January 13, 2003



THE JUSTICE MINISTERS CHANGE BUT THEIR LIES ABOUT THE F-TYPE PRISONS STAY THE SAME...

The F-Type prisons have entered their third year. During this time, there have been three successive Justice Ministers in office. The number of those who have died in the resistance to isolation was 103 yesterday and today it rose to 104. But the F-Type policy has not changed. The F-Type policy has been based on lies and demagogy from the time H. Sami Turk was in office, and that has not changed. Prison isolation has not changed. Torture has not changed. Violations of human rights have not changed... They continue... And so does the dying... Hundreds of prisoners were brought into the F-Type prisons by means of a massacre-and-torture operation on December 19, 2000 which was given the name Operation Return To Life.

Torture continues in the F-Type prisons.

Haven't people been subjected to object rape with truncheons? (Reports and evidence are available.)

Haven't prisoners been tortured and so badly beaten that they might be left handicapped simply because they did not want tostand at attention for the prison guards? (Reports on this are available)

Haven't prisoners been forced into collaboration and loss of honour, intimidated and driven to suicide? (There are witnesses, Volkan Agirman committed suicide in Kandira F-Type Prison, his father is alive and can give testimony.)

Are they able to defend themselves, can they meet their defence lawyers? (You can ask the Bar Association, the lawyers there can bear witness.) Aren't parents, who are aged, forced to undress down to their underwear to be searched, aren't they humiliated and insulted? (There are dozens of complaints in writing and witnesses can describe many hundreds of such incidents they have experienced.)

Can those who are in an isolation cell see other people? Can those who are in three-person cells see anyone other than their two cellmates? (Anyone can check up on this.)

The prisoners cannot even write letters, what they write is crossed out. (We have hundreds of crossed-out letters in our possession.) Are the complaints and charges made by prisoners concerning unjust treatment dealt with? (Ask the prisoners.)

Isolation, oppression, torture... That is the reality of the F-Type prisons. It is proved and documented.

The aim of the F-Type prisons is to destroy the beliefs of prisoners: the F-Types were not primarily designed for mafia prisoners but for political prisoners. The entire world knows these facts. It is all the more astonishing that in yesterday's newspapers, after the Justice Commission visited Sincan F-Type Prison, a statement was issued. In it, the members of the Commission stated that there is no isolation in the F-Types, "there are no violations of human rights in the F-Types".

Whom did they meet to be able to make such statements? They met mafiosi and gang members. And after that, they said nobody had any complaints.

So we ask why nobody met the political prisoners or spoke to them? Everyone knows that the F-Types were opened to put political prisoners in them. It is against them that the F-Type prison policy is directed.

Why did nobody talk to the political prisoners?

What falsehoods, what lies. If everything was so good and there were no complaints, why have 104 people died? So many reports, so many documents, so many witnesses; is it all made up? We say to the entire world: do not believe the lies. Look at the truth... Torture and lies continue in the F-Types. They are trying to cover up the reality of isolation by lying. They are trying to conceal the deaths by telling lies. The lies are being used to exonerate the murderers and to make public opinion unsympathetic to the prisoners. Everyone should see through this repulsive and bloody game which is based on lies. Everyone should have become aware of the facts in the meantime. Isolation should be abolished in the F-Types with immediate effect. The dying must be brought to an end.



The TAYAD Families

* Channel Seven is a TV channel in Turkey