughout the world, the

cell-type prisons, called "Turkish-type" prisons, were put on the agenda. E-Type, L-Type, O-Type, Special Type, these were the names

given to the prisons which were the arena in which great efforts would be made to make prisoners surrender. From security units to hours

in the exercise area, visits, meetings with lawyers, everything was worked out in detail in accordance with this. Since 1983 the Special

Type prisons had been on the agenda. As a result of the findings of experiments, these prisons were built in remote areas far from city

centres. Those captives seen as "badly behaved" or who came up against severe punishment could be sent there. Those staying here in the

E-type prisons and playing an active role in resistance could be traced. >From this period onward the authorities have put heavy

psychological attacks on the agenda in the prisons. They wanted to hem in the lives of the prisoners by means of punishing them in isolation

cells, bans on letters and visits, taking away rights, banning access to exercise areas, restricting access to newspapers and magazines and

other such bans. The psychology of sanctions and attacks was worked out and developed, whether it was Prison Uniforms, the August 1

Circular or a succession of threats and bans.

Victory Always Resulted From Revolutionary Will And Resistance Which Did Not Accept Any Status Quo Or Sanctions

In October 1990 the cell-type prison at Eskisehir, which was presented to public opinion as being of European standard, was opened, but

resistance forced its closure. Reckoning that the law on postponement would make it easier to induce a reduced number of prisoners to

surrender, and on the alert for opportunities to attack, the authorities used two Devrimci Sol prisoners in Ankara Central Closed Prison as

a pretext to re-open Eskisehir. The first transports of captives from Ankara Central Closed Prison were carried out. By the start of

November 1991 the number of prisoners sent to the Eskisehir cells had reached 206. Hunger strikes on account of the transports and attacks

began to proliferate. The resistance did not remain restricted to the prisons but also spread to receive support on all sides from the people.

And again, in the face of these attacks, the resistance and the resisters won. On November 24 Eskisehir was again closed and the transports

were withdrawn. The ruling class could not get a grip on the resistance. It keeps having to take a step back against powerful resistance. But

this is not a decisive setback and could not be. The class war in the country could not be periodically interrupted. At the first opportunity

the rulers have resumed attacks.

The Prison Programme Of The Oligarchy "To Proceed From A To B" Is Again Rendered Bankrupt

On July 27 1993 a circular was published. The circular provided for sending captives to prisons in the provinces because "Sagmalcilar

Prison is more than filled to capacity with prisoners". This time the oligarchy also tried to bring policies of isolation and exile onto the

agenda. The circular also needed the creation of a legal basis. Between August 9 and August 24 circulars were issued for this purpose.

However, because this was not able to break through the resistance another circular was issued on September 9 and on September 17 the

Resolution on a Legal Code was issued. The resolution contained new arrangements open to every kind of interpretation and hence opened

the door to repression and bans in the prisons. This resolution was again the first step in the state's objectives in the prisons. It was the

first indicator that attacks were on the agenda... The attacks also did not break through. The captives started a General Resistance. In every

prison targeted in the attacks they lay down and submitted their bodies to hunger. The state was forced to take a step back in the face of the

strong resistance and hunger strikes scored their first great victory. The September 9 Circular was abrogated. However the resistance in all

prisons also continued to be dissipated through local problems.

In January 1995, the first item on the National Security Council meeting's agenda was: "STEPS ARE TO BE TAKEN WITH REGARD TO

THE PRISON SITUATION"

After the meeting resolutions were taken which were summarised as saying "We will stop the prisons being a training camp for prisoners".

This resolution openly expressed the conception of making resisting prisoners surrender. "If you do not surrender I will kill you." This

was to say that the ruling classes, in a deep crisis and gripped by instability, would carry out more repression, terror, massacres and fascist

attacks for the sake of their own peace of mind and stability. The prisoners made the monopolies uneasy because of prisoners bore a

dynamism of resistance and victory derived from the people's moral values. This was an important reason for the contra-guerrilla attacks

on the prisoners, the revolutionary struggle in the prisons was seen as being a "bad example" to the people. The authorities again wanted to

teach a lesson in the prisons and brought in methods aimed at physically and psychologically eroding prisoners over the short, medium and

long term as part of their plans to make them surrender and through attacks to do the same to the people and the revolutionary struggle. To

do this the plans to attack were personally prepared by the National Security Council and the contra-guerrillas began to carry them out.

From 1995 policies gave clues that attacks would be spreading out gradually. At the end of it was seen that there was an almost continuous

escalation in the attacks. The policies of defeating the prisoners, rendering them ineffective and turning them into collaborators were

expressed by physically attacking dozens of prisoners, arresting their relatives in front of the prisons and subjecting them to torture, thus

seeking to isolate the prisoners, and the bourgeois media was used as tool for carrying out a campaign of wide-ranging psychological

warfare.

With The Attacks The Resistance Of The Prisoners Also Increases In Various Ways. The Resistance Develops And Takes On New Forms.

The state was not able to find able to find a solution to the people's problems and deepening crisis, so it directed the application of yet

more terror and massacres against the growing opposition and the revolutionaries. The reality of this country is war. And the prisons are

not separate from this reality. In the prisons of today the revolutionary prisoners are the key question and the state's are directed against

the political identity and honour of the prisoners. With the aim of making them surrender to these attacks, the price they have to pay is to

be savagely killed or left maimed... The political powers that be do not even try to hide their aims on this point, these are openly spelt out

in pamphlets...

The Ministry of Justice prepared a "Handbook on Management of Prisons", which said, "The terrorists must not communicate with one

another. Because when the prisoner does not communicate he or she will die like a fish out of water. When the sources which nurture the

terrorist spirit and idea are cut off and dried up, his or her revolutionary side, that is, the destructive side, will be eradicated. What is

needed for this is that communication with the terrorist environments, the world, the illegal organisations

on a world scale must be taken away and curtailed... In connection with convicts and detainees, prison officials must find methods of

encountering them one at a time and in such a situation, away from the effects of mass psychology, must try to take advantage of the

situation to make the criminals recognise their own cowardice, timidity, powerlessness and weakness, must learn their problems and later

use methods of persuasion and suggestion to make the criminals zealous in purifying themselves of guilt..."

In the years of the September 12 junta, the leaven was the identity of the revolutionary captives, their resistance, the revolutionary mode

of life, the unbroken transmission of the revolutionary struggle from then to the present, and this revolutionary inheritance has also

grown. The ruling classes' policy of implementing the surrender of the prisoners and wishing to turn them into a tool for use against the

people was frustrated by the prisoners themselves. The fight created, the tradition of not surrendering, the consciousness in the prisons of

their own power also found an echo on the outside, and the prisons showed the way to struggle. Every victory won raised the people's

confidence in the prisoners, the revolutionaries, that bit higher. For that reason, it was also the prisoners who were the target of the

massacre policy. That is how it was.

On September 21, 1995, tension which arose in Buca Prison following the escape of four DHKP-C captives turned into a massacre.

Various actions had been carried out since September 12 on account of rights that had been taken away, and the prisoners' refusal to let

themselves be counted by the guards gave rise to a murderous assault. The Buca massacre, was an attack on revolutionary prisoners for not

surrendering despite all massacres, intimidation and treachery. The captives set up a barricade behind the doors of their ward and began to

defend their beliefs and put up resistance. Against the barricades the state forces openly prepared to carry out a massacre. The prisoners

were dragged out of the ward and the savagery continued in the exercise area. Even when they were soaked in blood they did not surrender.

The captives Ugur Sariaslan, Turan Kilic and Yusuf Bag were martyred but the resistance continued. So that an attack whose pretext was a

refusal to accept counting led to an action which went on until all prisoners' demands were accepted.

As soon as the Buca resistance was announced, in all prisons there were refusals to be counted, barricades were set up and various forms of

resistance were carried out. And the process evolved the General Resistance which started with a UHS (Unlimited Hunger Strike)

beginning on September 25, which called for "a reckoning for Buca, an end to attacks on political identity and the closing of the coffin

prisons". The General Resistance ended after 44 days with the winning of a complete political victory and the winning of special rights in

the prisons. The Buca massacre had shown the scope of the struggle in our country and how the prisons had found an echo. The massacre was

not a momentary event. Fascism had slaughtered captives in the dungeons before. But mass murder had not been directed. The developing

epic of resistance to the Buca massacre was the best example of the futility of the ruling classes' massacre project. Buca was a turning point

at which the revolutionary prisoners set out a line of resistance.

Not much time passed following the victory of the General Resistance before attacks started again. These attacks were made ongoing in

order to suffocate, drive back and defeat the captives. Fascism's war of wills with the captives went on in all prisons but was actually

focused on Umraniye. And Umraniye, at a price of four martyrs and dozens of wounded, was the scene of another victory. Abdulmecit

Seckin, Orhan Ozen, Riza Boybas, Gultekin Beyhan... Dozens of others were seriously wounded. Fascism's policy of using the coffin

prisons out of a desire to make the revolutionary prisoners surrender, and turning Umraniye into a base for attacks on all revolutionary

prisoners, made them into places of resistance at the cost of giving martyrs. Within a short time after the start of the resistance to the

Umraniye massacre, it had spread to all prisons. Once again there was a robust response to the massacre of prisoners. The resistance which

set up barricades, carried out occupations and took hostages, spread to all prisons and the prisons thus rose up.

Following the Umraniye massacre, one of the most important achievements of the resistance which spread through the country both inside

and outside the prisons was that united organisations were established both inside and outside the prisons. DETUDAK and CMK (Central

Coordination of Prisons) were founded as products of resistance and were to prepare even greater acts of resistance. Resistance became

more powerful and more lasting. The ruling classes' policies, carried out over years, of seeking divide and rule were thus frustrated. The

prisoners' resistance, continuing to struggle even when surrounded and fighting to the death created this unity.

Today in our country, the central organisation for all revolutionary prisoners is still the CMK, and its organised resistance still makes the

Susurluk authorities take a step back. Attracting attention first from both to friend and enemy since its foundation, the CMK is seen as the

legitimate and central organisation of prisoners. While making this positive evaluation of the CMK, unfortunately we cannot say the same

thing about resistance organisations founded outside of the prisons. Founded after the 1995 General Resistance, DETUDAP, despite all

sorts of negative phenomena, has been the central organisation for struggle outside prison by friends and relatives of prisoners. These

experiences have had valuable lessons for those who want to learn. A new process was beginning in the prisons. Taking hostages, setting up

barricades, rebelling were a new stage in the prison struggle. Moreover, enclosed within the people's resistance, too, a broad potential was

available to the movement. Fascism received a response to the Umraniye massacre from both the captives and our people as well. It was a

victory of the revolutionary prisoners. A victory of our people.

The 1996 Death Fast Victory

Fascism persisted in its policy of bringing about surrender. Its perennial fear of revolution developing caused the National Security

Council to put some paragraphs on the agenda. In accordance with a National Security Council directive, a meeting of the Council of

Ministers passed two resolutions as its main business in connection with May Day. The attacks on the prisons and the Anti-Terror Law

were to be made more severe... This meant a total and systematic attack on the people. The first sign of the attack was the founding of the

fascist ANAYOL government (coalition of the Anavatan or Motherland Party and the Dogru Yol or True Path Party) and the

appointment of the torturing, murdering contra-guerrilla chief Mehmet Agar as Justice Minister. As soon as Mehmet Agar had settled in

his chair his first statement was "First of all I will solve the prisons problem," "I will put a stop to the prisons acting as training camps."

Fascism was persisting in its policy of attempting to enforce surrender. And it was openly stated that future attacks would take place

without resort to a series of pretexts. On March 26, 1996, the captives said the following:

"The new programme of the authorities and their political preferences mean that policies of even worse terror and massacres against our

people and the revolutionaries are on the way. One of the important pillars of this policy of attacks is definitely the prisons... For this, the

authorities will take pains to prepare attacks on the revolutionary prisoners in advance, seeking to create an advantageous situation from

every point of view for them..."

The fascist Mehmet Agar took as a first step the policy of forming his own staff for the prisons. Fascist pressure came in the form of

regulations hindering visits by families and lawyers, the receiving of books, magazines and foodstuffs, court appearances and medical

treatment, as well as arresting prisoners' families and subjecting them to torture with the aim of prevent visits altogether.

The media continued aiding the attacks with the aim of aiding the fascist policies. The bourgeois media became a part of the attacks on the

prisoners to a degree we had not previously seen. "The prisons are the houses of (illegal) organisations", "terrorism is directed from the

prisons", were the kinds of demagogy and lies spread as an attempt to isolate the prisoners from the people. The unbridled attacks against

the people on May 1, 1996 were the beginning. The families of the disappeared, actions to obtain justice, were without exception the target

of attacks. With the May 6, 1996 circular the Eskisehir coffin prison was opened and the captives entered a period in which attempts were

made to make them collaborate, to surrender and deprive them of independence.

With the circular not only was Eskisehir Prison opened but at the same time the emptying and elimination of Sagmalcilar Prison above all,

as well as Buca, Umraniye and Diyarbakir was contemplated. The intention was to isolate captives and turn them into collaborators.

Sending them to distant places would make also make visits by families and lawyers difficult and cut the bonds with them. The ANAYOL

government and Mehmet Agar knew that these practices would not be accepted by the revolutionary prisoners and they were openly

preparing the way for an operation and massacres. This wave of attacks was the most serious and comprehensive of all the attacks directed

at the prisons in recent years. Mehmet Agar personally made this clear. To make the prisoners into collaborators, to make the surrender, to

take away their revolutionary identity and force them to be at the service of the system. "Discipline" and "control" would be established in

the prisons, the most varied rights would be taken away, and most important of all, the prisoners' organisations would be broken up and

scattered. Thus in the face of these serious and comprehensive attacks it was necessary to come out with a programme of resistance that was

well thought out and calculated. As the attack was not simply an attack directed against the rights of the prisoners, the resistance to be

developed to this attack would also not only be a struggle limited to rights in the prisons.

The first step in the oligarchy's campaign to defeat the people and have its own ideology accepted was the prisons. Against this a line of

struggle would be traced, the fight of the people's forces against fascism, revolution against counter-revolution, and revolution and the

people's forces would be in a situation which would be favourable to them gaining strength. This would be a battle of wills. It was also

clear that it would not be so easy to repel fascism. Certainly the revolutionaries would win the battle of wills at a price. Fascism today,

like yesterday, would try to bring revolutionary willpower to heel. The revolutionary captives had proved on numerous occasions that

would give dozens of martyrs. A tradition had been created in Death Fasts, encirclements, torture and barricades. Again fascism's attacks

on the people would be defeated by using their own bodies, forming barricades, using willpower, bravery and devotion. To win, it was

necessary beforehand to expose the content and quality of these attacks as being motivated by the desire to make the people surrender, and

in the face of fascism's policies of openly attacking, to create a reaction among all sections against fascism. This meant a long struggle. It

was an assault at the same time. With every passing day the revolutionary willpower and strength would have to be shown, with every

step fascism would have to be exposed. The Susurluk authorities wanted to wear down the captives inside and the people's opposition

outside the prisons. The attackers did not shrink from assaulting old people with clubs, dragging those arrested along the ground and

taking them to torture centres. The captives laid their own bodies down for the Death Fast. The resistance gave 12 martyrs. On the 63rd day

the TKP(ML) (Communist Party of Turkey (Marxist-Leninist)) captive Aygun Ugur, on the 65th day the DHKP-C captive Altan

Berdan Kerimgiller, on the 66th day the DHKP-C captive Ilginc Ozkeskin, on the 67th day the MLKP (Marxist-Leninist Communist

Party) captive Huseyin Demircioglu, the TKP(ML) captive Ali Ayata and the DHKP-C captive Mujdat Yanat, on the 68th day the

DHKP-C captive Ayce Idil Erkmen and the TIKB (Union of Revolutionary Communists of Turkey) captive Tahsin Yilmaz, on the 69th

day the DHKP-C captive Yemliha Kaya and the TIKB captives Hicabi Kucuk and Osman Akgun, and the TKP(ML) captive Hayati Can,

after the victory while on the way to hospital... Once again the policies of fascism were overcome at the cost of martyrs. They were a

barricade in front of the people. The world was raised to its feet.

Massacre In Diyarbakir Prison

September 24, 1996 was visiting day in Diyarbakir Prison. A group of captives came out of the dormitories for the visits. On the morning

visit a group of collaborators brought from the collaborators' dormitory, by picking a fight with the PKK captives, began to prepare the

ground for a provocation. This provocation came some hours later when 30 captives were brought out to be transported to Gaziantep

Prison. The prisoners were attacked by state forces consisting of the Special Team, political police and gendarmes when they raised

objections to being transported and refused to go. Murderers equipped with iron bars and clubs massacred 10 PKK captives.

It would appear that in every direction the developments in the massacre had been planned in advance. The oligarchy showed with the attack

that it was continuing to put its policies into effect. The Diyarbakir massacre showed a truth that should not be missed. To be exposed to

murderous attacks means the only option is resistance, not reaching an agreement. Or in other words, it will become clearer that the way to

put a stop to state massacres is not to search for an agreement. The Diyarbakir massacre is an important development showing the reality of

fascism to those sections who during the 1996 Death Fast had said "Don't die" , "Reach an agreement", "You should be looking for a

solution". Those with a line of not resisting in the prisons were brought to such a point that those who for whom any development not

appearing in a statute was described as a provocation were also not able to save themselves from the violence of fascism. Fascism is the

enemy of everything apart from itself. Whatever agreements are reached, the administration will work to bring about submission and will

continue massacres and torture until surrender is achieved. Against fascism the only path was resistance, even at the cost of one's life. In

that case it would be possible to continue a life in accordance with honour. This is the only path that is capable of forcefully opposing

fascism.

Through Circulars They Want To Run The Prisons In Accordance With Their Own Caprices

On January 10, 1997, Justice Minister Sevket Kazan sent the circular No 15.103 B03.O-C.TED.00.000 dated December 23, 1996 to the

prisons to introduce new regulations. In the circular, it was stated that "in a section of the prisons, those who were not released are

holding illegal demonstrations under the name of ceremonies for prisoners who are being released, and so it has been decided to detained

released prisoners for a period and keep them under observation." In this situation those being released were not able to bring belongings

from dormitories where they had stayed for long periods, and the authorities wanted to prevent the most natural human desire, to say

farewell to those with whom the same environment had been shared.

Once Again, The Authorities Talk Loudly About Bringing In Cell-Type Prisons

Previously the revolutionary prisoners had frustrated the oligarchy's enterprise by having the cells closed down, but from then on it

started using more subtle methods. While on the one hand the construction of cells was accelerated, on the other steps were taken to head

off a reaction from public opinion by saying how necessary they were and spreading propaganda that the cells were in the prisoners' own

interests. The health issue was their most favoured approach. Moreover, they tried to neutralise any reaction against cells by sending

prison staff directives banning the word "cell" , replacing it with euphemisms like "room type" and so on .Justice Minister Oltan

Sungurlu's work to make cells seem harmless by calling them "room type" was in vain. It was obvious that they were talking about cells

as if they were hotel rooms. In August 1997 the following were designated as pilots for cell-type prisons: Nigde, Nevsehir, Burdur,

Afyon, Amasya, Usak and Cankiri. The Justice Ministry spent an additional 3 billion lira each on creating cell-types in 32 E-type and 14

Special Type prisons. Cell-type construction was completed in these prisons:

Usak Prison: Construction of 47 cells was completed in this prison. The cells were built to hold four captives each.

Cankiri Prison: In Cankiri, 80 cells were built, 24 for one person each, the others to contain four people each. In the cells that Oltan

Sungurlu wanted to present as luxury hotel rooms: the cells are four metres long, two metres wide and 2.2 metres high. At the cell

entrance there is a rafter at a height of 1.5 metres. This rafter hangs down 50 cm from the ceiling. A person of normal height will hit his or

her head on it, so anyone walking around will have to stoop. At the entrance door there are two embrasures. One of these is 15 by 10

centimetres and is designed to look into the cells. The other is 18 by 18 centimetres, is very close to the floor and is for delivering food.

The cells were completed in order to show no respect to human honour, as is shown by the way food is to given. Again, 1.5 metres from the

entrance on the left-hand side is a wash basin, right next to it is a Western-style toilet. On the right-hand side of the entrance is a table

and chair, and next to it there is also a bed. The beds are 80 by 80 centimetres and are at a height 50 centimetres from the cell floor, being 85

by 1.60 metres. Again there is an embrasure 15 by 10 centimetres in the door. Water will accumulate inside the cell. Nowhere in the cell is

there a window that can be looked through. That is, there is no way sunlight can penetrate into the cell. Moreover, the accessories inside

the cell (washbasin, bed and so on) cannot be moved to make it easier to move around. Should you want to take a shower, it will create

dampness inside. Two cells will go out to the same exercise area at different times. The exercise area is six metres by five. The wall is

eight metres high. So leaving your cell will still give you no access to sunlight, and sporting activities are not possible. The cells are in any

case a damp environment. Moreover it is always possible to see rats. At the same time there are twelve cells. All these cells have the same

characteristics. The lighting system is outside these cells and centred in the same place. It is impossible for the people in these cells to see

one another.

The Circular From The Prosecutor Of Cankiri Prison Was A Threat

We TIYAD families and a prison delegation went to see the prosecutor of Cankiri Prison, Ibrahim Ethem, to express the prisoners' and

our own concerns about the cell-type system. But the prison prosecutor did not allay our fears. Ibrahim Ethem, stating that the cells

would be completed within a month, claimed that the politicals and many ordinary prisoners would be lodged there. Ethem, saying that

the July 14 circular would be implemented in other prisons like in Cankiri, also said, "This is a definite directive. Your children can resist.

As in the past, more blood may be spilled. But under all conditions this circular will be put into practice." On the subject of the cell-type

system, the prosecutor said in reply to the prisoners' representatives that the transfer of 80 prisoners to them would be completed in the

next few days, 24 would go to individual cells and the rest to four-person cells. The representatives said, "We are ready to resist." After

the meeting we held a press conference in front of the prison and we made an appeal to prison staff not to implement the July 14 circular.

However, the construction of cells went on without a pause. As a result of reactions by quite a few sections of public opinion against the

cells, the Justice Ministry issued an unserious circular with the aim of softening up public opinion and creating a calm environment for

putting the programme into effect. In the circular, it was stated that "homosexuals, AIDS sufferers, those with infectious diseases,

prisoners unable to get along with others, and those wishing to be transferred to the cells" would be sent there. However, in general the

construction of the cells as places to put political prisoners continued. So from today it was being more openly stated for what and for

whom the cells were being built.

Medical Treatment Of Captives Prevented

On the one hand, the politicians claimed to be spending trillions of lira on building cells because of solicitude for the health of the

prisoners, while at the same time they were abandoning quite a few prisoners to their deaths. This was the most telling indicator of the

hypocrisy and deceit of the politicians, for the pretexts for abandoning captives to death were pressure from the gendarmes, the absence of

doctors, the lack of medical equipment and a lack of money. On February 24, 1997, this reality was expressed by the chair of the TTB

Central Council, Fusun Sayek, stressing that prisoners who were healthy when they went into prison were sick when they came out

because there were not enough doctors.

Captives who were brought to hospital for treatment also had their medical examination hampered by the gendarmes. Gendarmes would

go into the doctor's surgery during the examination and put pressure on the doctor. Even though in 1989, the Justice Ministry had said in a

circular that it was not necessary for gendarmes to stay in the doctor's surgery during an examination.

A list of captives in the prisons not receiving treatment and their illnesses in 1997 alone will be sufficient to show this. After the Death

Fast in Sagmalcilar, those suffering from memory loss and having serious problems standing up on their own, and as a result of not having

medical treatment are disabled, are: Ali Ekber Akkaya (released), Ali Yalcin, Mehmet Ali Celebi, Delil Ildan (released), and Cafer

Gurbuz (released). In Ankara Central Closed Prison, Zeynep Gungormez (In Nigde Prison since the Ulucanlar massacre), in Cankiri

Prison Haydar Yildirim (at the moment in Bayrampasa Special Type Prison), Erol Ozbolat, Yozgat Prison, from which he was exiled to

Amasya on the pretext that a tunnel had been discovered, Selmani Ozcan, (at the moment in Cankiri Prison), in Bartin Prison Abdulaziz

Nakci, in Buca Prison Bernar Satar (at the moment in Antakya Prison), Murat Ozdemir (at the moment in Bursa Prison), Ali Teke (at the

moment in Aydin Prison), in Bursa Prison Mesut Uzun, Kenan Dincer (at the moment in Canakkale Prison), Ibrahim Dogan (released),

Ergun Butuner, in Sakarya Prison Serife Dogan (released) and Gulumser Tosun (at the moment in Canakkale Prison) have all not received

treatment. In Malatya Prison Veysi Celikten in on the verge of death. In Ankara Central Closed Prison Resit Kayran is ill with cancer, in

Siirt Prison there is Selami Celik, who has cirrhosis of the liver and has been sent to Ankara Central Closed Prison, in Maras Prison there

is Mustafa Tektas, in Sakarya Prison there is Gamze Mimaroglu who has to be connected to a respirator. (Released). In Aydin Prison Musa

Turan has lung cancer, in Diyarbakir Prison, Sevgi Ince is still waiting for an operation.

Attacks Again On The Increase

The authorities continued to act like bandits in the prisons. On March 30, 1998, captives in Izmir's Buca Prison were attacked once again,

this time while holding a commemoration in connection with the Kizildere Resistance. When captives were going out of the dormitories

to see their visiting families and friends, the guards on duty they encountered were the same fascist criminals responsible for the Buca

massacre, and these guards attacked them. Then captives from the DHKP-C trial were dragged off and severely beaten with wooden beams

and clubs. What the authorities openly wanted to say here was, "I can abduct, massacre, drive you wherever I want, there is nobody who can

do anything about it." And of course this was in general not independent of the policies of making the revolutionary prisoners surrender. In

response to this the revolutionary prisoners throughout Turkey inside the CMK began actions to set up barricades, take hostages, occupy

exercise areas, and refuse to be counted. The general resistance ended with the state accepting the revolutionary prisoners' demands.

However, the authorities would attack a prison, take a step back in the face of resistance but again look for grounds to launch attacks in

other prisons.

New Circular In The Prisons

Justice Minister Oltan Sungurlu issued a circular dated July 22, 1998, continuing these paragraphs:

* Duty staff and protective custody staff will cut contact between convicts and prisoners on remand.

* Duty staff and protective custody staff will clear the dormitory from the corridors. In this manner both the exercise area and the

corridors can be supervised.

* Special teams of ten people each will be set up in these associations ready for any contingency under the deputy director. Courageous,

reliable and honest staff will be chosen for these teams.

* This team at the start of every hour will maintain a control of the ward and exercise yard by means of the embrasure. In the event of

anything abnormal, the association director and the representative prosecutor are to be informed.

* The keys to doors for rooms, wards, network corridors and the exercise yards are to be in the hands of a duty official, these keys are to be

kept in a box and the supervision of the chief official for the rooms or the deputy official if he is absent.

* However, the doors of the hospital, infirmary or court will be opened by the team in question for transports, releases or other conditions

of people being moved, visits by lawyers and visitors, counting and searches, conditions where the relevant official or prosecutor wants to

go inside, and in the event of fire, water or earthquake emergencies.

* Outside these conditions, those opening or trying to open the room, ward, network and exercise area doors or those who try to maintain

contact between convicts and remand prisoners must be brought before a chief prosecutor of the Republic to be questioned.

Yes, while it was said the cells would not be brought into force, at least under existing conditions, such a circular aimed at putting

prisoners in isolation was being issued. Those who sat in armchairs in Ankara and said "I am running the prison," and those under their

responsibility in the prisons who were not having to endure these initiative were doomed. All initiatives to isolate the revolutionary

prisoners would be made futile, whatever the price that had to be paid. Everything the authorities wanted was the dead bodies of the

revolutionary prisoners. However, at the time our people did not give permission for this.

The Attacks Continue In Ceyhan And Cankiri Prisons

On October 8, 1998 in Ceyhan Prison, a tunnel was found in a dormitory inhabited by DHKP-C, TIKB, TKP(ML) and TKP/ML prisoners,

and immediate reprisals started. The administration had announced that prisoners would be transported into exile. The captives declared

that they would not accept this. The administration carried out a routine tunnel search and sealed up the tunnel entrance. However, a little

later, in the corridors and during the lawyers' consultation time, soldiers, police, prison guards and other state forces created artificial

tension as an excuse for an attack and then assaulted with gas bombs, wooden beams and clubs. As a result of the attack 35 captives were

wounded. Injured prisoners were transported to hospital and were locked in cells while being transported. Those who were in a bad way in

the cells - Semsettin Kalkan, Bulent Yildirim, Cafer Cakmak, Ali Semo, Veli Celik, Demirel Yigitalp, Zeki Demircivi and Zeki

Cetinkaya - received treatment on the way to Adana Numune Hospital.

As a reaction to the Ceyhan Prison attack, in all prisons there was resistance in the form of refusals to be counted, the occupation of

networks and press conferences. But until October 23 these acts of resistance did not get a result. On October 23 soldiers, police and prison

guards were organising an attack in Cankiri Prison. The captives opposed this by setting up barricades. Five revolutionary prisoners were

wounded repelling the attack. After the attack in Cankiri, captives in other prisons leapt to carrying out various forms of action. An

Interior Prison director and 62 staff were taken hostage. In the face of the way the actions had spread and the resolution displayed by the

prisoners, the Ministry of Justice took a step back and the demands of the revolutionary prisoners in Ceyhan Prison were accepted. Once

again, the revolutionary prisoners had showed the way to win.

Attempt To Kill In Usak

They wanted to kill a captive in Usak E-Type Prison, Bedia Ergun, while he was on the way to court. On March 4, while he was being

brought to court, his cuffs were pulled crosswise and he was dragged along by force with a gun against his head. Then they took his

handcuffs off and insisted he walk, as though they wanted to make it look like he was "shot while trying to escape".

In Sakarya, The Civilian Fascists Are Used Both Inside And Outside The Prison

For months there had been efforts to create provocations at Sakarya Prison. Prisoners' families coming to visit were made to wait at the

door by the prison authorities. In the meantime, civilian fascists, supported by police and governor's office staff, attacked the families and

threatened them in order to stop them coming to the prison. Tension grew in Sakarya Prison, both because of what happen to the families

and because they were trying to take away the rights of captives. On December 13, the administration and ordinary prisoners of fascist

orientation who were cooperating with management attacked the revolutionary prisoners. The revolutionary prisoners started a barricade

resistance against this. In response to this, the administration, with the help of the demagogy of the bourgeois press, said there was a

"rebellion" and the dispatch of soldiers to the corridors showed that a massacre was being prepared. The CMK (Central Coordination of

Prisons) did not delay in calling on all prisons to act in response. After actions spread to all prisons, the administration did not have the

courage to go ahead with the attack and had to accept the demands of the prisoners.

Pressure To Collaborate

Collaboration. To strip revolutionary captives of their beliefs, to make them strangers to the people and their values, to make them turn

traitor to the struggle. One of the final points in the lack of personality and moral degeneracy which is the residue of the system's lack of

values will give rise to. The ruling classes of the entire world want policies towards revolutionary prisoners which always try to

legitimise and institutionalise collaboration. Because for those who have once turned traitor to their people and comrades, there is no kind

of filth they will not engage in for the system. Today in the security departments and the Special Teams, village guards and army units in

the mountains, there are those with them who yesterday showed where the comrades with whom they had eaten and drunk were, and these

scoundrels had them killed. Collaborators are not simply used for launching attacks. The baseness of their personalities is also used for

ideological propaganda against the revolutionaries and the people. They also visit schools, under the name of education, to take part in

campaigns to blacken revolutionaries.

Moreover the contra-guerrillas who smuggle drugs and kidnap men to extort protection money use such people for all kinds of dirty

work. In this way, they both constitute a work force for all kinds of dirty work and the system presents these traitors with attractive

opportunities to make a lot of money. Especially since Susurluk, the operations the police and JITEM (military police intelligence service

in Turkey) have got up to with collaborators have become so open that even the bourgeois press has had to cover them. But in our country

collaboration has never been legitimised, never been institutionalised. All the efforts of the rulers to make collaboration and repentance

desirable have not succeeded in the face of the strength of revolutionary traditions and the people's ability to judge. Despite changes of

identity, aesthetic operations, a job, a house, money and even the promise of receiving a woman in marriage, only a limited number of

people have chosen this dishonourable work. As we have said and explained before, the ruling class has not abandoned policies even when

they are frustrated on several occasions. They are waiting. Perhaps today they do not get a result but if they try again at a more favourable

time they may have more success. Today they are also updating and issuing the laws on repentance and collaboration. But the laws the state

has promulgated up to the present have meant nothing. There are dozens of examples of the ruling classes' attempts to encourage

collaboration. Threatening to torture and kill those who make prison breaks, shutting the cell doors on people while they are being

tortured...

Let's give a few examples connected to collaboration. The deputy governor of Mugla Prison Vedat Luleci appealed to one of those charged

in connection with the Manisa trial, the school pupil Faruk Deniz (note: the Manisa trial was the arrest and torture of school pupils

accused of DHKP-C membership in Manisa, western Turkey, 1996. They were tried on the basis of confessions extracted under torture.

However, a member of parliament had happened to be visiting the police station where they were being tortured, witnessed it and made a

complaint about it, unlike what usually happens in cases of torture) calling on him to take advantage of the law of repentance. And he was

told that within 48 hours he would be let out of prison, issued with a gun permit by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, given an aesthetic

operation, a new identity and a lot of money, and in the meantime could walk around Mugla free. In the event that Faruk Deniz did not

accept this offer, he was looking at a prison sentence of 12 years and six months, and he was also called on to withdraw his complaint that

the Manisa police had tortured him. The governor of the prison said in talking to the Republic Prosecutor of the offer to Faruk Deniz that

"the governor had only had the aim of making a suggestion".

Because of the pressure to collaborate in Kirklareli Prison, a hunger strike started. Erdal Gurbay, Imam Aksoy, Ahmet Ari and someone

named Ihsan whose surname is not known went on hunger strike. Members of JITEM and collaborators attacked them. Erdal Gurbay was

beaten with iron bars while on hunger strike. While he was being transported from Umraniye Prison to Gebze Prison, on some pretext or

other the PKK Trial prisoner Fehim Gemli was taken to Afyon E-Type Prison (note: several hundred kilometres from his supposed

destination). It was reported that he was tortured for 40 days for refusing to become a collaborator.

Again they want to open the Eskisehir coffins

The captives Kemal and Bulent Erturk, accused of carrying out an action against the Cankiri Governor's Office, were supposed to be

brought to normal-regime Ankara Central Closed Prison but were brought to the Eskisehir coffin prison instead, which captives had died

as martyrs in order to close. Fascism did not hold back from infringing even its own laws. Wishing to respond to this banditry after the

families had made numerous applications to stop this happening, Kemal and Bulent Erturk started a hunger strike on May 25. A little

later, Cemalettin Polat tried to escape from Cankiri Prison and was brought to Eskisehir. The prison administration and the Ministry of

Justice remained silent. Fascism was trying to obtain revenge. For this reason it saw no objections to killing revolutionary prisoners. The

revolutionary prisoners in the CMK organisation in all prisons gave support to the resistance in various actions, to make the forces of

repression come up with a solution. But a process of refusing to be counted, occupying networks and holding press conferences did not

achieve results. In the prisons, the state attacks were changing in form, and in face of the attacks the revolutionary prisoners had to bring

both old and new forms of resistance to life, however results were achieved. During 65 days of an Unlimited Hunger Strike, captives

refused to be counted, carried out occupations and seized hostages. Staff were taken hostage in a total of 43 prisons. The wave of resistance

spread to all prisons and the Ministry had to take a step back. The captives' resistance ended with victory after the demands of the CMK

were accepted.

THE ULUCANLAR MASSACRE: They Will Be Without Restraint In Killing People In Full View Of Everyone

On the night of September 26, 1999, revolutionary prisoners were massacred in a planned attack after months of provocations. The

massacre had been planned step by step days in advance. The Justice Ministry had paid no attention to the prisoners' demand for an extra

ward because of overcrowding. In contrast to the Justice Ministry, on September 2 captives occupied a ward to solve the problem. After

this the prison administration not to accept counting, refused to issue food and drink, cut the water supply, banned visits and carried out

other sanctions. In this way they showed that a way of solving the prisons problem was coming; between September 2 and 26, all the

details of solving the problem by carrying out a massacre were prepared.

The result: 10 prisoners slaughtered, and dozens wounded and sent into exile. The revolutionary prisoners did not remain silent in the face

of this massacre. The revolutionary captives in all the prisons, starting on the night of the massacre, took hostages, carried out occupations

and engaged in various other actions. After the actions, those responsible for the Ulucanlar Massacre used the media to on the one hand

legitimise their massacre and on the other to start preparing the ground for new massacres. They discussed the existence of a tunnel as a

reason for the attack. But the very next day they had to admit that there was no tunnel. Lies were spread that the prisoners had various guns

ranging up to Kalashnikov assault rifles, had been the first to open fire and the first one wounded by a firearm was a soldier. But then why

was a wounded soldier never produced? With these lies they tried to explain away the massacre. To legitimise the massacre the

administration found it convenient to take away all the belongings and publications the prisoners had won as a result of years of resistance.

They wanted to do this in all prisons and the Justice Ministry made it known that it wanted to do this to everyone.

With these lies they wanted to prepare the ground for the cell attacks. The cell-type prison attacks had been on the agenda of the fascist

state for years with the aim of isolating the revolutionary prisoners and making them surrender. But because of the resistance of prisoners

who give martyrs and the reaction from the people, these policies have not been put into practice up to today. From Ecevit to the Justice

Minister, from connected and unconnected ministries down to the prosecutors and the newspaper columnists, the defender of this system

who say that "the reason for these events is the dormitory system in the prisons. The solution to the problem must be the F-Type prisons

as soon as possible " are making statements that prepare the ground for new massacres of prisoners.

During the days before when the massacre was being planned Ecevit was also starting a visit to the USA. The pro-American government

which exploits the wealth of our country both above and below ground and occupies the soil of our country with agreements on soldiers

and bases gave US imperialism the blood of revolutionaries as a present. These decisions were on the initiative of neither the Justice

Minister nor the government. The attacks emanated from the National Security Council and the government merely put them into

practice. the Interior Ministry persisted in putting the operation into effect to carry out massacres according to the directives of the

National Security Council. Certainly this massacre was not the only result the authorities had available. The authorities took into account

the reactions that might come and wanted to send a message to the people of this country. The message is: "Do not resist me, surrender; if

you do not I will kill."

The state carried out the massacres and then told lies, with which on the one hand it wanted to make the massacre seem legitimate and on

the other to prepare the ground for new attacks and massacres.

The Fascist Authorities Are Continuing Attacks On Prisoners Today Under The Name Of New Cell-Type Prisons By Means Of The

F-Type Prisons

On January 5, 2000 a meeting was organised by Bulent Ecevit and Husamettin Ozkan with the participation of the Justice, Interior and

Health Ministers and the General Commander of the Gendarmerie, Rasim Betir. The prisons were once again on the agenda of this meeting.

Ecevit explained that a protocol signed after the meeting would be implemented in a short period. The protocol is the basis of new attacks

on the prisoners. Again as always in declarations on the prisons, it was said they aimed to find a solution to the prisons problem. The

bourgeois press also persisted in striving to fulfil the duties it was given. According to the bourgeois press, the state was doing good

things for prisoners. According to a statement by Ecevit, "Construction of six prisons is continuing. Five others are at the contracting

stage." The decisions on cell-type prisons led to a new series of attacks on prisoners and their families being carried out.

The discussion of cell-type prisons is consciously being put on the agenda over a long period. There are also those who are knowingly or

unknowingly being used as tools of these policies, when they aim to present the cells as being nice places. This dispute is not simply about

"architectural design". The Ulucanlar Massacre is on their minds. The authorities did not murder 10 revolutionaries nor the revolutionary

prisoners resist and fall as martyrs simply because of a ward. The issue was that the revolutionary prisoners did not want to surrender and

fascism makes an attack in the prisons as a result of its efforts to carry out repression and terror against the people. The oligarchy's

repression of revolutionary prisoners and its meetings and resolutions are not independent of life in our country. In the conditions of our

country, the struggle of the revolutionaries and the revolutionary prisoners and their refusal to submit are the biggest obstacles facing

them. The aim of these uninhibited attacks is nothing other than striving to remove these obstacles.

The Cells are Determined According To Imperialist Standards

Cell-type prisons have come on the agenda everywhere in the world for the same aim. In the imperialist countries and also in their

colonies the basic aim of their practices was to make all those against them surrender. For this, the so-called "European standards" are

actually a standard which is seen as most suited to the attacks by the ruling class on the people and their vanguard, most likely to achieve

results. Hundreds of thousands of our people live in tents, the rulers do not turn a hair about engaging in plundering from them and

spending 20 trillion lira on cell-type prisons. However much these attacks might appear to be directed at revolutionary prisoners, these

are a part of an attack on the entire people. They think they will be able to attack the entire people if the revolutionary prisoners have

surrendered.

THE ORDINARY PRISONERS

So far we have talked of the revolutionary prisoners. However, in the prisoners there are ordinary prisoners and convicts, and their

problems of life also run rather deep.

The state's policies towards ordinary prisoners take varied forms. The most common approach is not to "reform" them but to imprison

them; that is, to keep them under their own control for a time. The quality of the imprisonment in question varies according to the

economic and social status of the "criminal" within the system. Since the ruling class forms a system of money, profits and injustice,

exactly the same difference between those with and without money is echoed in the prisons. For those with money, the prison officials and

prosecutors will even bring prostitutes to the prison; those without money will either have to do prison work almost for free or work

almost as a slave for a dormitory chief. While rich captives stay in dormitories of 10-15 people, the same size of dormitory has to house

100 captives who do not have money. It is said that in Bayrampasa alone, the prosecutor has personally received tens of billions of lira.

Why Are Mafia Chiefs And Gang Leaders In Eskisehir?

Mafia chiefs and gang leaders are currently being held in Eskisehir Cell-Type Prison. In general, the Eskisehir prison is known to be

cell-type and a "coffin" (Turkish: tabutluk), and the fact that mafiosi are sent there raises the question: are they actually sent there to

prevent them from engaging in contractual relations with the management? To answer this question it is necessary to examine the situation

of the mafiosi in the prisons.

The system practises every kind of dirt and trickery in the prisons. In the prisons all the system's rules are in operation. All the system's

relations continue to be present in the prisons and the system is also the same. Pressure, protection rackets, drugs, inequality, degeneracy,

filth, immorality and a panoply of other types of relations are basic in prisons where ordinary prisoners are. A concrete example is that in

supposedly " the most secure" Eskisehir prison, "anybody could manage to get a hand grenade inside" , according to the gang member Ali

Bulut, and in Eskisehir collaborators and captives in the cells were able to use prison officials as couriers of heroin which was concealed in

a plate. Again, in Bakirkoy Prison for Women and Children, the dimensions of the filth were shown when investigations were started of

claims that prison officials had tortured children and sexually molested women. The members of parliament Yasar Okuyan, Sema

Piskinsut and Sabri Ergul also informed public opinion of torture and sexual abuse.

The mafiosi, fascist gangs, hired killers, "fathers" in the prisons have control over everything. On account of "obligations" "bad luck",

there are no annoyances for imprisoned mafiosi and gang members. In situations like this, even the inactive bureaucracy does some work and

the prison is at the disposal of "well-known personages", sometime entire dormitories are at their disposal. According to the laws, their

being guilty has no importance. However this concept is valid for the poor and those from the people. Gang and mafia elements are able to

give "orders" in prison like "heroes". Prosecutors, officials, and other prison personnel go out of their way to make thing easy for gang

members. Suddenly the prison instructions, circulars and rules are forgotten. It is as if the prison is a hotel. Their environment is nearly as

"free" as it was outside prison. They can calmly walk along the prison corridors with a pistol in their waistbands, and they have every

opportunity to engage in correspondence. Even at Edirne Agricultural Open Prison, for example, at night convicts did not even need

permission to visit night clubs and casinos in order to enjoy themselves. (This event came to light when some of those who went to a casino

shot a singer for not singing the song they wanted.)

Prosecutors, prison officials, mafia and gang members conduct their work on a "you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours" basis. Officials

have the salaries supplemented in this way. Everyone is aware of this. The wheels of the state turn in every society for those with money

and do not interfere with their business. Also, many examples of the dirty relations between the prison administration and the gangs have

found an echo in the media from time to time. From time to time if someone want to interfere in it, it finds an echo with public opinion in

this or that form. For example, on September 19, 1999, in Bayrampasa Prison's B Block (the block where ordinary prisoners stay), there

was a fight among gangs which resulted in seven deaths and later it came out that there was concrete proof of relations between the prison

officials and prosecutors and the gangs. During the events a box containing trillions worth of money to be laundered which belonged to the

fascist mafia chief Kenan Ali Gursel was found in the room deputy governor of the prison. Moreover, public opinion learned that the

deputy governor had borrowed money from the gang leader or had received money from him with another aim. The mafia and gangs in the

prisons like "kings" and a committee "is supposedly starting to pay attention to this, saying, "Why is this going on, the state does not exist

in the prisons." Or the mafia and gang chiefs are personally helped to escape from prison by those responsible for security. It has started to

be said in the press that "What do you suppose is the way to get out of prison?" Of course, after this there are new precautions. And of

course these will only be applied against revolutionary prisoners. On the subject of the prisoners, news items that start off on the subject

of the mafia usually end up blackening the revolutionary prisoners and calling for more restrictions on them. From this angle, Eskisehir is

not a "coffin" (tabutluk) for the mafia, it is more like a "ranch" (ciftlik).

The same is also true of Kartal Cell-Type Prison. In days past we heard through its resonance in the public arena that under in a prison

described as being "high security", mafia chiefs could get whatever they wanted. Of course, as always, any needs they perceive are

personally catered for.

Certainly Kartal and Eskisehir Prisons are "coffin" types. However, it is for the revolutionaries that these statutes are designed. The

statutes are not applied in the case of mafiosi, their doors are open 24 hours a day. This is not known to public opinion; in a great many

prisons of cell-type construction the mafiosi already have sections to themselves. Because in these they could get up to all manner of dirty

dealings in peace and quiet. They live more tranquil lives than in the overcrowded dormitories. Their cells have all the luxuries from baths

right up to televisions. Whereas for the revolutionaries the cells really are coffins. The aim of the cells is to deprive revolutionaries of a

collective life and organisation, to subject them to every kind of torture while in isolation ... Every day every type of torture is practised

against revolutionaries in the cells... A double standard exists in the prisons of our country. For the mafiosi, everything they feel is needed

is provided and will continue to be provided. While against the people and the revolutionary prisoners the "law" and "legality" has no

legitimacy.

In Conclusion:

So far we have tried to summarise the experiences in the prisons in our country since the 1980s. This has been sufficient to understand the

policies of fascism in the prisons and the resistance of the revolutionary prisoners up to this point. Everything that emerges from them

shows openly that they argue about universal legal principles are not being applied and will not be. This cannot be avoided in the "prisons

problem' in our country.

However, once again we must repeat that it is necessary to give the problem its true name. The problem is one of justice, the problem is one

of democracy, the problem is one of rights and freedoms. In total, the problem is fascism. This reality is most apparent in the prisons of

our country. This is the real essence of the problem.

The Prime Minister recently said that "without order in the prisons there is no order in Turkey." From the point of view of the authorities,

the problem is explained as being the lack of something. Certainly the Prime Minister's idea of correcting the situation in the prisons is

what was done in Ulucanlar. The authorities' conception of "correcting the situation in the prisons" among 70,000 captives and convicts is

to establish "authority" and kill captives, and lies behind the closing of the cells. But this is not simply a policy limited to the prisons. The

form that is reflected in the prisons is part of the Susurluk state's general attempts to defeat all opposition. They do not simply want to

lock up revolutionary prisoners in the cells, they want to do the same to the brains and hearts of all who struggle for rights and freedoms.

During the 1996 Death Fast, remember which democratic mass organisation was able to engage in democratic activity in connection with

its own problems? None of them. Even press conferences were confronted with attacks. Remember that for weeks the relatives and friends

of the disappeared at Galatasaray were constantly attacked. Today we know that those families are not allowed to go there every Saturday

to get a reply to our questions.

Today, which democratic mass organisation, which trade union is able to make use of democratic rights?

Again, none of them... Today, the reactions by the people seeking rights, from those in human rights organisations organising

demonstrations, trade unions, students saying no to YOK (the Higher Education Council which enforces the state's regulations in the

universities), associations acting to protect the environment, the villagers of Akkuyu and Bergama, even to those affected by the

earthquake, a broad swathe of society are affected by blockades and attacks. Because in Turkey today, it is considered a crime to seek rights

and to want and defend their organisations...

In Turkey today, the masses have two choices before them: to remain silent in the face of all the lawlessness, attacks and seizure of rights,

or...

Or to remain exposed to attacks, massacres, repression and bans...

Within these general policies, the Cell-Type Prisons are being brought on the agenda in order to defeat the revolutionary prisoners.

As part of this, the attacks on revolutionary, opposition, progressive captives in the prisons in the near future are a matter for all of us, all

those close to the people.

The attacks are on us all. On the consciousness, rights and freedoms of all of us. At the same time this reality burdens us with duties we

cannot see coming. Either we will oppose the attacks on the captives ...

Or we will stand to one side as the prisoners are attacked and bear a great responsibility for the blood that flows.

For us, too, "without order in the prisons there is no order in Turkey." But for we families of the prisoners this is something different

from the meaning given to it by Ecevit. While they see it as something that makes cells and massacres convenient for revolutionary

prisoners, we see it as FREEDOM FOR THE CAPTIVES... We see it as freedom for the people... We want an independent and democratic

Turkey...

As the families of the captives, we in TAYAD have waged this struggle for 20 years.

Because what there is in the prisons is how they want Turkey to be!

In the face of the attacks on the captives that are being committed these days, we wish to see you join us and be more active at our side, and

our wish and hope is that you have success in your activities.

JANUARY 1997

To destroy the captives, the authorities have also used "silent destruction" as a method. Up to the present, quite a few sick captives have

been abandoned to death through the deliberate prevention of their treatment. The latest example of "silent execution" was the death of

Polat Iyit. The sons and daughters and those close to the captive were assaulted while on their way to visit captives. On visiting days the

political police interrogation units were full up, and torture was practised.

On December 13, 14 captives being transported from Diyarbakir E-Type Prison to the Military Prison were showered with a torrent of

verbal abuse. One of the captives was then thrown in a cell and subjected to three days of torture. During a visit, the friends of captives

were also exposed to insults from prison guards.

Conditions did not improve in the Usak E-Type Prison. There are 32 captives in dormitories designed for 15. Despite being political they

are not allowed to form an association. Books, magazines and so on are not allowed. The administration also does not allow prisoners to

have books sent from other prisons, or sugar, tea, cigarettes, cleaning substances and things of that nature that are brought along on visits.

The prisoners must get these things from the canteen at a price. The booths are insufficient for meeting visitors.

In Giresun Prison the captives are confronted in the prison with an administration in which MHP (Nationalist Movement Party - fascist)

cadres carry on contra activities. They are exposed to swearing, insults, repression and torture from the guards. Each time the massacre in

Diyarbakir Prison is given as an example, and they are told "you will have it even worse."

In the Elazig E-Type Prison, repression continues to grow. Captives are continually called upon to turn collaborator ... During visits

captives and their visitors are not left in peace. Those prisoners who want to go from a non-political dormitory to a political one are

punished with three months in the cells.

In Ankara Central Closed Prison captives went through three days of tension when the administration failed to give a reply to their

demands. On Friday the political prisoners received a negative response from the prison governors to their needs. After these developments

the prison dormitory doors were not opened and the captives were left in the exercise area for three days. Their families continued to be

arrested. After meeting with the Republican Prosecutor of Eyup, Cafer Koman, in Bayrampasa Prison, eight members of TAYAD who are

relatives or friends of prisoners were arrested, they were dragged along the ground by the hair and reported that they were subjected to

torture. The Eyup Republican Prosecutor Cafer Koman said he had passed on the petition sent to himself to the Bayrampasa District local

government office, and nothing else had come of it.

In Malatya Prison, Veysi Celikten, who three years earlier had had an operation for appendicitis, ended up near death as a result of an

encounter with the torturers. The various wishes and applications of the prisoners were frustrated by the prison administration and the

prosecutor.

In Van Closed Prison the friends and relatives of political captives are subjected to police repression. On visiting days police in civilian

clothes are on duty. They detain the friends and relatives of the captives and threaten them in an effort to stop them coming to the prison.

In Diyarbakir Prison some friends and relatives of captives have been accused by the prison guards and gendarmerie of acting as "couriers".

In Ankara Central Closed Prison, the cancer sufferer Resit Kayran and the liver cirrhosis sufferer Selami Celik were both denied medical

treatment.

They wanted to subject the prisoners Ahmet Caliskan, Abdurrahman Piskin, Mahmet Ciftci and Abdi Elagoz to a search harmful to their

honour while transferring them from Diyarbakir E-Type Prison to Antakya Prison. When they resisted they were attacked by soldiers and

prison guards. Their going to the political dormitories was hampered. The administration is trying to put the captives under pressure. The

captives were thrown into an observation ward after rejecting the No 1 Prison Governor's desire for the military to count them.

On January 14, 1997, Sait Etiz, who had gone to visit his older brother Mehmet Zeki Etiz, was arrested by soldiers as he left the prison.

Later he was handed over to Bartin's political police interrogation unit.

The administration of Erzurum Prison frequently tries to provoke the ordinary prisoners to act against the politicals. New prisoners are

put in one-person isolation cells and pressured to become collaborators.

Captives in Burdur Prison are subjected to greater pressure from the administration with every day that passes. The administration did not

conform to the agreements reached after a hunger strike. The administration which consists of MHP members got prison guards and

soldiers to shout anti-PKK slogans while they were carrying out a search in an attempt to create a provocation.

On January 13, 1997, women captives were attacked by soldiers while in hospital after being brought from Malatya Prison, because they

wanted their handcuffs removed.

When the PKK Trial captive Erdal Gurben was transported against his will from Metris Prison to Kirklareli Prison where collaborators

are kept, he resisted and was savagely beaten by guards. Rather than go into the collaborators' dormitory, Gurben went into a cell of his

own free will and started an unlimited hunger strike.

On January 27, 1997, Yuksel and Serhat, who were visiting friends or relatives in Gebze Prison, were detained by police and taken to the

political police interrogation unit.

In Buca Prison, prison personnel carried out attacks on captives during searches. On January 23, officials carrying out a dormitory search

engaged in verbal provocation and a little later searches of the sleeping area turned into an attack. A number of captives were injured in the

assault.

In Usak E-Type Prison, revolutionary prisoners were attacked by prison guards, police and gendarmes on January 21-22. The prisoners

Necla Comak, Ayca Taskaya and Serpil Gunes were wounded. A demand was made for a doctor for the wounded captives but this demand

was rejected.

The sick prisoners Selami Celik and Resit Kayran were denied treatment when they were transported from Siirt Prison to Ankara Central

Closed Prison. Celik, who was given two months live by the doctors, was not treated in Ankara Prison and then sent back to Siirt Prison.

Resit Kayran was also denied treatment despite a doctor's report and was left to die.

The captive Mustafa Tektas was transported from Yozgat Prison to Maras Prison and has not seen his friends or relatives for about two

months. Tektas, who has stomach bleeding and has had his treatment prevented, has been forcibly lodged in the collaborators' dormitory

while they try to make him collaborate.

The following prisoners were severely wounded in Umraniye Prison on January 4, 1996, and despite needing medical treatment have had

this prevented. They are: Oktay Karatas, Mehmet Telsac, Savas Kahraman, Ibrahim Erler, Cetin Ilkan, Erdal Cetin and Metin Turan. The

following captives are ill as a result of the Death Fast and hunger strikes and have been denied treatment: Ali Ekber Akkaya, Ali Yalcin

(Bayrampasa), Zeynep Gungormez (Ankara Central Closed), Haydar Yildirim, Erol Ozpolat (Cankiri), Selmani Ozcan (Bartin),

Abdulaziz Nakci (Yozgat), Mesut Ozdemir, Bernar Satar (Buca), Mesut Uzun (Bursa), Mehmet Polat (Malatya).

In Bayrampasa Prison the captive Polat Iyit lost his life as a result of his treatment being prevented. Polat Iyit developed lung and brain

cancer in the 1996 Death Fast, and a report dated December 15, 1996 prepared by the Judicial Medicine Office said "he will die". In spite of

this report the prison administration prevented Iyit from receiving treatment;. The captive Polat Iyit died on January 16, 1997 in

Bayrampasa Prison.

FEBRUARY 1997

A captive in Siirt Prison, Selami Celik, and a captive in Ankara Central Closed Prison Resit Kayran, were left to die as a result of having

their treatment prevented. Moreover, M. Salih Celikpence in Nevsehir Prison also had his treatment prevented. A health committee

composed of doctors in Ankara's Numune Hospital issued a report saying Resit Kayran's "life slips away with every passing day". Selami

Celik, who was suffering from cirrhosis of the liver received a report from doctors saying he had two months to live. The cancer sufferer

Salih Celikpence made an application to Amnesty International.

Captives awaiting treatment:

Bayrampasa Prison: Ali Ekber Akkaya, Ali Yalcin, Nursel Demirdovucu, Mehmet Guvel, Unal Yilmaz, Dincer Acar, Gulderen Baran,

Devrim Oktem, Ikram Narin, M.Ali Celebi, Cafer Cangoz, Celal Turpcu, Oktay Karatas, Cemil Tiryaki, Binali Sarielmas, Baki Kaplan,

Cuma Sat, Fahrettin Altun, Cengiz Calikoparan, Elif Vural, Fesih Karatas, Gulay Soker, Gulser Tuzcu, Habibe Ciftci, Hüseyin Kirac,

Mürsehit Durna, Hüseyin Celik, Hayrettin Toktas, Leyla Akbas, Musa Gundogdu, Munevver Koz, M. Salih Demir, Nazarat Vartoglu,

Nuran Ekingen, Nizamettin Kaya, Nurettin Bahtiyaroglu, Nusret Kilic, Sadrettin Aydinlik, Þengul Mert, Saban Tonta, Yasarhak

Aslan, Selma Batmaz, Delil Ildan.

Kirklareli Prison: Ahmet Ep.

Bartin Prison: Abdulaziz Nakci

Sakarya Prison: Cigdem Kazan, Suzan Baran, Þerife Dogan, Kamile Kayir, Sevgi Saymaz, Gulumser Tosun.

Ankara Central Prison: Resit Kayran, Zeynep Gungormez, Ali Tekin.

Siirt Prison: Selami Celik

Nevsehir Prison: M. Salih Celikpence

Bingöl Prison: Sevgi Ince

Çanakkale Prison: Sinan Yavuz, Senol Tanriyapisi

Cankiri Prison: Erol Ozbolat

Yozgat Prison: Selmani Ozcan

Bursa Prison: Murat Mesut Uzun, Yusuf Kenan Dincer

Gebze Prison: Niyazi Kaya, Zeynep Bektas

In Nazilli and Usak Prisons, those who won rights with hunger strikes had them taken away. The problems of captives in Nazilli and Usak

Prisons were not resolved. Because of bad conditions the heath situation of captives is gradually deteriorating. Moreover, prisoners

brought to Usak were stripped naked by prison guards and watches and other personal belongings were taken away. Orhan Yildirim, who

was brought to Nazilli Prison, was beaten by guards and then put under pressure to become a collaborator. The police carried out searches

without bothering to come up with a legal pretext. The families issued a statement saying the prison authorities were engaging in a

provocation to prepare the ground for an attack.

Imam Aksoy was on a transport to Elbistan Prison and was arbitrarily sent to Kirklareli Prison which is meant for collaborators. With

the aim of protesting against this arbitrary conduct and the ailure to guarantee the security of his life, Imam Aksoy set himself on fire.

In Bursa Prison, despite a report, Ibrahim Dogan and Ergun Butuner were not transported and their medical treatment was prevented.

The captives Abdulhaluk Duran, Ibrahim Er and Mahmut Keskin in Ankara Closed Prison who were sent to Ankara Numune Hospital and

Hacettepe Hospital issues a statement saying the doctors had not treated them. The orthopaedic specialist in Numune Hospital Dr Firat

Yagmurlu and Bilgehan Ata, the General Surgeon specialist Yunus Nadi Yuksel, the specialist in plastic surgery and the head doctor of

Numune were said to be "carrying out their duties improperly" and "attempting to commit a crime" in a petition with which it was

intended to open court proceedings.

Mahmut Keskin was brought to Ankara Numune Hospital with a broken hip. But the orthopaedic surgeon Hakan Omeroglu did give

medical treatment to Mahmut Keskin, who is a Kurd, using the excuse that "a leg operation cannot be carried out owing to its condition".

On February 10, 1997, the teacher Ismail Kaya who went to see his brother Mehmet Royan in Ermenek Prison was arrested by gendarmes at

the end of the visit.

The PKK Trial captive Mehmet Cakan died in Agri Prison. Mehmet Cakan was arrested in Agri Province's Dogubeyazit District on

January 13. Four days later he was imprisoned by the DGM (State Security court). He waa sent to Agri Closed Prison after spending some

time in Dogubeyazit Prison. His brother visited M. Cakan on a holiday and said that his brother, who was married with four children, did

not seem to be ill. Then his brother learned from the Security Directorate that "your brother is in Agri State Hospital, come along there."

When he went to the hopsital he was told his brother was dead. Ahmet Cakan said his brother had an injury to the left side of his head a the

level of the ear. He showed marks that a heavy blow had been delivered to his chest. He had died under torture, according to his brother.

In Antakya Prison, political captives started a hunger strike on February 10, 1997. the official mainly responsible for the massacre of four

revolutionaries in Umraniye on January 4, 1996, Huseyin Atakan, came to Antakya, and as a result attacks and repression were stepped up

there. Arif Gulbadak and Metin Polat, who were transferred at their own request from Sagmalcilar Prison, wee arbitrarily punished by

being placed in cells for 15 days. Huseyin Atakan is known to have been on durt in the prisons when such repressive practices took place.

In Antakya Prison there are restrictions on visits by families, there are bans on visits between dormitories, no access to newspapers or

magazines is allowed, there are no settees or beds, only one can of water is issued a week and human needs are not met.

The Ceyhan Prison captive Celal Turker, who was ill wih cirrhosis as well as lung and bone disease, died in Adana State Hospital on

February 16. Celal Turker, who was 37, had been ill with cirrhosis, lung and bone disease for a long time. Turker was sent to hospital

three times during October 1996. Each time he was brought back without receiving treatment. Celal Turker's treatment was prevented by

Prison Governor Kilickaya.

A Hunger Strike began in Kirklareli Prison against pressur on people to become collaborators. The prisoners Erdal Gurbay, Imam Aksoy,

Ahmet Ari and a captive named Ihsan whose last name is unknown went on the Hunger Strike. They were also attacked by JITEM

(Gendarmerie or Military Police Intelligence Service) members and collaborators. Erdal Gurbay was beaten with iron bars while on the

Hunger Strike.

On some pretext or other, the PKK Trial captive Fehim Gemli was taken to Afyon E-Type Prison when he was being transported

from Umraniye to Gebze. He was reportedly tortured for 40 days for refusing an offer to collaborate.

In Maras Prison, seven ordinary prisoners started an unlimited rotating hunger strike in protest at the repression they were suffering at the

hands of the administration. The prison administration wanted captives to carry out tasks working in the kitchen. All those who were

against this would be put in "isolation" and placed in one-person cells.

In Erzurum Prison on February 11, the guards attacked the dormitories. Five captives were pressurised in an attempt to make them

collaborate, and they were tortured in the cells. After the attack the dormitory door to the exercise area was only kept open for half a day.

Tension was created by obstructing the most basic human demands for bathing facilities, cleanliness and meetings with lawyers.

MARCH 1997

The attacks in the prisons continue. Incidences of repression rose in the prisons of Konya, Buca, Siirt, Nazilli, giresun, Usak, van,

Diyarbakir, Elbistan, Erzurum, Iskenderun, Ordu, Yozgat, Gebze, Ankara and Umraniye. The captives started Unlimited Hunger Strikes

in a number of prisons in protest at pressure to make them collaborate, attempts to take away their rights, repression and attacks. The

health situation of the Hunger Strikers was damaged by lengthy hunger-striking. Despite this no agreement was reached.

In Konya, Ankara and Buca prisons, claims that tunnels had been found led to attacks. The attack in Konya resulted in prisoners being

severely injured.

In Iskenderun Prison an escape was an excuse for an attack on prisoners, who were placed in cells and finally sent into exile in different

prisons.

On March 24 it was Buca Prison's turn to be attacked. The attack in Buca was to take away all the rights prisoners have gained up to today.

A number of captives were wounded in the attack. The captives Salih Celikpence, Resit Kayran and Selami Celik were not released and were

left to die through the withholding of medical treatment. Their deaths are awaited. The policy of "silent destruction" is turning the

prisons into death houses.

On March 16, a search was carried out in Bayrampasa Prison with the media present. Captives issued a statement concerning reports which

"in which the press continually gives false information with the aim of creating a situation".

APRIL 1997

In Erzurum Prison a Hunger Strike started on April 27 because of severe repression and continued for 38 days. The captives were not

allowed to receive socialist publications, while going to and returning from hospital they had to wear handcuffs for hours on end, for

meetings with lawyers and visitors the duty guard would preventing them stnding up and talking and moreover the captives' style of dress

and facial hair was interfered with. From April 30, the captives in Erzurum Prison were on hunger strike for 41 days and though they were

approaching death, they were attacked. Commandos coming to the dormitories to prepare an excuse dragged captives along the ground and

roughed them up. Visiting families were subjected to the same treatment. Also, the following 10 captives on the hunger strike suffered

paralysis: Huseyin Beyaz, Kesul Erkaplan, Murat Aslan, Omer Baran, Sirin Tasdemir, Kemzi Yuce, A. Murat Celik, Mehmet Yasa, Habip

Aslan and Cihan alkan suffered from continual vomiting, stomach bleeding, visual problems and paralysis of the legs.

In Elbistan Prison the finding of a tunnel was the excuse for sudden repression in the wards housing political captives. They were trying to

create a provocation with this sudden repression. During the repression, gendarmes harassed and threatened the captives.

In Batman E-Type Prison, while repression against captives was continuing, three captives being brought to the prison were put under

pressure to collaborate and were put in the non-partisan dormitory. The captives who did not accept this were tortured. As a result of

torture, the captives were unable to walk and were put in isolation. Moreover, a prisoner named Cengiz Baytar, was denied treatment

despite having an abdominal rupture and confronted the danger of paralysis.

On April 11 in Sivas Prison, soldiers and prison guards attacked prisoners in the women's dormitory on the pretext of carrying out a

search. They used clubs and wooden beams and wounded a number of captives. Prison governor Ozen Korkmaz also took part in the attack.

In the prison, once again there was a massacre, when the PKK Trial captive M. Salih Celikpence died of cirrhosis of the liver on April 11.

The state bears the responsibility for the death of Salih Celikpence. Since 1992, Celikpence had been in prison and had received no medical

treatment. The doctors had said of Celikpence that "conditions in a prison are no place to treat him, it is necessary to have this sick man sent

abroad for the sake of his liver. Because under prison conditions he was not treated, his illness is very advanced and has reached its final

stage". But despite this they made no attempt to intervene.

MAY 1997

While attacks in the prisons are being stepped up, in Van Prison an attack on four women prisoners is organised: while they are in the

exercise area they are pelted with stones. This is a planned attack aimed at causing death. Moreover, the collaborators come from their

wards and frequently organise attacks.

There is severe repression in Elazig Prison, captives are attacked by soldiers, treatment is prevented, they are beaten by prison guards.

In Sakarya Prison there is tension because the administration is stirring up civilian fascist prisoners against the revolutionary captives. A

section of the ordinary prisoners who call themselves "idealists" (Turkish: "ulkuculer", a term the fascists use in Turkey to describe

themselves) shout slogans at certain points every day directed at the revolutionary prisoners. Moreover, the Adapazari Local Newspaper

presents a distorted picture of the problems the politicals experience with the ordinary prisoners.

In Nevsehir Prison news of the kind that "male prisoners are marketing female prisoners" is disseminated as part of the attacks on

revolutionary prisoners.

JUNE 1997

In Buca Prison it was established that the number of tuberculosis sufferers had increased. It is to be expected that the spread of epidemics is

the result of captives and convicts living in unhealthy conditions and not receiving treament. The Human Rights Association's Office in

Izmir appeals to the Chief Prosecutor Of Buca Prison concerning tuberculosis but nothing comes of it. The state behaves insensitively

concerning the unhealthy conditions of life in Buca Prison, its aim being to kill the prisoners with the help of a serious and deadly illness.

Captives staying in Ceyhan Prison's A2 dormitory have started to develop amoebic dysentery (poisonous diarrhoea). With every passing

day the state of health of the affected prisoners becomes worse. Their heads swim, their blood pressure falls, they have no appetite and the

diarrhoea grows worse.

In Gebze Special Type Prison political captives are abandoned to ill-health as a form of silent massacre. For months the captives are left

without any healthcare. In the hospital there is on medical practitioner but no dentist and no facilities for first aid. The doctor often goes

on journeys, is not available for months, and treatment is prevented. It was declared that because the state did not provide money for

medicine it could not be obtained from pharmacies and for about a year captives were left without medical treatment, thus abandoning

them to death. Moreover, everyone is warned to be sensitive towards attempts to carry out a silent massacre of prisoners.

In Maras Closed Prison PKK Trial captives are continuing a hunger strike started in protest at the repressive behaviour of the

administration. The helath of those on hunger strike deteriorated. Twelve of the captives were put in one-personal cells by the

administration, suposedly to keep them under observation. Moreover, one of them who had been on hunger strike for 28 days was beaten by

the administration. The prisoner who was beaten was bedridden for five days afterwards.

When families of captives went to Cankiri E-Type Prison to pay a visit, the vehicles they came in and the things they brought with them

were subjected to prolonged and excessive searches and it was stated that they were exposed to attacks.

In Konya Prison, in protest at the operations in northern Iraq (note:Turkish army soldiers invading Iraq with the connivance of the West to

hunt Kurdish guerrillas), political prisoners carried out an action by refusing to be counted.) A number of captives were severely wounded

when the administration sent in soldiers to attack participants in the action. Two captives wounded in the attack, Semsettin Kalkan and

Mahmut Ocak, lost consciousness as a result of brain haemorrhages. These two captives received no medical treatment.

In Elbistan E-Type Prison, it was reported that the guard Faruk Aslan did not give convicts letters, magazines and belongings that had

been sent to them, and letters sent from the prison had been burned.

It was declared that the places where political prisoners are kept in Nevsehir Prison would be turned into cell-type prisons. The captives

in blocks C and D discovered the Bayandirlik governor's office's aim to turn their area into cells and showed their first reaction when a

delegation came to the dormitories in connection with the project.

The transporting of prisoners from Konya E-Type Prison to Adana also started after State Security Court hearing in Konya on May 16.

The captives were attacked while they were being transported. Two captives were badly hurt during a stopover in Ceyhan Prison. A total

of 24 captives were injured while being transported.

In Erzurum Special-Type Prison, captives who, in response to rights being taken away, carried out actions by refusing to be counted and

going on Hunger Strike for three days were attacked by soldiers using heavy wooden beams.

JANUARY 1997

In Urfa Closed Prison, a captive named Ibrahim Malgir lost his life because first aid came too late when he had a heart attack.

In the same prison, the captive Aziz Durmaz, the chairman of the Human Rights Association office in Urfa, had two heart attacks after

being subjected to torture. The indifferent behaviour of the administration shows that they want new deaths. The prison system practises

torture and denies treatment to captives.

Captives being transported from Konya to Ceyhan were attacked by soldiers. The ribs of one captive were broken.

In Usak E-Type Prison there is no attempt to resolve issues. Captives either receive newspapers, magazines, books and other publications

late or not at all. Medical treatment is prevented.

The Bursa representative of the newspaper Ozgur Gelecek ("Free Future"), Huseyin Camkiran, was detained by gendarmes on July 2 while

coming out of Bursa Prison which he had been visiting, the pretext for his arrest being that he had books on him which were forbidden

publications. While under arrest, Camkiran was subjected to prolonged beating, he was beaten over the head with a gun and threatened

with death, but in spite of this the Judicial Medicine Department gave him a clean bill of health.

The political prisoner Mustafa Kilinc, who was a prisoner for a time in Cankiri E-Type Prison, was sent to Ankara Numune Hospital

suffering from chronic kidney failure and was connected to a kidney dialysis machine, but after a short period of treatment lasting 10 days

he was sent to Ankara Central Closed Prison. There Kilinc's health deteriorated, as it also did when he was returned to Cankiri. In Bursa

Special Type Prison, there was a period of harsh repression such as searches, detentions and threats. On July 9, a reader of the magazine

Uzun Yuruyus ("Long March") when the administration called him outside where soldiers told him to surrender. Again Nuri Yilmaz, a

friend or relative of a prisoner, who was paying a visit, was called outside, detained and beaten to the point where he went into a coma.

Ramazan Sadikogullari, a captive from the Direnis Hareketi (Resistance Movement) Trial and Death Fast resister, who was suffering from

partial paralysis, and the DHKP-C Trial captive Ethem Elma who was suffering from an ulcer, did not receive treatment while staying in

Haseki Hospital because soldiers prevented it.

In Ankara Central Prison, Cankiri, Buca and Nazilli Prisons those affected by tuberculosis... The treatement of those who were carrying

active tuberculosis microbes had their treatment prevented. In Diyarbakir Central Closed Prison repression of women captives was

stepped up. JITEM agents are putting pressure on women prisoners to become agents or collaborators. CHD (Contemporary Lawyers'

Association) which examined Ankara Central Closed Prison, emphasised that protocols that had been concluded had been trampled upon

and that a number of negative aspects, especially in the health situation, had acquired very serious dimensions. It was judged that quite a

number of prisoners were living under arbitrary conditions, including those who had been acquitted, and the CHD drew attention to the

fact that 30 captives were staying in a ward in which the health conditions were particularly negative.

The CHD noted that political captives were staying in a dormitory of 65 people, and there were sufferers from the effects of infectious

disaeases, especially those who had taken part in the Death Fast of the previous year, also political captives had been taken to hospital but

housed in a basement where they were not allowed to have companions (Turkish: refakatciler, people who stay with sick friends in

hospital) and their serious illnesses showed signs of deterioration, while those who were taken to a higher floor were kept in chains and

were denied treatment.

In Amasya Prison, it was established that among the political prisoners 80 were sick. The captives Nuri Can and Ibrahim Kilic who are in a

state of health in which they could die at any moment, do not receive medical treatment.

Captives and convicts were brought a month earlier from Kayseri Prison to Silifke Prison, and one of them, the PKK Trial prisoner is being

pressurised to go into the collaborators' ward. For not going into the collaborators' ward, Metin who has been on hunger strike for 30

days, is being kept under observation and exposed to repression.

While the Ankara Central Closed Prison captives Cetin Ilkan and Baran Demiray were being brought to hospital on July 25, Specialist

Sergeant A.S. and the soldiers under his command assaulted them.

In Aydin Prison, 116 captives have ulcers, bronchitis, exhaustion, coronary illnesses, rheumatism, allergies, sinusitis, inflammation of

the bones, diarrhoea and other illnesses. These captives have not been allowed to go to hospital.

The Bayrampasa Prison captives Asim Ozdemir, Nursel Demirdovucu, Raziye Katirci and Gamze Bayram were attacked by soldiers while

being taken to Cerrahpasa Hospital. The Death Fast resister Nursel Demirdovucu had his nose broken and the other captives also received

injuries.

AUGUST 1997

Captives were tortured while being taken Konya Prison to Ceyhan Prison. Thirty-five prisoners who were injured a sa result of torture

were forced into dormitories with receiving treatment. Afterwards the captives were brought to the sickbay, but there too they were

tortured and not given medical treatment.

In Erzurum E-Type Prison captives are being stripped naked and tortured. For days prisoners were kept in cells whiel attempts were made

to get them to collaborate, and they were tortured while being brough to and from court.

As a result of the indifference of doctors, the PKK Trial captive Abdurrahman Temur was left to die from a serious illness while in the

Idil District Closed Prison in Sirnak Province.

Alp Aktekin was wounded and captured in Gumushane in a clash between army units and the PKK in June 1994, and spent three years in

Erzurum Prison without receiving medical treatment. In the clash, his right leg was pierced at the knee and an area of bone and flesh the

size of an egg destroyed by shrapnel which makes it difficult to walk, but despite all appeals Aktetkin has received no medical treatment.

The administration in Batman E-Type Prison put up photographs of the dismembered corpses of guerrillas in the visiting booths of the

prison.

In Ceyhan Prison came to court hearings at the Adana State Security Court barefoot as though a search of their shoes was to be carried out.

The prisoners explained that this action was to protest the arbitrariness of the authorities.

In Diyarbakir E-Type Prison 27 collaborators want to pass throught the political dormitory during an operation. The collaborators had

nine people from the political dormitory put in one-person cells. Eleven people in the collaborators' compound thus did not have the

security of their lives guaranteed.

As a result of a provocation by collaborators in Malatya State Security Court, captives were attacked by soldiers. On August 26 at the

court, while captives were emerging from cells to go the hearing, a collaborator named Baris Guner staged a provocation, and soldiers

severely injured Medeni Ozen and wounded Nusret Sevimli, Hamit Ozguc, Abbas Songan, Eyup Daghan and Huseyin Bulut.

In Nazilli Prison, families of captives were attacked by soldiers while on the way to see them during visiting hours. In the attack, the

families were driven outside with blows from planks. Old men and women were attacked, and Veysel Gencer and Sennur Eroren were hurt

and had to stay in Aydin State Hospital.

In Antep Prison, the captive Habil Baga, who wanted to go from the independent dormitory to the political one, was subjected to torture

by the prison administration.

Four captives were put under pressure to collaborate by the Mus Prison administration while being sent to Mus Prison from Mutki

District in Bitlis Province. When the four prisoners expressed the wish to be put in the political dormitory, the administration forcibly

placed them by force in the wards of collaborators and ordinary prisoners.

While being sent from Ceyhan to Elazig on August 9 and then to Adiyaman Prison, seven captives thrown into cells and subjected to every

kind of torture by the administration, police and gendarmes.

In Yozgat Prison, captives had their rights taken away and were subjected to repression on the pretext that a tunnel had been discovered

some time before. It was said that "in the wards where the tunnel was found, prisoner staff plundered the belongings of prisoners and

shared them out among each other."

In Kurkculer Prison, during searches visitors have the things they brought with them torn to pieces, both when entering and when leaving

the prison. Moreover, the prisoners they were coming to see had to first endure police interrogation. When being brought to court or the

sickbay, they are searched in ways offensive to their honour. Their hands and feet were chained.

In Adana E-Type Prison at 18:30 on the evening of August 8, an incident started as a result of a provocation by a guard whose name is

unknown, and an ordinary prisoner named Mehmet Fidan was killed. The incident was started when an ordinary prisoners was insulted, and

captives in the wards set fire to their beds and took a senior prison guard hostage.

In Buca Prison, Semiray Yilmaz and Hasan Ali Gunay, who took part in the 1996 Death Fast, suffered several cerebellar damage. The

result o f this was that the health situation of both captives deteriorated. Their symptoms of poor vision, inability to see clearly and

inability to walk were aggravated.

When two political captives were brought from Ermenek Special Type Prison to Karaman Special Type Prison for treament, a provocation

by the deputy governor resulted in the guards beating them with clubs and wooden beams.

SEPTEMBER 1997

The DHKP-C Trial prisoners Sevda Goktas, Gulay Harman and Hamza Kilic, who were put in separate cells after coming before the

Malatya State Security Court on September 8, refused to come to the hearing as a protest. Guards brought from the prison assaulted them

here as well.

On September 5 in Izmir State Security Court, the DHKP-C Trial captives Ecevit Akbas and Murat Karakus were attacked by soldiers

while coming to and leaving the State Security Court. The blows the captives received caused severe bruising to their bodies.

An attack was organised by soldiers and prison gards using clubs and wooden beams against 10 captives being transported from Iskenderun

Prison to Konya Prison on September 3. In the attack the captive named Haksan Solak was severely wounded. In reaction to the incident, on

September 5 captives begin three-day rotating hunger strikes.

In Urfa Closed Prison, pressure against prisoners continues to grow together with attempts to intoduce a cell-type system. The soldiers

in charge of external security carried out a search and on the pretext of security concerns, raided the dormitories. A few days later the

prison administration and prison staff carried out a second search, which caused annoyance to prisoners. Moreover, captives brought from

Mus Prison to Urfa were not brought before a court.

Captives in Usak Prison said soldiers tried to provoke them by saying things like "Let's make them kick the bucket by putting a bullet in

their heads, and then say they tried to escape on the way to the hospital or the court." In the prison, the rights to representation were also

not recognised.

In Bursa Prison gendarmes try to create a provocation. Those close to prisoners are searched by gendarmes when coming to visit and are

assaulted. "During the search they wanted us to take down our trousers. When we wouldn't the gendarmes attacked us," they say.

Cells are completed in Kurkculer and Ceyhan Prisons. The Commission for Scrutinising the Prisons says in a statement that the

building of cells has been finished, the Justice Ministry says Ceyhan Prison has been chosen as a base and

ýmplementatýon will begin here first of all.

Prisoners in Yozgat, Ordu, Giresun and Trabzon Prisons, in a statement issued through the mediation of families, said that the

administrations are trying to preaper the ground for an attacks so as to throw the captives into the cells. The prisoners said, "They are

planning to put some in one-person cells and others in four-person cells. The aim is to imprison people like us in cells in order to create a

single type of human being. They want to throw us into the cells after preparing the ground with an attack. On this issue, we

call upon the whole of public opinion to be sensitive."

OCTOBER 1997

Collaboratýng prisoners are let out of Diyarbakir E-Type Prison to take part in military operations in the

Lice-Kulp-Genc triangle, those not being used in the operation are kept for a time in a building connected to the

Narin Hotel in the centre of the town of Kulp. At intervals, collaborators, among them Engin Karadag, soldiers and Special Teams

are brought to an operations area for two or three days and start terrorising the local traders. Collaborators wearing military dress go into

the town centre and stroll around among the town inhabitants. "A week ago three collaborators got food, drink and cigarettes from a

trader. When the shopkeeper asked for money, they threatened him, `Shut up unless you want to die like a dog, if you do they'll find your

corpse on top of a mountain,'" it was reported.

Following an interview with the Manisa Trial prisoner Faruk Deniz, Mugla Human Rights Association chairman Ismet Unur says Deniz

was put under pressure to collaborate and withdraw his complaints against the torturer policemen.

Captives staying in Mus Prison are subject to military regulations. The prison administration maintains military discipline in the

independent dormitories, shoes must be put on during counts, buttons must be done up and prisoners stand at attention, and people are

forbidden to walk together in fours. Behaving like one of the guards, the prison doctor tries to get captives to accept the law on repentance

or collaborate.

In Antep Special Type Prison, where 11 captives in the independent dormitories some time before went on hunger strike to be transferred

to the political dormitory, prisoners repeat this demand and are then thrown into cells. The names of those captives held in the cells:

Aydin Atalay, Habip Boga, Sukru and Sevket.

In Van Prison on October 3, Vahdettin Sari is taken from the prison by police for three days of interrogation and then brought back to the

prison. When a day later the police come to the prison to take Sari away again the captive tries to set himself on fire. When captives protest

at the repression from the prison administration, the water supply to the political dormitory is cut.

In Nevsehir Prison there is a captive named Nimet Can, who was left paralysed by an armed attack by contra-guerrillas in 1994. Can has

received no medical treatment from 1994 to the present. He is unable to move his body below the waist and the areas he cannot move have

started to rot.

The Giresun Prison administration brought the captive Cahit Noksan to the interogation room when he asked to go to hospital. Here, the

prison administration severely tortured Noksan and made an offer to him to become an agent.

NOVEMBER 1997

The Buca captive Selahattin Hira was attacked by gendarmes while being brought to Yesilyurt State Hospital for treatment on October 28.

The Elbistan Prison PKK Trial captive Bozan Guclu, who was brought to Malatya for udicial proceeding and an operation, was subjected

to torture by soldiers in the hospital and JITEM members tried to get him to collaborate.

The captives in Iskenderun Prison, Guri Erdogan, Baki Mentes, Alper Batu and Haydar Guler, were not brought to hospital and were not

given medicine despite severe illness, on the grounds that they could not pay.

This year, the State Security Court in Van sent all political pisoners to other provinces, with all the political prisoners Van Prison has

help up to now being sent into exile in Mus Prison.

In Giresun Prison, after the start of construction of cells, more rights were taken away and arbitrary repression was stepped up. On the

way to court, captives were beaten by soldiers and prison guards.

The PKK Trial prisoner Cahit Ozkan, who has been sentenced to life imprisonment and is staying in Giresun Prison, was tortured by guards

after being taken from his dormitory to go to hospital.

In Bursa Prison, the family and friends of captives were not allowed inside on a visit until they had been searched down to their underwear.

The things they brought with them were in such a state that they could no longer be used.

In Cankiri rights began to be taken away. A declaration in the prison stated, using a photograph of Esber Yagmurdeli as an excuse, that it

was forbidden to take photographs or display them in prison, and items received by mail or brought by visitors such as magazines, cassettes

and other cultural requirements were confiscated.

In Mus Prison, prisoners were not allowed to organise in the political dormitories and captives were being coerced into collaboration.

Police disguised as prison guards were participating in searches.

Songul Eroglu, a captive in Bergama Prison, was exiled to Burhaniye Prison and because of illness was sent back to Bergama for treatment.

Eroglu received no treatment in Bergama either. Beginning a hunger srike on November 19, she was attacked by ordinary prisoners who had

been incited by the prison administration.

In the prisons of Adana Kurkculer, Urfa, Sivas and Aydin E-Type, repression continues to grow. Political prisoners are attacked while

going to or returning from court. Captives in Aydin E-Type prison are attacked on the way to court.

In Ankara Central Closed Prison, the captive Davut Kirman is being left to head straight to death. He has been diagnosed as suffering from

stomach cancer, and it is spreading throughout his body. Moreover, after an operation for a brain tumour, Kirman is in an oncology

hospital and bone marrow cancer has been diagnosed.

In Elazig Prison, the prison director and guards known as the A Team (Turkish: "A Takim") are continuing to repress prisoners. Captives

of the A Team have their most basic needs prevented, do not receive newspapers and magazines, and an environment of continual

provocation is created around them.

In Siirt Prison work to build cells is continuing. In Bergama Prison work is going on to put ordinary prisoners in cells. Political prisoners

in Bergama stated in a declaration that construction of cells is going on in secret.

DECEMBER 1997

The captive in Ceyhan Prison, Vesfi Hastas, needs a platinum attachment to his crippled leg. But it is not being done because too much

money is needed to do it.

Eleven persons were brought from Sakarya Prison in front of the State Security Court and made to wait for hours. The captives protested

even while they were in the vehicles by singing marches and shouting slogans. Later in Istanbul State Security Court No 6, DHKP-C

captives Murat Bahceli, Yener Turker and Oktay Petek protested by giving the victory sign in the courtroom. By decision of the judge the

three captives were removed from the courtroom and taken back to the vehicle which had brought them to court - their faces were bruised

from the beating the soldiers had given them.

The provinces of Mus, Bitlis, Hakkari, Van and Bagli all being within the scope of the Van State Security Court, all their political

prisoners were put in Mus Prison in October. In November, work started on the cell-type system. To make the work easier, in a number of

wards captives have been taken to an area where they have to sleep on the floor.

The health situation of Abdulaziz Ozdemir, who was arrested in an operation in Izmir in 1993 and given a severe prison sentence of 24

years on the pretext that he was PKK, is deteriorating. Because of staying in prison conditions for four years and taking part in prolonged

and continuous hunger strikes, he has a heart condition which means he can only live if he has an operation. It would cost six billion

Turkish lira, which is why Ozdemir is not being operated on.

The DHKP-C Trial convicts Ozgur Gudenoglu and Nuray Ogrener were brought from Konya Prison, after being told, "We are bringing

you to Sakarya Prison," and instead of Sakarya they were brought to Nigde Prison and placed in cells. As a protest at being put in cells,

Gudenoglu and Ogrener started a hunger strike on December 5. They were not allowed to see anyone and there was also a ban on receiving

letters.

In Midyat Prison, captives named Yasar Gumuslu and Ismail Yunusali were forcibly placed in the collaborators' ward and tension was

created because they wanted to be put with the politicals. Collaborators pounded on their embrasure, and shouted hostile slogans.

Mehmet Kurnaz, who was arrested on August 31, 1995 in Antalya as an alleged member of the organisation the DHKP-C, and who spent

three months in Antalya and Buca Prisons, died as a consequence of his encounter with the torturers. Kurnaz was wounded during the 1995

Buca Massacre. Leaving the prison on November 25, 1995 as a result of kidney failure, he received proper care and treatment in Antalya

Medical Faculty Hospital in his last month. Kurnaz lost his life on the evening of December 21 (1997).

The PKK Trial captive in Giresun Prison, Hasan Eroglu, aged 55, had his treatment prevented by the prison administration.

In Usak Prison on December 12, 1997, on the pretext of carrying out a general search, gendarmes attacked captives, wounding 40 women

prisoners.

Osman Das lost his life in Ankara Numune Hospital on December 27. For a long time, Osman Das had been left to die in prison, and his

legal representatives made an application to the Ankara Republican Prosecutor's Office the day before his death because of the

deterioration of Das's health situation and the fact that he had been held for three months in the hospital's special clinic for prisoners

without even having his illness diagnosed.

JANUARY 1998

Serpil Yilmaz had had her treatment prevented for two years in Sakarya Prison, and when her health deteriorated she finally had a brain

operation in Sisli Etfal Hospital (Istanbul). Yilmaz lost her life on January 2. Yilmaz suffered from swelling of the brain as a result of

having undergone severe torture, and the obstruction of her medical treatment amounted to murder.

In Diyarbakir E-Type Prison, the captive named Mahmut Icli was beaten by soldiers and prison guards and thrown in the cells because he

wanted to leave the independent dormitory No 5 and go to the political dormitory.

On December 2 the captive Onder Sezgin was sent from Ermenek Prison to Ankara Central Closed Prison to receive treatment, and there

was no news of him for a month. All correspondence between Ankara and Ermenek Prisons failed to elicit the whereabouts of Sezgin.

Zeki Karaca, who was wounded and captured and imprisoned in Malatya, was brought to Ankara Numune Hospital for treatment and then

not treated, he was sent to Ceyhan Prison and then brought to Yozgat. In Yozgat he was put in a one-person cell and left to die, again

without receiving treatment. Karaca has kidney failure, severe anaemia and swollen legs, and the likelihood of him suffering paralysis is

very high.

In Usak Prison, women political prisoners were attacked by prison guards wielding clubs and wooden beams. Usak Republican Prosecutor

Metin Adalioglu and the Prison Prosecutor Huseyin Avni Ozcan were also present when 40 prisoners were wounded in an (earlier) attack.

At 10:30 on January 12, on the pretext of carrying out a general search, prison guards went into the wards and attacked captives by spraying

them with water cannons. The door to the malta (area between the administrative offices and the prisoners' wards) was closed and entry to

the bathing area was prevented. They wanted to confiscate blackboards, tables and desks, wardrobes and foodstuffs.

Five captives transported to Elazig E-Type Prison from Diyarbakir Prison were held in the cells for 24 days. The captives made a

statement in Elazig Prison; they said that, in order to bring the cell-type system to completion and throw people into the cells, the

administration and soldiers were continually trying to create provocations.

The Amasya Prison captive Gulumser Peduk wanted to be transported in the company of convicts who had been arraigned at the same trial

proceedings as herself. In response to the request, the administration had her arbitrarily placed in a cell. Peduk went on hunger strike.

When Buca Prison captives come from or go to hospital or court on the ring vehicle, they are exposed to attacks from the soldiers inside the

vehicle. The captives reported that they would resist every kind of attack or attempt to deprive them of their rights.

FEBRUARY 1998

The captives Mehmet Icli and Ahmet Yazgan wanted to be transferred from Diyarbakir's independent dormitories to the political

dormitories, however the request was rejected and on January 2 they were thrown into the cells, and on January 25 exiled to Elazig

E-Type Prison. In Elazig they were thrown into one-person cells, and as a result of torture their health deteriorated. The captives want

to go to the political dormitory and fulfil their demands.

Captives in Aydin Prison are being denied treatment. They are not bringing the tubercular captives Vehbi Koc and Abdulaziz Ozdemir to

hospital for the operations they need. Bedrettin Caylak suffers from partial paralysis because of high blood pressure. It is reported that if

Caylak's illness is not treated, his life will be in danger. Mehmet Oktay previously had an operation on bones in his back, but because of

not receiving treatment the area operated on has become infected, the wound has opened and is constantly bleeding. Samil Batmaz has

chronic bronchitis and is not being treated. Halef Ozer, who is 70 years old, suffers from diabetes, low blood pressure, a heart condition

and constriction of blood vessels, is not receiving treatment.

In Buca Prison the PKK Trial captive and sufferer from Parkinson's Disease Musa Gunes, who is not being treated, has not been set free in

spite of a report by a doctor from Yesilyurt State Hospital and has been left to die.

Four captives who were transported from Ermenek Hospital to Nigde Hospital were not put in normal wards but were thrown into cells.

To protest this, the captives have begun a hunger strike.

In Maras Prison, when Hidayet Marap, Abdurrahman Sevfat and Hulya Arslan emerged after going to visit friends and relatives, they

were detained and held for three hours. Police threatened them, saying, "If you keep coming and going you will come to a bad end. Don't

ever come visiting again." Moreover, it was reported that the names of those coming to visit were taken and their rights subject to

investigation.

In Mugla Prison, the DHKP-C Trial captives Mahir Erdogan and Rukal Karacal were thrown into cells in an attempt to make them

collaborate.

Ten prisoners exiled from Trabzon to Samsun Prison were thrown into the cells and ordinary prisoners subjected to torture by Director

Zeki Bayraktar. The following prisoners were thrown into the cells: Mehmet Yilmaz, Idris Kalyoncu, Caner Yavuz, Serdar Ates, Sinan

Altun, Yusuf Keskin, Murat Baltaoglu, Cetin Sahin, Hamdi Seren and Sirri. At the same time as the relatives of the prisoners being

tortured were not allowed to see them, the prisoners were threatened to make them say nothing about the torture.

In Bayrampasa Prison, families coming to visit every week were brought every month as in February to the Istanbul Security Department

and tortured there. The families prtested against detention and repression by opening legal proceedings at the Istanbul Republican

Prosecutor's Office. And they mentioned the repression, threats and torture practised by the police to prevent visits from taking place.

In Istanbul Bakirkoy Women and Children's Prison, torture and sexual molestation has been experienced. It was learned that children had

been tortured and women subject to repression and sexual assault in their dormitory at the hands of the prison administration and the No 1

governor. The members of parliament Yasar Okuyan, Sema Piskinsut and Sabri Ergul also notified public opinion of the cases of sexual

assault and torture.

MARCH 1998

Ten captives transported from Buca E-Type Prison on March 5 were attacked by soldiers in front of Sivas Prison. Prisoners were injured in

various places by blows from clubs and wooden planks wielded by soldiers as they were getting off the ring vehicles. The injured prisoners

were sent to the dormitories without receiving treatment. The administration is creating an environment of provocation in order to put the

captives in the cells whose construction has been completed.

In Burdar, the escape of the fascist mafia leader Kursat Yilmaz was taken as an excuse to subject prisoners to severe repression. Frequent

raids on the wards deprive prisoners of the most basic human rights. Sick prisoners are abandoned to silent death through the denial of

medical treatment. While the construction of cells proceeds apace, attempts are made to isolate prisoners.

They sought to kill the Usak E-Type Prison captive Bedia Ergun on the way to court. On March 4, they were taking Ergun to court, and

while his handcuffs were attached crosswise soldiers shoved a gun against his head. Ergun was then flung from the ring vehicle without his

handcuffs on and made to walk, as though the soldiers wanted to create a "shot while trying to escape" scenario.

In Malatya E-Type Prison, the daughters of the DHKP-C Trial captive Feride Harman, Asef and Hatice Harman, reacted when they were

only allowed to bring in a part of the food they had taken with them. When the Harman sisters started to go inside the deputy governor of

the prison said, "Throw them out," and ordered a group of guards to attack them. In the prison garden gendarmes also helped the prison

guards. The Harman family has complained to the Prosecutor's Office in Malatya.

On March 10, when coming out of a hearing at the State Security Court, a woman prisoner named Erkus was attacked by soldiers using the

excuse that she was talking to her lawyer. Later soldiers took Erkus under some stairs and threatened her with death. Moreover, the

woman prisoner's body was beaten black and blue with clubs, and she was denied treatment.

In Buca Prison, the families of political prisoners were attacked by guards. Women visitors were assaulted by female guards, male visitors

were stripped down to their socks while a search was conducted.

In Buca Prison, the health situation of the Parkinson's disease sufferer Musa Gunes deteriorated further despite a report that "staying in a

prison offers no hope for treatment". The report by the head of neurology of Yesilyurt State Hospital, Chief Deputy Doctor Mustafa

Basoglu, was certified by a delegation.

In Nevsehir Prison the treatment of captives is being prevented. Captives are subjected to torture by soldiers while being brought to

hospital, and in the hospital unknown people in civilian clothes try to force prisoners to surrender in order to receive treatment. On March

30, 1998, prisoners, this time in Izmir's Buca Prison, were attacked while commemorating the Kizildere Resistance (note: the fight to the

death by Mahir Cayan and his comrades at Kizildere on March 30, 1972). While the captives were leaving their dormitories to see their

friends and families at the visiting hour, they were attacked by exactly the same murderer-guards and fascist criminals of the same type

who were on duty at the time of the Buca Massacre (1995). Ten DHKP-C Trial captives were severely beaten with wooden planks and

clubs. After this the Central Coordination of Prisons (CMK) summoned a general resistance of revolutionary prisoners in Turkey, with

barricades, hostage-taking, occupations of the maltas and actions involving refusal to be counted. The resistance was ended with the

authorities accepting the revolutionary prisoners' demands in the face of the general resistance.

APRIL 1998

In Gebze, the captive Devrim Oktem was denied treatment. Doctors report that if the treatment of Oktem, who suffers from

inflammation of the spinal cord, is delayed he will lose his life.

In Zile Prison the captives from the DHKP-C Trial Kemal Kicir and Murat Demir went to the hospital on April 17 with the aim of

receiving treatment, but this was prevented by soldiers who would not remove handcuffs even in the consultation room.

M. Salman Aslan was denied treatment following torture after his arrest. After staying for a year in Malatya Prison, he was sent to

Karahisarli Prison and to Kurkculer Prison where his health situation deteriorated. It was learned that he had illnesses of the muscles,

joints, skeleton and system, he had cysts in his sinuses as well as ringing in his ears, and he suffered from violent pains.

In Sivas Prison, the relatives of women political prisoners were not allowed to visit them on the grounds that they would not give their

surnames.

It was learned that the PKK Trial captives M. Ali Isci, Ibrahim Karayel, Ahmet Akbas and Mehmet Gokturk were tortured while being

exiled from Erzurum E-Type Prison to Horasan. Ibrahim Karayel's mother Perihan Karayel said, "On the third day of Bayram, guards and

soldiers came to the wards, and tortured the captives after taking them out of the wards one by one, our children were subjected to falaka

(the beating of the soles of the feet)."

Ahmet Kiziltan, Serhat Aydemir, M. Cengiz Oztek, Bahri Kutluk, Mesut Kaynak, Ozgur Kaplan, Mustafa Coskun, Osman Acar and

Kuret Sezgin were brought to Nazilli E-Type Prison and locked up in newly constructed cells. The result of all the Justice Ministry's

demagogy was that captives were thrown into the cells. The situation of the captives was that they were isolated from all human rights.

Two captives were attacked while being transported from Malatya Prison to Yozgat. The torture that started when they left Malatya also

continued in Yozgat.

In Bayrampasa Prison gendarmes wanted to search the wives or women friends of ordinary prisoners who had come on a visit. The captives

reacted to this humiliating treatment by cancelling the visit.

The captive M. Sah Yilmaz was tortured by soldiers while being transported from Diyarbakir E-Type Prison to Elazig's Hospital for

Diseases of the Mind and Nerves.

In the prisons, hundreds of political captives have been abandoned to die without treatment and one more of these has lost his life. The

PKK Trial convict Adem Ince committed suicide in Cankiri Prison; his psychological health suffered after being tortured and he did not

receive treatment even though he wanted to go to Bakirkoy Psychiatric Hospital.

MAY 1998

In Malatya Prison four DHKP-C Trial women captives were attacked on the way to hospital. On May 22 Feride Harman, Eylem

Yesilbas, Fatma Bilgin and Selba Bal were not given a doctor's report. In protest at the attack the women prisoners refused to be counted

and also shouted slogans at other prisoners and beat the doors and embrasures.

On April 30 the German PKK member Eva Juhnke was put in a one-person cell while the Van State Security Court proceedings were in

session. Women prisoners who broke glass in protest at Juhnke's not being brought to a dormitory were attacked. The governor and prison

guards organised repression in the dormitory on the pretext that "they tried to stage a rebellion," and exiled Fatma Sut, Rabia Atan, Ayse

Altun and Eva Juhnke to Mus Prison on May 1. Leyla Atabay and Fatma Sido who were wounded are at present being held in Van Prison.

The PKK Trial captive Hasan Alkis, who has been in Erzurum Prison for five years, and as a result of severe torture and hunger strikes

suffers from problems with his heart, stomach and vision, has still received no treatment.

It became known to the human rights commission of Turkey's parliament that the ordinary prisoner Sefer Aydin was put in a one-person

cell in Urfa Closed Prison. Afterwards political prisoners went on hunger strike at Sefer Aydin being put in a cell. Later 20 prisoners who

took part in the protest were sent into exile.

In Mus Prison on May 6, guards organised an attack on prisoners. Prisoners severely wounded in the attack received no medical treatment.

For making a political defence during their court proceedings at Izmir State Security Court on May 21, the Nazilli Prison captives Nuri

Ozen, Hasan Askin and Fesih Yavas were beaten by police and TMS police with clubs and wooden planks.

On May 14, 1998, captives who were exiled to Yozgat Prison and went on hunger strike demanding to be transported had their demands

accepted after 49 days.

JUNE 1998

On June 10, DHKP-C captives going from Sakarya Prison to the State Security Court shouted slogans in protest at disappearances. Because

of this they were attacked by soldiers while in the ring vehicle at the court entrance. The captives were wounded in the attack.

On June 11, DHKP-C captives Baris Yildirim, Tamer Cadirci, Ayten Andas and Ovsev Alev Ozcan were attacked by the soldiers

accompanying them while leaving the courtroom following sentencing. The captives reacted to the sight of the murderous fascist guards

who carried out the September 21 massacre in the corridor of the court building. Thereupon the guards attacked the prisoners. Five of the

captives who were attacked were taken away forcibly to an unknown place. All DHKP-C captives reacted to this situation. It was learned

that Nevzat Kalayci and Tamer Cadirci had been seriously wounded and were in hospital. The other three captives were returned to their

wards.

On June 2, the PKK Trial convict Sema Ekinci, who was released from Amasya Prison, explained that she had been tortured. Ekinci, who

was released at the end of an operation, said that she was brought into the room of a senior prison guard named Unal and said she was beaten

there. `After two women guards named Emine and Gulay searched me and found nothing, about 15 guards came in and started slapping and

hitting me. This torture lasted about 20 minutes in the senior prison guard's room and Unal made the threat: "Tell me everything you

know or I'll hand you over to someone outside who will make sure even your corpse isn't found."'

In Adiyaman Prison, they could find 10 billion lira for prison cells but but prisoners are not treated because there is no money. The

captives in Burdur announced on June 15 with the completion of cell construction hat they would resist the cells at the cost of their own

lives. Moreover, Veysi Aktas, Muhittin Tacer, Nedim Ates, Huseyin Ates, Huseyin Demir, Huseyin Kilit and Serhat Gul, who are all

seriously ill, have not been treated.

In Midyat Prison captives have not been treated even though many have caught infectious diseases. The administration has refused to move

prisoners, using various arbitrary excuses, while doctors have wanted to have prisoners moved. Again, captives needing operations have not

been allowed to have them. On June 6 a captive who was brought to court in Diyarbakir was so severely beaten in an attempt to make him

cooperate that he fainted.

In Elbistan Prison captives were not allowed to see visiting families on the pretext that a search was necessary. The prison is experiencing

continual tension. Soldiers and guards are trying to prepare the ground for an attack. Moreover, 85 captives in the prison who have been

diagnosed as suffering from tuberculosis have still received no treatment.

In Burdur Prison the administration has changed all the prison staff. The majority of the new staff are fascists. The families have reacted,

interpreting these developments as preparations to go over to cell-type imprisonment.

The PKK Trial captive Mehmet Guzel, who was taken from Umraniye to Kirklareli Prison's collaborator ward, set himself on fire on

June 4 in protest at attempts to make him a collaborator and also in protest at more general repression.

On June 27, 1998 in Adana, on the pretext of maintaining security following the earthquake, captives brought from Adana Kurkculer

Prison to Gaziantep E-Type Closed Prison were attacked after the excuse was used that a search was necessary.

In Izmir State Security Court, when 10 PKK Trial prisoners were sentenced and shouted slogans, gendarmes attacked them with clubs and

wooden beams.

On June 29, Sevket Dolbay was attacked by soldiers while going to Eyup court building on the ring vehicle. When he did not remain silent

in the face of obscenities and insults from the captain in charge, Dolbay was severely wounded in the attack by the captain and soldiers.

After the bones in his face were broken as a result of a blow from a rifle-butt, he was threatened with death.

In Akhisarli Prison, the convict Hakan Altinkaya lost his life as a result of a heart attack. When Hakan Altinkaya was taken ill,

intervention to save him prevented and he was left to die by the prison administration on the pretext that somebody else was dying.

JULY 1998

In Giresun Prison, the pretext that "there is no money" was the excuse for not letting captives have medication. Again, in Aydin Prison,

captives who were seriously ill are having their treatment delayed. Captives brought to hospital are being exposed to attacks.

In Nevsehir Prison, this month repression of political prisoners also continued. They were prevented from coming or going to court or

hospital, relations between political prisoners and visitors were terminated, and chains were not removed when they were in hospital or in

court. While visitors were subject to repression, they are not allowed to take food inside the prison. Newspaers, letters and magazines and

other human needs are not met.

A captive named Yildiray Kezer was killed in a semi-open prison in Isparta's Atabey district. He lost his life as a result of gendarmes

opening fire, allegedly because he was trying to escape.

The PKK Trial captive Mehmet Turgay, who has been in prison for four years, has yet to receive any medical treatment. In 1994, was

wounded and captured and brought to hospital for an operation where his feet were kept chained to the bed. He was taken to prison

immediately after the operation. Turgay is in Kurkculer Hospital at the moment and has yet to receive medical treatment.

In Ordu Prison, the captive Hasan Urun has not received treatment for his bone deficiency. The situation of Urun became even worse when

he was brought to Aydin Prison at the start of July. Urun is seven centimetres shorter as a result of his illness which has shown signs of

deterioration.

In Antep Special Type Prison, Bedreddin Kavak and Yasar Kirmizi cannot hold anything from the waist down. And Mursit Aslan is going

through life bedridden and in a wheelchair.

In Sivas Prison 120 women prisoners from the PKK Trial made the demand to be sent to other prisons and started a hunger strike with this

demand on May 2. Despite it now being July, the hunger strike continues. On July 21, captives brought to prison as a result of illness are

attacked by soldiers. Figen Ekti, Aygul Kapcak and Hatice Ata were injured by soldiers while getting out of the ring vehicle.

The ordinary prisoner Faruk Oncel was exiled from Hatay Prison to Tarsus Prison for supporting an action by political prisoners. Here

Oncel was tortured after being placed in a cell.

On July 28, 1998, in Aydin Prison at about 0900, on the pretext of carrying out a search the prison administration tried to search the

prisoners in an immoral manner. They wanted prisoners to remove their trousers. The revolutionary prisoners resisted this search which

denigrated their human honour, and they were attacked. During the attack the prison administration subjected isolated prisoners they

caught to torture. The revolutionary prisoners repelled the attacks by the prison administration . In the attack, a large number of prisoners

were wounded, nine of them seriously.

AUGUST 1998

The following DHKP-C Trial captives in Bayrampasa Prison, Kemal Hakan Erkal, Mehmet Kulaksiz, Riza Yildirim, Hikmet Kale and

Haydar Bozkurt, were attacked by gendarmes on Monday August 17 while being brought to a State Security Court hearing. The prisoners

were struck with clubs and rifle-butts, receiving heavy bruising to the body. After the attack political prisoners in Bayrampasa Prison

protested by refusing to be counted.

Eleven captives were beaten by guards wielding sticks while being transported from Elazig Prison to Midyat Prison. Three prisoners

leaving Elazig Prison for Antep Special Type Prison were thrown into cells after they left their dormitory and were subjected to torture.

In Mus Prison, while work to build cells is continuing, the administration tries to create continual provocations so it can put prisoners in

cells.

Soldiers attacked the friends and relatives of prisoners coming to Ordu Prison for the visiting hours. Later, after they came out, the

families were subjected to torture.

On August 6, 1998, women prisoners were attacked when they started a hunger strike to be returned to Kurkculer Prison from Gaziantep

E-Type Prison.

In various prisons:

The deprivation of rights: In Nazilli Prison rights won with a hunger strike were taken away. In Iskenderun Prison captives' families were

not allowed to visit. In Antep Special-Type Prison the captive Safi Genc who was arrested and suffered nerve damage as a result of

torture, M. Oner who has chronic stomach pains and whose teeth are falling out, Sevgi Ince in Bayrampasa who needs an operation, Lesker

Acar and Enver Ozkartal in Diyarbakir Prison who need operations, Mirza Mehmet Cubukcu and Mehmet Seyhan who have liver disease,

and Kadri Gokdere who has cirrhosis, have all been denied treatment and are being left to die.

SEPTEMBER 1998

In Erzurum Prison, Vasfi Hostan whose left hipbone is diseased, in Diyarbakir Prison Mirza Cubukcu, Enver Ucar and Cengiz Akin, in

Ankara Prison Resit Kayhan, Sabiha Sunar, Kadriye Alptekin, Halil Gunes, Nezir Kartal, Veysel Kurt, Kenan Altun, Pelguzar Kaygisiz

and Mehmet Ozen, in Mersin Gulnar Prison Recep Nazlidere, Muhittin Kahvecioglu, and in Buca Prison Dilsah Acar all suffered from

illnesses resulting from torture. In Umraniye Prison Ahmet Polat, whose blood was failing to reach his brain because of coagulation and

in Bayrampasa Prison Oktay Karatas, who was wounded by a bomb blast during the 1996 Umraniye Massacre and suffered a skull fracture,

whose flow of blood to the brain is obstructed and who can no longer hear because of this, have had their treatment prevented through

various excuses in spite of the seriousness of their condition.

Captives in Bursa, Bergama, Nevsehir, Aydin, Giresun, Antep and Mus Prisons have come face to face with repression and arbitrary

regulations. In Aydin Prison, on the pretext of carrying out a search, soldiers went into dormitories to confiscate foodstuffs, clothing,

drinks and other necessities. There are constant attempts to stop newspapers and magazines from being received.

On September 6, 1998, the captive Kemal Celik, who was in bed in the sickbay of Ankara Ulucanlar Prison, was abducted and sent into

exile in Eskisehir Prison.

OCTOBER 1998

After an escape attempt was discovered in Ceyhan Prison on October 8, 1998, DHKP-C and TKP(ML) Trial captives were attacked by the

administration on October 19, 1998. As a result of this attack, almost all the revolutionary prisoners were wounded, and 10 seriously

injured captives were taken to hospital. The captives were thrown into cells and kept under observation. On October 24, combined

resistance started in other prisons, and the situation returned to normal after the revolutionary prisoners' demands were accepted.

NOVEMBER 1998

The ruling class wanted to use the ordinary prisoners in its attacks on revolutionary prisoners. In Canakkale Prison, the revolutionary

prisoners had advance warning of such an attempt in November 1998, and so were able to frustrate it. In Canakkale the chief prosecutor,

Cemal Sahir GURCAY had a meeting with a group of ordinary captives and convicts, in Metris Prison the fascist narcotics smuggler

Yasar OZ took an Italian captive hostage. In both prisons ordinary prisoners were showered with praise and they were incited against the

revolutionary prisoners and encouraged to carry out similar actions.

DECEMBER 1998

In Sakarya Prison on December 14, 1998, the administration together with civilian fascists carried out a provocation and attacked

revolutionary prisoners in an attempted massacre. But the revolutionary prisoners resisted and forced the enemy to take a step back.

On December 21, 1998 in Buca Prison, hundreds of guards attacked 14 revolutionary prisoners with wooden planks and iron bars. A

revolutionary prisoner named Nevzat Kalayci was thrown into a cell. In this attack three revolutionary prisoners were injured in various

places.

SEPTEMBER 1999

On September 14 in Malatya Prison, three captives emerging to go to court were confronted by soldiers and guards who tried to take away

their honour, subject them to arbitrary behaviour and attack them. Women captives from the DHKP-C Trial heard the slogans and

streamed out into the malta to protest the attack. The No 1 governor Ismail Aksoy and dozens of guards with wooden beams in their hands

again attacked the women prisoners who had sought medical aid for the wounded prisoners. In the attack 10 women prisoners were

wounded by blows to the head, Gulay Efendioglu and Semiha Topal were seriously wounded and taken to Malatya State Hospital.

An hour before the Ankara Ulucanlar Massacre, an attack was organised against the political prisoners' wards in Aydin Prison. The walls

of the dormitory were broken by soldiers and guards. Gas bombs were hurled inside and water was sprayed from high-pressure hoses. They

went into the wards primed to beat prisoners to death with clubs, iron bars and rifle butts. Foodstuffs, clothes, bedclothes and other such

things were trampled upon. In the operation which lasted three hours, the electricity and water were also cut.

There had been continual tension in Ankara Ulucanlar Central Closed Prison since September 2, and on the night of September 26 10

captives were massacred in the operation that was organised. Dozens of captives were wounded. Soldiers and Special Teams attacked the

prisoners' wards with firearms and gas bombs.

In Bursa Special-Type Prison, DHKP-C, TIKB, TKIP, TKP/ML, TKP(ML), TDKP and TKEP Trial prisoners ended their week-long

occupation of the malta carried out to protest the attacks in Buca Prison and the deprivation of rights. The captives said in a joint

declaration, "We political prisoners, who know how to share the great pains and troubles of our people, have attained the conditions by

which to postpone our action."

Two captives from Batman Prison who went to stay in the State Hospital for treatment were attacked by the soldiers who brought them

back to prison.

In Kayseri Closed Prison operational manoeuvres were conducted on September 7. Police, gendarmes and fire brigade units took part in the

manoeuvres. The prison was surrounded on all sides during the manoeuvres.

Sait Zambak, who was sent from Erzurum Prison to Mugla Prison which contains collaborators, put in a request to to sent to another

priosner and was tortured for it. Zambak was stripped naked and thrown into a cell.

OCTOBER 1999

In Elazig E-Type Prison, pressure was stepped up to make people collaborate. New prisoners were subjected to attacks by soldiers on

arrival, and afterwards the prison administration also attacked them. There was no limit to the attacks designed to bring about

collaboration. Various arbitrary regulations were introduced such as demanding the shaving of moustaches, and these were used as a

pretext for launching attacks. Moreover, regulations incompatible with humanity were also used against families coming on visits.

In Tokat E-Type Prison, sick prisoners receive no treatment and soldiers carry out arbitrary repression in the wards. This consists of

soldiers and prison guards going into wards clutching iron bars, acting as though they are about to beat priosners, and they strew prisoners'

belongings around the place. Moreover, books and magazines are not allowed in the prison and foodstuffs the families bring with them are

also destroyed.

In Bergama Prison on October 13, the No 1 governor said, "If you take guards hostage, your lives will not be secure, we will not bother

taking a count, we will just open the doors," in order to prepare the ground for an attack. Moreover, an excuse was created to confiscate

legal magazines and books which the families brought with them. The prisoners issued a joint declaration that if any incidents occurred in

Bergama Prison the prison administration would be held responsible.

In Nazilli Prison prisoners injured going to and from hospital are not receiving treatment.

In Diyarbakir E-Type Closed Prison the prisoners are being prevented from receiving medical treatment. On September 25 Addulkadir

Yilmz lost his life after treatment was denied, and on October 9, Ihsan Bic died of cirrhosis, also without being treated. Bic, who was

married and had five children, had been in jail since 1993.

In Isparta Prison, it was stated that preparations for putting captives in cells had been partially completed.

NOVEMBER 1999

The following prisoners wounded in the Ulucanlar massacre have been sent into exile and have not received treatment; Ertan Ozkan has

been exile to Zile Prison and has been put in a cell. He has not had medical treatment for a gunshot wound that risks becoming gangrenous.

Cemal Cakmak, who was exiled to Burdur Prison, who suffered severe wounds to the body because of extensive and prolonged torture, as

well as suffering gunshot injuries to the legs and head, has not been taken to hospital. Ozgur Saltuk, who was brought to Bartin Prison,

has a broken jaw which is wired up and can only take liquid nourishment. Kemal Yarar and Nihat Konak, who are in the same prison, have

had no treatment for various injuries to their bodies. And again in the same prison, Ilhan Emrah and Haydar Baran who has a liver

complaint, has also not received treatment. When Dondu Uzel and Fadime Akalin were transported from Nigde Prison to the state

hospital, prisoners attacked them.

After the massacre carried out in Ankara Prison, captives sent into exile in Burdur have still received no treatment. During searches,

women prisoners are exposed to provocations from prison staff. Water is only available to the prisoners for one hour each day. Families

coming on visits are threatened, "not to make applications anywhere." The prisoners have been subjected to threats, such as by the

murderer-prosecutor Ramazan Solmaz, who said, "You will have to pay for your rights with your lives," and by the prison governor

Katip Ozen who said "We didn't succeed in Ulucanlar but we will succeed here." In Burdur Prison, ordinary prisoners who support the

MHP have been used to try and create provocations. Pro-MHP ordinary prisoners armed with iron bars carried out an attempt to attack

the ward where revolutionary prisoners stay. they hung photographs and signs on the dormitory (...). The calls by the dormitory

representatives for talks have been rejected. In fact the dormitories are banned from having representation. Captives going to the hospital,

lawyer or visits are subjected to humiliating searches. There are restrictions on buying foodstuffs from the canteen and radios and tapes in

the dormitories have been confiscated. Often the electricity and water supply to the dormitories is cut. The food the families bring is

mixed with other things so it is unusable. Male guards carry out searches in the female prisoners' dormitories. Kadir Agababa, Ahmet

Akgun and Osman Ali Copel were transported from Buca Prison and subjected to torture by soldiers at the entrance to the prison, as well

as being forcibly injected with a yellow liquid whose exact nature was unclear.

In Diyarbakir Prison captives going to court are harassed while being searched. During the searches, prisoners have to keep their hands in the

air, fluttering "like the wings of a butterfly", and they are insulted. Captives are subjected to verbal assaults whenever they are

encountered. New prisoners are threatened and put under pressure to collaborate. Those who want to go to the political dormitory are

subjected to verbal insults. The captives Hayrettin Cetintas, Hamdullah Gezgin, Hikmettin Ati, Sahin Kalkan and Yilmaz Bozkurt have

been put into isolation for this reason. In October, the women prisoners Ayten Gusun and Songul Onar who were wounded and captured,

were forcibly brought to the collaborators' dormitory. They are being put under physical and psychological pressure to become

collaborators. Ismet Temurtukan, who has Hepatitis C, Ilhan Altun and Bahattin Solhan who are injured and Nuri Altak who has a blood

disease only got to hospital after a long struggle and and when they got there were sent back again because they could not pay for

treatment. The families of prisoners are subjected to pressure from soldiers and the administration. When the family of Masallah Ozbek

came to visit, his son bringing him food cooked at home, soldiers stood in the doorway preventing the visit from taking place, saying, "For

bringing tripe here we are punishing you by preventing the child from paying a visit for one month, and if you want to complain, see where

it gets you."

On October 26, a large number of soldiers and prison guards came to the wards saying they were to bring the captive Dilvin Ahmet to

Diyarbakir No 1 State Security Court. Dilvin Ahmet was brought beck on October 30 after experiencing severe torture. Dilvin Ahmet was

reportedly "brought to an isolated patch of countryside after being taken from the prison, and there he was subjected to a wide range of

severe tortures, pressurised to be a collaborator and threatened with death."

In Burdur Prison, the DHKP-C, MLKP and TKP(ML) Trial captives issued a statement: it declared that "Although the members of the

human rights commission of the TBMM (Turkey's parliament) have not come and listened to the statements of the prisoners wounded in

the attack at Ulucanlar Prison and say there was no infraction committed in the prison, we aim to get them to show greater sensitivity by

issuing this statement." The captives called for a meeting about the attack with representatives of the Justice Ministry, the TBMM human

rights commission, the Burdur Republican Prosecutor's Office and the prison administration.

Two captives brought from Buca Prison to Aydin Prisan on November 9 were attacked by soldiers. Yavuz Mamac and Akin Demirci were

stripped naked at the entrance to Aydin Prison and tortured. In Aydin E-Type Prison, Necip Akgun, a sufferer from lung cancer, was left

to look death in the eye. Despite the cancer spreading throughout his body, the Justice Ministry found suitable pretexts for not

transporting him to hospital.

The 70-year-old Ali Bakir came to visit his son in Yozgat E-Type Prison and was himself arrested. No news was given to his family.

Friends and relatives of prisoners in Elbistan E-Type Prison were stopped at the entrance by police who threatened them and forced them

to turn back.

In Elazig E-Type Prison, Yucel Bolyaci was left for a long time in a one-person cell without medical treatment. Bolyaci has two

gunshot wounds in the leg. Because they have not been treated, the wounds have become infected and the leg has swollen to twice its

normal size. Friends have been able to carry him around in a blanket. But with excuses such as "You can't talk to a lawyer," and "You can't

go thee infirmary," attempts are being made to get him to collaborate. However, on November 13 he was brought to Elazig State

Hospital. However, there he was left in a cell in the basement with his hands and feet in fetters, left without food and water for three

days, given no treatment and then taken back to the prison. Again he was put in a cell, tortured, and when he fainted he was returned to the

dormitory.

The construction of cell-type prisons was accelerated. Up to the present, 37 E-Type and 17 Special Type Prisons have had some sections

transformed into cell-type systems. The Justice Ministry declared that in Ankara, Izmir, Bolu, Kocaeli and Tekirdag, construction had

started of "high security" and F-Type prisons and by May 2000 five cell-type prisons would be opened. At a cost of 2.5 trillion lira, these

prisons would each contain 64 three-person cells. There would also be 103 one-person cells in each jail.

In Bursa Special-Type Prison, the efforts by the newly-arrived governor to take away the rights of the political prisoners continue.

Previously a regulation was introduced that "children aged under 10 were not allowed in the visiting place" but this fell through after a

month. The prison administration created tension using the excuse, "Is this meant to be a hotel?"

In Zile Prison, captives issued a statement saying that "Those who resist the F-Type Prisons are abused with foul language, insulted and

beaten, they are put in cells, they are not allowed to see friends and relatives, things that are brought to them are destroyed or not handed

over."

On November 2 the administration in Nigde Prison tried to go into the women's dormitory on the pretext of carrying out a search

although it was not the normal time for a search. Tension was created by an atempt by soldiers to get into the dormitory.

In Cankiri Prison, for a time captives did not receive magazines, books and other publications on the pretext that the prison administration

"had decided to make use of its right to confiscate them". The administration, with the excuse that "there was no guarantee of the security

of life", tried to use its staff to create an environment of provocation.

DECEMBER 1999

Treatment continues to be withheld: In Aydin E-Type Prison the PKK Trial captive Necmi Akgun, who was 61, died of lung cancer on

December 25, an illness for which he had been denied any treatment. In Batman Prison, the PKK Trial convict Mehmet Nuri Altig did not

receive treatment despite submitting numerous applications. His condition worsened and he had an operation while in Diyarbakir Medical

Faculty, but it was too late. M. Nuri Altig died following the operation. In Umraniye Prison, Gunes Baltas, who was raped by police

while under arrest, was attacked by soldiers while on the way to hospital despite a deterioration in her health, and when she arrived in the

doctor's surgery she did not receive treatment. In Cankiri E-Type Prison, the Hepatitis B sufferer Recep Erdundar, Nail Demir who is

danger of losing his eyes, and Hasip Avsar and Abdullah Alptekin whose legs had untreated shrapnel wounds, were all denied treatment

on the grounds that "you are terrorists." In Elazig Prison Yucel Balyaci is on the verge of death and has had no medical treatment... In

Diyarbakir E-Type Prison the health situation of Sabri Tas, who has tuberculosis and a heart problem and whose treatment was prevented

by soldiers, has now become critical. In Bursa Special Type Prison the Hepatitis B sufferers C. Yanar, A.M. Aksakay, H. Kizilkaya and H.

Kalin, A. Er who has chronic heart disease, K. Altun who was wounded in the leg and is in danger of losing it, and M. Perisan who has no

teeth left have all been denied treatment. In Adana Kurkculer Prison Remzi Altun, who has been kept in a one-person cell, has had no

treatment despite a thorough deterioration in his health. Remzi Altun was severely tortured when he was arrested and as a result of poor

conditions in jail, his neck, left arm and left leg are paralysed. He is unable to move unassisted.

In Zile Prison captives were compelled to go into five- and eight-person cells. Moreover their communication with the outside world

was also cut. The clothes they brought with them were torn to pieces. Visiting hours were restricted to exactly one hour every

Wednesday, between 1 and 2 pm.

During a search in Batman Prison, captives' possessions were made unusable. And on the pretext of searching for tunnels, frequent

repression against the dormitories was organised.

The captives R. Kirkpinar, M. Tiryaki and A. Timur were transported from Amasya to Siirt E-Type Prison where they put under pressure

to collaborate, then torture was applied and they were put in isolation.

BAYRAMPASA PRISON

On December 6, 1999 the revolutionary prisoners Munevver Koz, Metin Turan, Firat Tavuk, Hakki Akca, Suleyman Acar, Polat

Uzunbiyik and Cengiz Bayir were brought to the ordinary prisoners' block by soldiers and not taken to court. As a result of their

persistent efforts, they were finally brought to court in the afternoon.

Revolutionary prisoners are confronted with many arbitrary regulations simply in coming to and going from court, not to speak of going

to hospital. The revolutionary prisoner Hacer Arikan was not allowed a bed in hospital without having his shoes searched and belt

removed. Only after persistent attempts was he allowed a bed in hospital two weeks later. The revolutionary prisoner Nursel

Demirdovucu was suddenly taken ill but because of arbitrary behaviour was not brought to Bayrampasa Hospital..

On December 20, 1999, the revolutionary prisoner Yasemin Okuyucu was suddenly taken ill at nine in the morning, but was not taken to

hospital until 11.

On December 21, 1999, the revolutionary prisoner Suleyman Acar went to Bakirkoy Spirit and Nerve Hospital or a brain scan, but soldiers

insisted on holding his arm and so he was brought back to prison without the brain scan being carried out.

Repression against not just prisoners but their families continues... The families of prisoners encountered new repression in December.

They were arrested at the gates to the prison, forced to take off belts and shoes before visits were allowed, forced to go back home, food

they brought was taken away, and at a new table inside Bayrampasa Prison, they were once again required to prove their identities, give

their addresses and sign documents. At the end of the visit they would have to go through the same procedure. Every family would be held

for 10 minutes according to these arbitrary regulations while being held for hours at the door to the prison. In Bayrampasa Prison, other

regulations would be used as a form of torture against families, as when before noon families would have to wait in the prison garden for

over an hour because there was an afternoon break. Soldiers and prison guards would prevent them from going out the door on the excuse

that there was an afternoon break, so the visit could not take place. In the winter, for families with small children, babies and old people,

having to wait in the cold prison garden surrounded by soldiers and prison guards constitutes a form of torture. With these regulations,

they want families either to cut short the visit or accept pressure to conform to the arbitrariness of their regulations.

December in Bayrampasa Prison was rather eventful for ordinary prisoners. On December 12 an ordinary prisoner was suddenly taken ill

and despite all efforts by his friends the administration did not let him go to hospital. On the one hand they are interested in who is ill, on

the other they leave sick captives to die and will not open the doors. In the face of this the ordinary prisoners smashed down the door to the

malta (prison corridor) and proceeded to occupy it. Breaking down the doors to the sports facilities, the ordinary prisoners proceeded to set

this on fire. The occupation forced the prison administration to listen to the prisoners' demands for transport to be provided to the

hospital. After talks and the transport of the sick captive to hospital, the action ended.

In Bayrampasa Prison there was another action by ordinary prisoners on December 17, 1999 in B Block, when the malta was occupied again.

Two captives staying in the dormitory known as the "Escape Dormitory" , Cuma and Idris, paid a bribe of 2,000 German Marks to the

deputy governor so their transportation would be postponed until the holiday. But on the morning of December 17, during an operation

which was disguised as the counting of prisoners, the prison administration and soldiers took Cuma away half-dressed and transported

him. Following this, other ordinary prisoners cancelled the transports and said that if they didn't see the prisoners who had been

transported again they would start a rebellion. And they took hostage the Deputy Protective Governor (a guard). After closing the

dormitory doors ordinary prisoners set up a barricade and soldiers organised an operation using gas bombs. After this operation did not

succeed, the prison administration was forced to hold talks. After demands that there would not be another operation, those who took part

in the action would not be prosecuted and there would be no liability for material damage were accepted , the action ended. The ordinary

prisoners released the hostages they held.

As a result of the action by the ordinary prisoners, the revolutionary prisoners also joined in in response to the attack with the slogans

"Human Honour Will Defeat Torture", and "Stop Fascist Attacks".

ANKARA ULUCANLAR PRISON

The Susurluk authorities attempts to justify the massacre, the confiscation of rights and verbal attacks continue. At every opportunity

attempts are made to harass revolutionary prisoners and attack them psychologically.

There were no verbal attacks during the month of Ramadan. However, now rights are being taken away. As a result of arbitrary

regulations, some of the books sent to revolutionary prisons from other prisons are not received. Publication are not received in an orderly

condition. Letters are not received or sent.

They are let out late to see their families on visits and the visits only last a short while. Most of the things they bring are not received by

the prisoners.

Prisoners are not given the typewriters needed to prepare their defence or for writing.

The prison administration makes threats to expose the revolutionary prisoners to attack by fascists among the ordinary prisoners.

However, the prison authorities' efforts to stir up the ordinary prisoners against the revolutionaries fail, for apart from the fascists, the

ordinary prisoners will not play this game, and on the contrary, at every opportunity.

Prisoners wounded in the attack are still not receiving treatment, and an attempt is being made to ensure that they are left handicapped.

BARTIN SPECIAL TYPE PRISON

Like in all prisons, in Bartin Special Type Prison repression and the removal of rights continues so as to bring about the defeat of the

revolutionary prisoners. What is desired is that the issues are not resolved and this is connected to the soldiers and the ministry and the

prisoners are to accept this situation. The developments experienced also show that the source of the problems is persons connected to the

state, the Susurluk authorities, whose policies towards the revolutionary prisoners are a part of their desire to bring about their systematic

surrender, and the deprivation of rights, the repression practised against prisoners' visitors and attempts to stop them, the failure to

resolve issues despite all promises are echoed in the desired form in the circulars issued by the ministry which act as a pretext for

repression and the deprivation of rights. The following make this obvious:

* After the Ulucanlar Massacre, 18 male prisoners in Ulucanlar Prison were transported on October 20, 1999 to Bartin Special Type

Prison in accordance with an agreement with the Central Coordination of Prisons. Despite there being 40 people, 51 stayed in the

dormitories and together with new arrivals, the number came to 69. Despite the inadequacies being known and despite promises being made

over a period of months, there has still been no solution to the problems of the revolutionary prisoners' ward. There is no more room in

the ward for bunk beds and, as was the case for prisoners before the Ankara massacre, they are forced to take turns sleeping on the floor.

* None of the prisoners transported from Ulucanlar have been given medical treatment, despite the fact that quite a few of them have

gunshot wounds and other severe injuries. Prisoners' attempts to remedy this situation were fruitless. The reason for this is clear. Because

in these pictures of prisoners wounded in the Ulucanlar Massacre, with their broken arms and legs and gunshot and shrapnel wounds, bring

to light the reality that the state is concealing. So films are not received and they do not want them received. Despite them saying that

treatment would be given, up to the present all sorts of obstacles have been experienced. Such that a prisoner with a G3 bullet lodged in his

arm had to have it removed by other prisoners (note: the G3 is the Turkish army's standard rifle, of German design and probably

manufacture). Moreover, at the time of the massacre captives were injected with a fluid or it was poured into wounds in arms, legs and

bodies inflicted with shoemaker's knives or lancets, and though these wounnds were infected, prisoners have not been able to learn what

the fluid was despite many attempts, despite waiting months there have been no tissue tests or other analysis, and attempts to find out

have been obstructed.

* In the prison nearly 200 PKK captives and 69 revolutionary prisoners are forced to receive visits one day a week in just 18 cabins. For

several hours of visits there were six cabins for 69 people. The captives have received no response to their request for the visiting day to be

extended to two days a week.

* During the transport of captives to courts or hospitals, soldiers continually threaten captives or otherwise obstruct them.

* In other prisons as well as here, captives' visitors are arrested, harassed and prevented from visiting by police and soldiers who also

threaten them. The prison administration bears responsibility for the refusal to let visitors come inside, for the harassment during

searches.

Prisoners coming from other prisons during transport are forced to take their shoes off by soldiers for searches, and those who do not

accept this dishonourable form of search are attacked. Despite the administration saying, "We have resolved this problem, it won't happen

again," it keeps on happening again.

The administration continues its arbitrary practices on this subject.

* Following the Ulucanlar Massacre there is no external security ring by soldiers, but the prison administration itself acts to provide it.

Visitors are obstructed from coming into the prison, in the name of searches the things they bring with them are scattered around, torn to

pieces or prevented from reaching prisoners. The administration makes no attempt to resolve this issue, and problems like this constantly

recur...

* The ministry has issued new regulations saying lawyers have to be searched personally in a way damaging to their honour because the

X-ray machine doesn't work etc., and physical searches of their belongings or person continue. This issue has also not been resolved.

BERGAMA PRISON

In Bergama Prison as in all prisons, captives, especially those coming or going to court or to hospital, are subjected by the external

security to arbitrary pressure and pressure damaging to prisoners' honour, they are harassed or threatened, subjected to verbal attack, often

prevented from going to court or are brought back from doctors' surgeries without being treated. When the captives complain about this to

the prison authorities, the problem is not resolved.

In December, the "second Manisa trial" took place. While the captives staying in Bergama Prison were being brought to court, a pretext

was found for not bringing the captives from Usak Prison on the ring vehicle.

In Manisa, 16 high school pupils had been arrested and accused of writing on walls slogans protesting against education requiring the

payment of fees, and they were subjected to severe torture by police, 10 of whom were acquitted after being brought to trial over this. A

dossier was sent to the General Penal Commission, to quash a second acquittal. The results of this court are obvious now. People who are

exposed to torture are judged while efforts are made to whitewash their torturers.

BURDUR PRISON

In Burdur Prison repression has also become worse since the Ulucanlar Massacre, with prisoners from there being sent in exile to Burdur

and every kind of arbitrary behaviour and deprivation of rights was practised. Despite the ministry promising that the wounded would be

treated, and lawyers and families would be treated humany these were not kept - on the contrary, arbitrary behaviour was aggravated.

At the same time as the Ulucanlar Massacre, the revolutionary prisoners and their families tried to make public opinion sensitive by

issuing a declaration on the subject of the deprivation of human and social rights, and especially Chief Governor Katip Ozen's repressive,

arbitrary and provocative conduct which was aimed at preparing the ground for new massacres. After the Ulucanlar Massacre, Sadik Turk,

Cem Sahin, Erdal Gokoglu, Mustafa Selcuk,Baris Gonulsen, Cemal Cakmak and Gonul Aslan were exiled to Burdur Prison and have still

received no medical treatment despite applications and complaints. Despite persistent attempts by Cemal Cakmak no notice was taken of

the gunshot wounds to his leg. In the first week of the prisoners being brought to Burdur, their belongings were plundered and confiscated

on the pretext of carrying out a search.

From September 26, 1999 to December 9, 1999, the most basic needs of the captives were not meant. At the exit door to each dormitory a

search was carried out (not a practice previously carried out) it was impossible to meet lawyers and families, visits to the dormitories

were not allowed, it was not possible to go to the infirmary, bathing area, canteen or barber, post, publications were delayed or had to be

surrendered and were not handed over for various arbitrary reasons.

Male guards carry out searches of female prisoners at the moment and harassment takes place.

Arbitrarily captives are not allowed to receive faxes and letters, and letters are not received despite the administration mostly not

bothering even to come up with an excuse. Or, when letters are received they are blacked out line by line. In response to all this arbitrary,

inhuman behaviour by the administration, captives shout slogans, pound on doors, delay the count for an hour and from time to time

occupy the malta area. The problems of Burdur Prison quite often make it into the press. The murderous statement by the Heads Governor

of Burdur Prison, Katip Ozen, "If you want your rights you will have to pay the price," came out into the open.

USAK PRISON

In December, problems connected to the transport of prisoners to court and hospital also continued. Without any pretext being given,

quite a few captives have been prevented from going to court or hospital. Finally, in December what the press called the "Second Manisa

Trial" women atives were again prevented from going to the Izmir State Security Court on the pretext.

In transports to hospital, women captives were brought back and not treated because soldiers insisted on going into the treatment room.

Captives were not allowed to receive visits from anyone other than close relatives. This practice has been in existence for a very long time.

Letters to captives and letters sent by them are either not received or sent, or if they arrive they are heavily censored.

AYDIN PRISON

Aydin E-Type Prison is one of the prisons where revolutionary prisoners and their friends and relatives are subjected to continual

pressure, psychological attacks are carried out and efforts are made to isolate captives from those close to them.

Families and friends of captives coming to prison on visits are met on almost every visit by JITEM and political police working in

cooperation, who threaten, harass and detain them and put pressure on them not to come on visits. The aim is to isolate the captives.

The captives do not receive treatment, under almost all conditions. Prisoners who were with difficulty transported to hospital were

brought back to prison without receiving treatment. As a result of this state policy of denying treatment, the PKK Trial captive Mehmet

Necmi Akgun lost his life on December 27.

BURSA SPECIAL TYPE PRISON

In Bursa Prison, the prison administration also showed special inclinations following the Ulucanlar Massacre. When the resistance that

came about as a result of the massacre ended, arbitrary practices and searches started and block doors left open as a result of the earthquake

were closed. Captives did not accept this pressure and various forms of deprivation of rights were put on the agenda. The practices carried

out in Ulucanlar which prepared the ground for the massacre such as not allowing visitors, preventing correspondence and meetings with

lawyers and denying access to newspapers, as well as prison staff behaving in such a way as to create an environment of massacre in an

effort to intimidate captives.

At various dates the administration in Bursa Prison, with the cooperation of soldiers would start searching the dormitories minutely at

the same hour as the prison staff were emptying the malta,, in an attempt to create fear and panic with the aim of bringing psychological

warfare onto the agenda on a frequent basis.

On November 2, 1999 and throughout December, a new denial of rights was placed on the agenda - namely children were not allowed in

cabins during visiting hours in prison. Revolutionary prisoners responded to this with the following actions - a short-term occupation of

the malta, the shouting of slogans and pounding on the doors. After two hours the action ended with the right being restored.

After the Ulucanlar Massacre new practices were put on the agenda with regard to captives' families. The families of captives were forced

to submit to disgusting searches damaging to their personal honour. Where previously one search was enough, now tow were carried out.

At the entrance to the prison political police and gendarmes would put special pressure on the families, harassing them with words like

"Why are you coming to visit these terrorists?" They are arrested and roughed up on such occasions. The result of behaviour such as this,

with disgusting searches, the denial of visits and saying the visit is cancelled on the very day it is to happen is that prisoners' ability to see

their families' is obstructed. These practices are still going on.

At the end of November, the prison administration used the pretext that "we have information there is a tunnel" to engage in arbitrary

practices such as denying prisoners the right to visits or correspondence. The captives protested against this situation with the slogans "Our

right to visits cannot be prevented," and "Put an end to arbitrary regulations." The administration returned to normal practices on

December 2.

All these regulations are the result of the ministry's policies and special efforts by the prison prosecutor and Bursa Special Type Prison's

Head Governor Cihansah Karakoc. In Bursa Special Type Prison, these things, together with general problems, were clearly designed to

wear down revolutionary prisoners over the long term and make them feel weak in the face of the administration so that at a convenient

time and at a serious juncture they could be made to surrender. To do this they wanted to take away many of the prisoners' rights, and they

continually tried to implement a circular. Special attention should be devoted to the attitude to the prisoners' families.

MALATYA PRISON

In December, pressure, attacks and the deprivation of rights directed against the revolutionary prisoners continued.

At 11 in the morning on December 2, a group of soldiers, police and "civilians" whose precise status was unclear but who were armed went

inside the prison, walked up and down the malta and got inside Dormitory 6, which was empty. After preparing the basis for a provocation

in this way they left the prison.

Several days after these events something similar recurred. At about 1830 on December 8, the prison's head governor Ismail Aksoy and his

two deputies accompanied by a large group of "civilians" once again wandered about inside the prison. The prison administration claimed

that "these people in civilian clothes are trainee prosecutors whom the prison officials are trying to familiarise with the workings of the

prison." The planned attacks and massacres in this period meant that the revolutionary prisoners did not give the Malatya Prison

administration statement any credibility.

The attempts over months to prevent the revolutionary prisoners from defending their rights also continued in December. Both convicts

and unconvicted captives were not allowed to see lawyers. In Malatya Prison, the captives mostly still had at least one more court

appearance to make. However, without being able to consult their lawyers they were unable to learn when other court appearances were

scheduled.

Other practices were also carried out to obstruct the defence of prisoners' rights as well as to put pressure on them and damage their

honour in the course of transporting them to court. These practices were particularly in evidence when male and female captives were

transported separately to court in ring vehicles and were obliged to remove their shoes during searches. When revolutionary captives

refused to do this they were prevented from making a court appearance. Despite this, the ongoing trials are being concluded and

revolutionary captives are being given heavy prison sentences lasting decades without having the opportunity to appear in their own

defence.

The DHKP-C Trial captives Gulay Efendioglu, Birsen Hosver and Talat Sanli were told to come to court for verdict on both December 7

and December 14. Gulay Efendioglu could not go to court because she was in poor health and the other two could not go to court because

there were no ring vehicles available to take male and female captives to court separately. Since July, the prison administration applied this

repression by saying "It's not up to us, it's what the soldiers want," thereby putting the ball in the court of the external security (ie. the

military).

The result is that in 10 months of sentencing and because of various forms of repression, in 10 court sessions captives only were present at

one of them, TCK 146-1, where sentences of 36 years were passed. In addition one of these prisoners, Gulay Efendioglu, suffered from

paralysis as a result of an attack by guards on September 14 and a health report had been issued by the prison infirmary doctor confirming

that she was not in a fit state to come to court. However, Malatya State Security Court paid no attention to this health report and she was

sentenced to 36 years without an opportunity to make a defence. Because for the State Security Courts, it is not important for

revolutionary prisoners to be given an opportunity to defend themselves. They are thete to be punished. The courts are simply a formality.

Gulay Efendioglu was given no medical treatment for the attack on September 14 and this was clearly intended to turn her into a cripple.

Following the attack she is paralysed and also has other health problems. Despite this, three months after the attack not even a diagnosis of

these health problems has occurred. Despite the necessary pictures being taken and delivered on a number of occasions, there has been no

medical consultation. Moreover the soldiers taking her to hospital have subjected her to torture aimed at damaging her honour.

In the prison, despite there being two doctors and numerous health personnel, there has been no effort to resolve the health problems of

captives. Captives are not sent the medication that has been prescribed. On many occasions the necessary vitamins are not prescribed because

these are allegedly "banned by the ministry". Prescribed medication is not delivered at the appropriate time. And to cap it all, various

pretexts are used to present families with grave difficulties in bringing medication to captives.

On December 21, the bringing of medication to captives was completely stopped. Here the pretext used in a statement by the prison

administration was that it was putting such things "out to tender" and so captives were denied any access to medication for several months.

There is one dentist in the prison. However, there are no dental instruments available. Accordingly, captives cannot have even the most

basic dental problems treated.

As in previous months, in December revolutionary captives could not receive visits on the pretext that surnames needed to be checked.

After quite a few obstacles were negotiated, those coming to visit still had to endure immoral searches damaging to their honour. Both

male and female visitors who have belts have to take them off, even women have to remove buckles. They are trying to intimidate the

families of prisoners on the one hand by saying to them, "Don't come on a visit here again, you're nurturing the terrorists." The foodstuffs

the visitors bring with them will be cut open with a knife and made inedible by putting various dirty and filthy substances into them. On

December 8 the visitor Gulu Dere was threatened for objecting to such dishonourable practices, and the things she brought with her were

torn to pieces.

CANAKKALE PRISON

After the Ulucanlar Massacre, solidarity between ordinary and revolutionary prisoners caused the prison administration some concern,

and in the following days, the prison administration used the pretext of a search to lock the malta doors and thereby cut the ordinary and

revolutionary prisoners off from each other.

After this repression of the ordinary prisoners was stepped up. Arbitrary regulations were used to send into exile those ordinary prisoners

who were known to have relations with the revolutionary captives.

Early on the morning of December 16, 1999, a large number of prison guards and officials came to dormitory D7 and made it known that

they wanted to transport four ordinary prisoners (into exile). The ordinary prisoners came out in opposition to this statement, and in

response the administration deployed soldiers from the outer security cordon. The ordinary prisoners in D7 answered this by setting up a

barricade. The soldiers stood in front of the barricade and uttered threats but these were futile and the prisoner administration had to

withdraw the soldiers. After this the administration tried to get the captives to abandon their resistance by a combination of cheap

promises, threats and various lies. The ordinary prisoners continued their just actions.

A section of wall was torn down immediately behind D7 and D8 dormitories, thereby joining the two. The unity of the two wards gave a

new character to the resistance and the administration returned to the attack. The ordinary prisoners made the demands that, "Exiling and

transportation are to be stopped, doors that were shut are to be put back into operation and our friends who have put into observational

detention are to be brought back to the wards."

Despite the prison administration claiming to show good will for the month of Ramadan, it was forbidden to give the prisoners anything

to eat or drink. The just resistance of the ordinary prisoners found an echo in the media, and Canakkale Republican Prosecutor Abdulkadir

Ilhan told the news channels. "There is no rebellion in the prison. The news of one has been put about by the political convicts," and this

statement was the beginning of a tendency to target the revolutionary prisoners.

In reaction to developments, the revolutionary captives issued a warning that they would not remain silent if the ordinary captives were

attacked.

The ordinary prisoners persisted in their demands for the friends being held in observational detention to be returned to the wards, and

when the administration did not give way the resistance emerged from the two dormitories and occupied the malta, to reinforce their

demands for their friends to be returned. In this situation the prison administration displayed real banditry, seizing three ordinary

prisoners who were in observational detention and transporting them to another prison. When there was verbal agreement to accept the

other demands of the ordinary prisoners, the resistance ended.

CANKIRI PRISON

In Cankiri Prison the obstruction of the revolutionary prisoners' medical treatment and right to a defence repression and threats against

visitors and deprivation of rights continues.

The revolutionary captives did not accept having to link arms when going out into the exercise area or going to hospital or court, for a long

time their rights to a defence and medical treatment were obstructed. A particularly serious situation was created with regard to medical

treatment. As became known, because the administration and the external security cordon obstructed his medical treatment and transport

to hospital, on February 5, 1999 the captive Engin Huysuz lost his life.

Repression and threats against the families of captives continue. Despite going through a detector, the families of captives are forced to

remove their shoes, are subjected to strip searches and verbal insults at virtually every visit. On various occasions when the families or

friends of prisoners have not accepted this repression they have been attacked and manhandled.

Finally, as always on the pretext that magazines and newspapers "can be confiscated", they have started not to pass them on to prisoners. In

response to these arbitrary actions, the revolutionary prisoners have carried out actions such as refusing to be counted and not allowing the

doors of the exercise area to be closed, and in these ways they have not remained silent and permitted repression and the deprivation of their

rights.

UMRANIYE PRISON

In Umraniye Prison, attacks and arbitrary practices in relation to transports to court and hospital continued to be experienced during the

month of December. The result of these practices and repression was that captives medical treatment was obstructed and they did not

benefit from the right to defend themselves.

On December 10, 1999, the captive Serife Korkmaz went to Marmara Hospital with the aim of receiving treatment. But when the escorting

soldiers insisted on going into the treatment room, he had to come back without being seen by the doctor.

On December 17, two women captives did not accept being taken to hospital separately on the ring vehicle, so they were not taken to

hospital. Quite a number of times captives were not taken to hospital or court because the ring vehicle was not adequate, but despite going

to the same hospital this time captives were supposed to enter the same ring by themselves. The aim was to prevent captives from receiving

treatment under all circumstances.

A woman captive named Remziye Yasar who was supposed to go to Marmara Hospital for an appointment was brought back on the

pretext that the detector was not working.

On December 24 the captive Nejla Can was transported to Cap Medical Faculty and soldiers prevented her from going into the hospital.

The doctor giving the treatment also told the soldiers to leave the room.

The soldiers replied, "We have orders," and saying "OK, bring her and we will show you, Nejlan Can was brought back to the hospital

without being examined.

Th attacks on prisoners were not limited to transports to hospital. Captives being taken from the State Security Court to prison, or

captives being released, would be attacked at the prison gates, and captives' families would be arrested.

On December 23 a woman visitor to Umraniye Prison was leaving the prison when she was detained by soldiers while surrendering to the

police.

On December 24 the prisoner Husnu Recber was taken from Istanbul State Security court to Umraniye Prison. The police bringing him as

well as the external security put pressure on Husnu Recber to stay in the ward for collaborators and independents. Because Husnu Recber

would not go into the ward he was attacked by soldiers and police and subjected to insults.

The captive Veysel Kaplan, confined in Umraniye Prison, went to make a statement at Malatya State Security Court and was attacked by

soldiers at the entrance.

Revolutionary prisoners in Umraniye were not able to meet visitors under humane and suitable conditions. Approximately 200 captives

had 14 visiting cabins available to them and because of this inadequacy many visitors were unable to get in to pay a visit despite waiting for

hours for the opportunity.

For a long time, captives were not allowed electric typewriters on the pretext that the Ministry had banned them.

Conditions were also bad for ordinary prisoners in ordinary prisoners in Umraniye. Eighty ordinary prisoners were limited to a visiting

period of half a day.

In the prison's E4 dormitory for ordinary prisoners, 25 captives were forced by the administration to do all the work from morning to

evening.

Ordinary captives staying in the observation dormitory were not allowed out into the exercise area. The prison administration did not

choose to find a solution but preferred to punish the ordinary prisoners instead.

Five ordinary prisoners were deported into exile in the prisons of Sinop, Inegol and Kirsehir during the month of November for having

engaged in resistance, after they were deceived that they were being granted n amnesty.

The prison administration and the Uskudar Prosecutor's Office issued a statement on these events, saying they came from an order by the

commander of external security and the general in command of the gendarmerie. What is the meaning of this? Whatever the understnding

is, it is clear that there were plans to carry out a murderous operation or prepare a plot against captives going to court or hospital.

CEYHAN PRISON

In Ceyhan Prison, new deprivation of rights and practices were placed on the agenda following the Ulucanlar Massacre. Up to the present,

new practices have been used to prevent captives from receiving treatment or defending their rights.

Captives do not receive medical treatment. After the Ulucanlar Massacre, the DHKP-C captive Inan Ozgur Bahar was transported to

Ceyhan Prison, and despite being injured he was subjected to arbitrary treatment by the soldiers and taken back to prison without receiving

treatment. This problem still continues.

While on the one hand, the friends and relatives of captives are forced to remove their shoes during searches, on the other hand they are told

that "the colour is not suitable", "leather" and so on, as well as other pretexts are used to not issue suits, jackets and other items of

clothing, or other objects are arbitrarily taken away or torn to pieces. The administration makes it very easy for mafia and gang prisoners to

receive visitors, while the families of poor ordinary prisoners are tortured by being made to wait for hours, he things they bring with them

are stolen by the administration, and those who try to oppose this are beaten, thrown in cells or denied visiting rights and punished by

being forced to remain silent. The repression by the administration, police and soldiers practised against captives' families is now

combined with pressure by the State Security Courts against the people. Some time before, when Zubeyde Onder, a relative of the

DHKP-C Trial captive Halil Onder, came to visit, she was arrested while leaving the prison, and though the Prosecutor's Office released

her after captives and families took up her case, court proceedings were instituted against her. Recently, in order to intimidate the families

of captives and without even summoning her to a court appearance or ensuring that she had legal representation, the State Security Court in

Adana gave Zubeyde Onder a prison sentence of three years and nine months.

SIVAS E-TYPE PRISON

The PKK Trial convict, the German Eva Juhnke, started a hunger strike in order to press for transfer to another prison.

In Sivas Closed Prison, there are exactly 125 female captives and convicts. There is no limit to the arbitrary practices, use of isolation and

confiscation of rights which go on in this prison in an attempt to make the prisoners collaborate.

Eva Juhnke said she would continue the hunger strike until her demand was granted. After ignoring it for a long time, the ministry gave its

"word" that she would be transferred and the action ended.

BATMAN PRISON

The administration's practice of "silent destruction" resulted in the death of Mehmet Nuri Adlig.

The convict Mehmet Nuri Adlig was tortured after his arrest, and he was denied medical treatment for his medical complaints. Finally, he

was sent to Diyarbakir Medical Faculty Research Hospital for an operation, but he died following surgery.

MASSACRE IN BANDIRMA PRISON

After the massacre of 10 revolutionary prisoners in Ulucanlar, on January 7, 2000, this time in Bandirma Prison, an IBDA-C captive

named Ayhan Sonmez was shot dead by gendarmes. (Note: IBDA-C are an Islamist armed group in Turkey.) Six other persons were

wounded in the attack, three seriously. In answer to questions connected about the attack, Prime Minister Ecevit declared, "In Turkey,

sufficient public peace has not been ensured on this issue. We passed a resolution on a protocol to ensure peace and quiet and security in the

prisons. The gendarmes took precautions. One person died and another was wounded."

This is the approach of the oligarchy to the prisons: massacres...

When prisoners in Metris Prison from the same trial (ie. the IBDA-C Trial) learned of what had happened in Bandirma, they reacted by

taking hostage a lawyer and 18 prison staff to enforce their demands for a halt to the massacres. The prisoners in Metris issued a statement,

"We are opposed to provocations. We are squashed together between four walls, is there honour, dignity, glory and humanity in attacking

defenceless and innocent people with automatic weapons?"

Later after talks and an end to the attacks the action in Metris was ended, captives in Bandirma were transported to Eskisehir.

In the face of these developments, the Central Coordination of Prisons (CMK) in all prisons of the country carried out an action of

refusing to be counted for three evenings in protest at the massacre.

THE JUSTICE MINISTRY OF THE REPUBLIC OF TURKEY

General Department of Places of Punishment and Detention

B.03.0.C.T.E.0.00.00

Number: KS-4 D: 1-E-2 15-84 ANKARA

Subject: .... July 14, 1997

... TO THE REPUBLICAN CHIEF PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE

Information has reached our Ministry from various sources via procedures for scrutiny and control, that in some E-Type, Special Type and

Executive Institutions, various actions are carried out by prisoners. For this reason, from the point of view of guaranteeing the order and

discipline of E-Type, Special Type and Executive Establishments, the following preparations are to do be made.

1.Direct contact by executive and protective officials on duty with prisoners and convicts is to be severed.

2.The duty executive and protective officials are to go out into the malta and corridors in front of the dormitories and maintain

watch on the network of doors connecting these to the malta, deploying some personnel there; in this way both the malta and the

corridors are to be kept under control.

3.In the institutions in question, for every watch period, from the start the deputy governor is to be responsible for special teams

of 10 each, and the Republican Chief Prosecutor, the representative prosecutor for the institution and the institution governor

should choose courageous, reliable and honest personnel for these teams.

4.These teams are to maintain watch over the wards and exercise area by viewing them through the observation slits, and anything

abnormal is to be notified immediately to the institution governor and representative prosecutor.

5.What these teams do and do not do that is appropriate to their duties is to be checked frequently by the institution governor,

representative prosecutor and Republican Chief Prosecutor, and a supervisory notebook is to be kept for this purpose. This

supervisory notebook will also be presented to the Justice Inspectors...

The keys for room, dormitory, sebeke, corridor and malta doors are to be kept by the duty officials, these keys are not to be kept

in the rooms of the senior executive and protective officials but in a chest in the safekeeping of the deputy governor.

6.However, the doors of the hospital, infirmary or court will be opened by the team in question for transports, releases or other

conditions of people being moved, visits by lawyers and visitors, counting and searches, conditions where the relevant official or

prosecutor wants to go inside, and in the event of fire, water or earthquake emergencies.

7.A programme is to be announced for dinner times, hours when the canteen is open or when tea is available, and the supervisory

teams, service vehicles and dormitory heads in question are to be present on the spot...

In connection with this: the teams to be created are to be on duty in the shortest possible period, and illegal practices harming the public

security and safety of the prison such as "doors being opened or kept open without good cause" are to be stopped.

I request that the above items are to be made known in the form of a circular to be sent to the Representative Republican Prosecutors of the

prison directorates. July 22, 1997.

M. Oltan Sungurlu

(Justice Minister)

THE JUSTICE MINISTRY OF THE REPUBLIC OF TURKEY

General Department of Places of Punishment and Detention

B.0.0.C.E.T.00.00

Number: 4-e-2/19-218 ANKARA

Subject: .... September 29, 1997

... TO THE REPUBLICAN CHIEF PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE

With the aim of removing some of the drawbacks arising from the system of crowded dormitories, changes are to take place in some of the

Special Type and E-Type Closed Prisons. However, certain circles are trying to create a negative impression of the prisons by

spreading false information and this is being reflected in the media. The true aim of spending large amounts of money for these changes is

to create in these crowded dormitories an environment for other captives and convicts where it is possible not to find the following from

the point of health and security:

1.Homosexuals,

2.Bisexuals,

3.Threats to security

4.Those who want o remain on their own,

5.Those who have infectious illnesses such as jaundice, tuberculosis and AIDS,

6.Those who do not want to be with other captives in the wards,

7.Psychopaths and the mentally ill,

8.Dormitory "bosses" (Turkish: "agalar", gang leaders who dominate the dormitories they are in)

9.Changes are to be brought in so mafia hitmen and leaders are to go to new dormitories housing four to six people. These new

dormitories have nothing to do cell-type systems or rooms for one person. Four or six persons would be in this for 24 hours and

would go out together to the exercise area. This practice is the same as in a dormitory system. The only difference is that instead

of an overcrowded dormitory averaging anywhere between 20 and 80 people, there would be small dormitories for four to six

people which are more human and secure. For this reason the most suitable name for the changes is "small dormitory".. For these

transports, the state has to spend billions of lira, and the time and overtime of gendarme and prison personnel is wasted...

Moreover some prison personnel who are saying "they will put one-person cells here and the terrorist captives and convicts will

go in them" have created an uncomfortable environment for captives, convicts and their families. The sections envisaged for the

newly constructed areas to be called "small dormitories" are;

a.captives and convicts belonging to the nine groups cited above;

b.those captives and convicts outside those groups who want to be accommodated in them at their own request.

No captives and convicts are to be housed in these new sections who do not come under these two conditions...

Huseyin Turgut

Judge And General Director

THE JUSTICE MINISTRY OF THE REPUBLIC OF TURKEY

General Department of Places of Punishment and Detention

B.03.0.CTE.0.00.00

Ks/11 V: R NUMBER: ANKARA

Subject: 96018784 May 6, 1996

TO THE REPUBLICAN CHIEF PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE

IN CONNECTION WITH: a) our numbered article of October 30, 1995 and 950466002 and

c.our numbered article of November 22, 1995 and 95049226

For those judged in Istanbul State Security Court as suspects in relation to crimes of terrorism or intention to commit crimes of

terrorism, a limit of: 50 persons for Kirklareli E-Type Prison, 50 persons for Kutahya E-Type Prison, 50 persons for Sakarya

E-Type Closed Prison, 50 persons for Kastamonu Closed Prison and 150 for Eskisehir Special Type Prison are to be assigned to

these penal institutions, and the Istanbul Republican Chief Prosecutor's Office is to coordinate the shipments in the most

convenient manner possible.

For this reason: until further orders are received, those who are charged at Istanbul State Security Court as suspects in crimes of

errorism or the aim to commit terrorism are not to be brought to Bayrampasa Prison. Captives in the districts of Balikesir,

Yalova, Bilecik, Bursa, Canakkale, Edirne, Kirklareli, Kocaeli, Sakarya and Tekirdag or those in the town of Gebze... The chief

prosecutors of Kirklareli, Kutahya, Sakarya, Kastamonu, Inebolu, Sinop and Eskisehir are to inform the Istanbul Republican

hief Prosecutor's Office in an orderly and appropriate way of the number of terror suspects to be shipped each day. However,;

a)Terror suspects judged at the Istanbul State Security Court who are women are, until orders are received otherwise, to continue

to be transported to Umraniye E-Type Closed Prison.

b) Those captives judged under the Istanbul State Security Court as belonging to right-wing terror organisations are to be sent

to Metris Closed Prison and our Ministry snd a request for the appropriate transport.

d.In connection with questions arising about the security of prisoners' lives, so that the necessary security precautions can be taken,

and those who were imprisoned before (except in the towns) are to be transported to places of refuge in Metris Closed Prison

and the request for this is to be made by fax to the General Directorate.

Suspects accused of terrorist crimes, convicts... are to be transported to Istanbul Bayrampasa Closed Prison, Umraniye E-Type Closed

Prison, Kutahya E-Type Closed Prison, Sakarya E-Type, Kastamonu Closed Prison, Inebolu Closed, Sinop Closed and Eskisehir Special

Type Closed Prison...

Cemal Sahir GURCAY

Judge And General Director

THE JUSTICE MINISTRY OF THE REPUBLIC OF TURKEY

General Department of Places of Punishment and Detention

B.03.0.CTE.0.00.00

NUMBER: Ks/11 V: R ANKARA

Subject: 96019603 May 9, 1996

TO THE REPUBLICAN CHIEF PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE

IN CONNECTION WITH: May 6, 1996 and our numbered article 96018784...

NEED TO DISTRIBUTE TO:

TO BE INFORMED:

Istanbul Republican Chief Prosecutor's Office, Istanbul State Security Court Uskudar Republican Chief Prosecutor's Office, Bakirkoy

Republican Chief Prosecutor's Office, Kartal Republican Chief Prosecutor's Office, Balikesir Republican Chief Prosecutor's Office,

Bilecik Republican Chief Prosecutor's Office, Bursa Republican Chief Prosecutor's Office, Canakkale Republican Chief Prosecutor's

Office, Edirne Republican Chief Prosecutor's Office, Kirklareli Republican Chief Prosecutor's Office, Kocaeli Republican Chief

Prosecutor's Office, Sakarya Republican Chief Prosecutor's Office, Tekirdag Republican Chief Prosecutor's Office, Kastamonu

Republican Chief Prosecutor's Office, Inebolu Republican Chief Prosecutor's Office, Yalova Republican Chief Prosecutor's Office, Sinop

Republican Chief Prosecutor's Office.

THE JUSTICE MINISTRY OF THE REPUBLIC OF TURKEY

General Department of Places of Punishment and Detention

B.03.0.CTE.0.00.00

NUMBER: Ks/11 V: R ANKARA

SUBJECT: 96019604 May 9, 1996

TO THE REPUBLICAN CHIEF PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE

(...)

It is important to request a meeting in writing from us and inform the Republican Chief Prosecutor's Office, the representation of the

prisons and the directorates.

Cemal Sahir GURCAY

Judge and General Director

NEED TO DISTRIBUTE TO:

TO BE INFORMED: Izmir Republican Chief Prosecutor's Office, Istanbul State Security Court, Karsiyaka Republican Chief

Prosecutor's Office, Bornova Republican Chief Prosecutor's Office, Istanbul Republican Chief Prosecutor's Office, Izmir State Security

Court, Uskudar Republican Chief Prosecutor's Office, Bakirkoy Republican Chief Prosecutor's Office, Kartal Republican Chief

Prosecutor's Office, Kadikoy Republican Chief Prosecutor's Office, Eyup Republican Chief Prosecutor's Office.

THE JUSTICE MINISTRY OF THE REPUBLIC OF TURKEY

General Department of Places of Punishment and Detention

B.03.0.CTE.0.00.00

NUMBER: Ks/11 V: R ANKARA

SUBJECT: 96019605 May 9, 1996

TO THE REPUBLICAN CHIEF PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE

(...) Information and what is necessary is requested.

Cemal Sahir GURCAY

Judge and General Director

TO THE REPUBLICAN CHIEF PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE

I.The validity of all our Ministry's published circulars concerning captives and convicts in connection with the Law on the

Struggle Against Terror from May 6, 1996 (...)

II.From today the subject of the shipment of captives and convicts is put into practice based on what is written below.

THE BASIS OF SHIPMENTS

1.In recent years because of a great increase in settlement, and because in future it is being considered to stop using prisons in in city

centres, new captives are no longer to be accommodated in Istanbul Bayrampasa Closed Prison and Izmir Buca Closed Prison.

2.All captives and convicts currently in Bayrampasa Closed Prison and Buca Closed Prison are to stay there.

3.Captives of Istanbul State Security Court who come under the Struggle Against Terror Law will be placed in Izmit Closed,

Sakarya E-Type and Eskisehir Special Type Prison until Kartal with its special type prison with a capacity of 500 is finished.

4.Captives of Izmir State Security Court who come under the Struggle against terror Law are to be placed in Nazilli E-Type,

Usak E-Type and Bergama Special Type Prisons.

5.Captives of Diyarbakir State Security Court who come under the Struggle Against Terror Law are still to be housed in

Diyarbakir E and Ek. (...)

6.All preparations are to be made by State Security Court public prosecutors in connection with all captives' court proceedings and

the necessary precautions are to be taken by prison prosecutor's offices with regard to the transport of captives.

7.The Istanbul State Security Court. (...)

8.Those arrested in Istanbul Kadikoy in connection with the events on May 1 and those captives who are outside the Struggle

Against Terror Law who have been put in Eskisehir Special Type Prison are to be transported by ther courts to the nearest

prisons.

Those captives who come under the Struggle Against Terror Law and whose transport is not possible or and whose lives are in danger

should be proceeded with, via this circular, according to the regulations of the General Department of Places of Punishment and Detention

in regard to transport. (...)

III. THE BASIS OF SERVICES IN CONNECTION WITH ALL PRISONS

1.Necessary precautions are to be taken in the case of all captives and convicts going to or coming from their court hearings or being

transported.

2.Pains are to be taken to ensure that dormitory and sebeke doors are kept shut, there will be no permission for people to come or

go between wards.

3.Children and women captives and convicts are to be treated with special care, and are to be protected from anticipated dangers.

4.All captives and convicts are to receive three meals a day from the kitchen. If for whatever reason food is not accepted, or cannot

be for health reasons, subject to the limits of feeding totals, other foodstuffs are to be supplied.

5.Vacant posts for health officials are to be filled, interest is to be shown in all matters close to the health problems of captives

and convicts. Outside of the institution, those who need emergency treatment are to be transported with great speed and efforts

are to be made. The prosecutors of all E-Type prisons are to give orders for sick prisoners and convicts to be guaranteed a special

ambulance.

6.All captives' and convicts' requirements for cleanliness, heating and worship are to be assisted, with all precautions taken into

account. Captives and convicts are to receive haircuts from the prison barber free of charge, these are not to be in a form which

creates an abnormal appearance and are definitely not to be done by a machine.

7.No captives and convicts are to be subjected to bad treatment or behaviour that injures their honour. On the contrary, such

behaviour is to be made the subject of legal proceedings.

8.The Justice Ministry's General Department of Places of Punishment and Detention is to institute a "Table For Making

Complaints". Captives and convicts who want to make complaints about the prison administration and regulations or express

wishes are to put them in a locked box which is to be sent to the Justice Ministry. The key to the complaints box will be in the

custody of the Republican Chief Prosecutor or a duty official at the Republican Prosecutor's Office, at the end of every week the

duty Republican Prosecutor is to open the box and directly forward the letters inside, without opening them, to the Justice

Ministry's "Table For Making Complaints", so they can be evaluated.

9.Captives and convicts are not have clothing and foodstuffs sent from outside interfered with. The X-ray machines in the prisons

are to be of a kind which do not harm the foodstuffs or clothing that are surrendered to be put through them as controls.

10.All captives and convicts with children in the age group 0-10 are to be guaranteed an open meeting with their spouses once a

month in conformity with the rules. (... This is covered under paragraph 16 of the Struggle Against Terrorism Law).

11.During visits all staff in the prisons are to absolutely refrain from behaviour towards visitors, captives or convicts during visits

which is harmful to their honour.

12.Without special permission from the Ministry, there is to be no toleration of captives or convicts having interviews with

representatives of the local or foreign press.

13.All regulations and anything else which cause hesitation with regard to this circular are to be notified to the Ministry (...).

I request that this be treated with the necessary importance.

July 9, 1996