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To the people of our country!
We have ended the Great Resistance, which lasted seven
years, in which 122 people have died and countless
heroic deeds occurred, with a concrete victory. It was
a political victory in which the attempts of the
oligarchy to make us surrender were beaten back.
Our Death Fast Resistance, which started on October
20, 2000, ended at 1900 on January 22 when our
fighters who were on the Death Fast, ended it of their
own free will.
The lawyer Behic Asci, the mother of two Gülcan
Görüroglu and the "free prisoner" Sevgi Saymaz who is
incarcerated in Usak, carried on the struggle of the
122 who fell in the Death Fast. They have carried out
their tasks and after the end of the action they are
receiving medical treatment.
In world history, and in our country's history, there
is no comparable resistance. When the prisoners, and
their friends and families outside the prisons,
started their hunger strike on October 20, 2000,
undoubtedly nobody expected it would last such a long
time - seven years. But - both inside and outside the
prisons - we were clear on one thing: we would never
give in to policies which aimed to dissuade us from
our ideas and our ideals, using isolation as a tool.
We have not given in!
Even if it meant death, we never stopped defending our
ideas and our ideals, independence, democracy and
socialism.
We have died but have not surrendered!
They sought to break our resistance with the greatest
prison massacre in Turkey's history, they sought to
suffocate it in the darkness of the isolation cells.
We confronted a state which said "Surrender or die!"
We showed we would die rather than surrender!
The resistance fighters sacrificed their lives in a
hail of bullets and bombs, and later they sacrificed
their lives in the isolation cells.
They showed gigantic self-sacrifice and heroism and
all the martyrs wrote their own epics.
Because of such great resolve and conviction, none of
the governments that came to power in this period were
able to break the resistance.
The Death Fast resistance and the resistance fighters
have carried out their task!
This seven-year resistance was carried out in every
conceivable form. Forms of action were employed from
the smallest and the most basic to the most
complicated, from petitions to street blockades, from
press statements to occupations - all conceivable
tactics were employed. The struggle was so rich in
ideas and so multi-faceted that those who said "other
forms of struggle must be used" never came up with
anything that had not already been done.
The seven years were a confrontation of an eye for an
eye and a tooth for a tooth.
The arena of struggle was never abandoned, nor was the
resistance front.
This is the period whose end we have reached.
We could not have achieved these results in any other
way. For the rulers used all their strength, and in
addition to repression and terror they also built a
gigantic wall of censorship. With this the resistance
was to be broken for it was the greatest obstacle to
presenting solitary confinement as justified.
These walls could never have been broken down without
patience, stability and resolve.
Without doubt, the Death Fast was at the centre of the
various forms of struggle. Only with our deaths could
we break through the censorship and sometimes not even
that was enough. One Death Fast team after another was
formed. When the fighters of one team fell one by one,
the next team prepared to take over from them. In this
way the attack was beaten off and we reached the point
we are at today.
The Death Fast has fulfilled its task today. It showed
that the peoples of Turkey and the revolutionaries
could not be made to surrender. It has given our
people a political victory over isolation and the
attack that sought to introduce it. And finally, a
concrete victory over prison isolation was achieved.
We have ended the Death Fast with the dignity and
pride appropriate to a seven-year epic of resistance.
As is clear from the statements of the fighters, this
should be seen as an "interruption".
For if promises are not kept, the Death Fast will be
on the agenda again. Nobody should doubt that.
We have won this battle of wills!
To break the resistance of the revolutionary
prisoners and their friends and family to the F-Type
prisons and isolation torture, the government used one
of the biggest military operations in the history of
Turkey.
This operation had the aim of intimidating the
prisoners and the people.
The oligarchy sought to impose their will using
military power. Our people could see on the days of
the operation how courageously and heroically this
attack was beaten back, but the battle of wills
continued.
Both the DSP-MHP-ANAP government and the AKP
government followed a policy of "not taking the
resistance seriously" and "not accepting the fighters
as negotiating partners". This policy came close to
being a "matter of state" and the state sought to
impose its will on us.
But no willpower is stronger than revolutionary
willpower and nothing can stand in the way of our
will. We have shown this again and again, even under
the conditions of the September 12 military coup in
1980, in a period of executions and "disappearances".
Even at dawn on December 19, there were evaluations
and speculation that we could not stand up to this
attack and we could not take so many losses and our
resistance could not be of long duration.
The government relied on such calculations. But as all
could see, we continued the resistance to the present,
despite all such speculation and calculations. It was
the architects of the policy of isolation who gave in,
not us, in this battle of wills. It broke the will of
tyranny. It pushed the government back a step.
Theories and speculation, namely that the state could
not be made to take a step back and the Great General
Staff would not permit it, have lost their value in
the face of the strength and resolve of the
resistance.
We have won the political battle; we will stand watch
over these democratic gains!
As we already had said at the start of the resistance:
the policy of isolation has ideological aims.
Isolation serves as a tool for destroying ideas and
those movements organised on the basis of these ideas.
Introducing isolation practices was also to be the
start of "capitulation". It aimed to break the
prisoners and make them deny the views they had
defended. In this way "isolation attacks" were formed,
developed in the centres of imperialism.
We have shown our people and the peoples of the whole
world that - whatever the conditions and however tough
the imperialist encirclement is - it is possible to
resist. We have shown that no force can overcome the
views of people who accept death.
In our seven years of the Great Resistance, the
corpses of our fighters have been a barricade to the
policy of isolation. At the same time, all bourgeois,
egoist, reactionary and degenerate conceptions were
dealt a great blow. Our resistance won the political
victory a long time ago, its direction was given by a
concrete achievement. Even if not all the demands of
our prisoners and their friends and families have been
achieved, it is still an important step on the road to
lifting isolation.
Besides numerous technical details contained in the
new circular issued by the Justice Ministry, here are
the following points which were decisive with regard
to the development of our resistance:
- With the circular in question, it was made possible
for prisoners to come together without conditions.
This was an important step towards lifting isolation.
- Moreover, the circular prescribes that prisoners can
associate with one another for 10 hours a week. The
justice minister personally promised that this could
be raised to 20 hours.
We would like to give this full publicity so nobody
can deny it in future. For every word, every promise
has been made in the presence of democratic mass
organisations.
To our people! To the democratic mass organisations!
We should not forget that the history of the prisons
is a history of lies.
It is a history of promises that are not kept. In the
same way that the prisons are places of continual
struggle for human conditions and democratic rights,
there is a constant battle of wills in them. This
struggle is sometimes at a high level, sometimes at a
lower one, but it is continual.
In this sense, no resistance and no agreement can
provide a secure and final solution of all problems.
We have no illusions. We know the history of the
prisons in our country and the prison policy of the
oligarchy. And so we aim to pay careful attention to
its practices.
It is time to develop the democratic gains
The Death Fast resistance to isolation is an end but
the struggle against isolation will not stop. Nobody
should relax. There is still a very great deal to do.
We will follow closely what the Justice Ministry does.
All those who have given their support in this period
and who have taken responsibility for what happens
next should be attentive.
We should observe and if necessary, intervene in this
with all forms of struggle.
After the Death Fast of 1996 witnesses to the
agreement at that time did not take the necessary
amount of responsibility on themselves. It was our
prisoners who had to pay the price for that again.
That must not happen again. This is a task above all
for those have "taken responsibility on themselves".
Doubtless we, as the Front for Rights and Freedoms,
will be in the front rank of the struggle against
isolation and all who favour it.
On this point we issue a warning to the AKP government
and the Justice Ministry:
The government should not think that "the resistance
is over and they can now do what they wish". We have
122 martyrs to grieve for. The government should not
carry out any manoeuvres against the gains we have won
with 122 martyrs and hundreds of people left with
long-term health problems. They should not calculate
how they can in practice undermine the rights they
recognised in the circular and made promises to
respect. Such manoeuvres and calculations will be the
basis for a new struggle and new resistance.
The victory belongs to all who have been involved in
this time, but above all to our martyrs and to those
who have suffered lasting health damage in this
resistance!
This political victory and these concrete, democratic
gains have required great patience and sacrifice from
us.
Without doubt the rulers of this country are
responsible for the deaths our 122 people.
History will hold them responsible for they insisted
on isolation practices, they resisted improvements for
years that they could easily have carried out, and so
they caused the deaths of so many people.
We will not forget the responsibility of the
governments which have been in power since 2000.
Demanding a reckoning for 122 of our people will be
one of the principal aims of the struggle for justice
in this country.
We swear that we will not forget the 122 martyrs who
have given us this great victory, who have increased
our dignity and pride before the peoples of the world
and have once again filled our hearts with belief in
resistance and victory, and we will not let others
forget them.
We swear that the ideas and ideals for which our 122
martyrs gave their lives will be maintained by us as
long as the world lasts.
We swear that the struggle for revolution, for which
they gave their lives, will sooner or later be crowned
with victory.
Undoubtedly the role of this resistance - with regard
to the struggle of our and other peoples for
independence against imperialism, for democracy
against fascism and for socialism against imperialism
– will become more clearly visible in the coming
years. Its significance can be seen by all as soon as
everyday doubts and subjective calculations are left
to one side.
The Front for Rights and Freedoms sees the political
victory and the concrete achievements which demanded
such a high price as a victory for our people.
As the Front for Rights and Freedoms we bow down with
respect to all the martyrs and veterans who have led
us to victory.
We will be the guarantee that the price they paid was
not in vain.
As the Front for Rights and Freedoms we thank all
workers, peasants, workers in the slum districts,
intellectuals, artists, members of democratic
organisations and all who took part in the victory.
And we call on all those who in one form or another
took part in the struggle against isolation, to
continue unity and the struggle. Let us not forget
that our responsibility to our 122 martyrs, to the
veterans of this struggle and to the prisoners who are
still in isolation cells, continues. They have tried
to destroy our beliefs. For our beliefs, we have faced
up to death! We will live with our beliefs and our
ideals for independence, democracy and socialism,
which will one day triumph!
The martyrs of the great Resistance are the dignity of
the peoples of Turkey!
The 122 martyrs will live on in our struggle.
We have broken through isolation! Our struggle will
last until isolation as a whole is removed!
Haklar ve Özgürlükler Cephesi
Front for Rights and Freedoms |
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