Turkey: On Strike Against Torture

Turkey has some of the most brutal prisons in Europe. Prisoners are often tortured and mistreated and denied visits from family and friends. In the past five years, 28 prisoners have been killed by prison staff and security forces.

In addition, Turkish prisons are filled with political prisoners and prisoners of conscience: Kurdish nationalists, labor union organizers, journalists and press people, and left-wing organizers, many of whom are young students jailed under Turkey's vague "terrorism law" for the crimes of passing out leaflets or shouting slogans in the street.

Until last year, Turkish prisons were based on a ward model--up to 60 prisoners housed together in the same dormitory-style building. This allowed prisoners jailed because of their political beliefs to band together and find support against the deprivation of prison life and resist attempts by prison guards to brainwash them or break their beliefs.

It also made it easier for prisoners to send and receive messages from friends, family, and colleagues outside, and for political groups on the outside to keep track of their members who had been jailed. No one could simply disappear without anyone knowing what had happened, as it was difficult for prison guards to isolate any one prisoner from the wards.

This was a problem for the Turkish penal system and the Turkish government. Occasionally, the government would lean on prison guards to minimize the communication between left-wing prisoners and the outside world. Guards and police would then invade a ward to "regain control" and the ensuing massacre would elicit an international outcry from human rights monitors. During the last such invasion, in the Ulucanlar Prison in Ankara in 1999, police beat 10 prisoners to death.

When Turkey was placed on the track to join the European Union, its prison system entered the regional spotlight. The Turkish government was under pressure to do something about its appalling human rights record. With the help of western consultants, Turkey undertook a modernization plan and began to build new prisons.

The new prisons are based on a design called the "F-type." Instead of large wards, the new prisons consist of small one to three person, windowless cells. Unlike the international standard, however, the new Turkish prisons contain no group facilities at all: no mess rooms, no exercise yards, and no work facilities.

Last year political prisoners were moved into the first of the new prisons, the Kartal Special Type Prison. In violation of human rights standards, prisoners at Kartal were being held in isolation without access to sunlight or visitors for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. International standards recommend that prisoners spend at least 8 hours per day outside of their cells engaged in meaningful activity.

In response, over 300 prisoners and their supporters on the outside began a hunger strike late last year to call attention to the inhumane conditions in the new prisons. Instead of addressing their concerns and bringing the new prisons up to international standards, the Turkish government sent in troops to try and break the hunger strike. For four days in mid-December, armed soldiers invaded 20 prisons to break the nonviolent strike and transfer left-wing prisoners to the new isolation cells. Prisoners reported deliberate killings, torture, and rape of both male and female prisoners. In all, 30 prisoners and 2 soldiers were killed in the operation.

The prisoners were moved into the new prisons and immediately isolated. At Edirne, Kandira, Sincan, and Tekirdag prisons, prisoners were only allowed to leave their cells once a week, and only if a close relative visited them. They were refused access to other visitors, to each other, and to their lawyers.

Nevertheless, the hunger strike continued. In March and April, as the government refused to back down, strikers began to die from malnutrition. More prisoners and their relatives and friends joined the hunger strike.

As of this writing, over 800 people are on strike, and 20 people have died. Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the Council of Europe have all condemned the Turkish government's prison policy.

Human Rights Watch reports: "Paradoxically, the persistence of isolation contradicts the Turkish government's own stated policy. Prior to the December operation, the Turkish Justice Minister stated that the new F-type prisons would not be opened until legislation was in place to ensure a humane regime. The minister now refuses to implement those reforms unless prisoners abandon their protest hunger strikes."