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An Appeal to Pub­lic Opin­ion from Devrim Ayık, a sick pris­on­er: “I can’t tell you every­thing over the phone, give names of the sick, because they will mis­treat them even more.”

Devrim Ayık, impris­oned a num­ber of times since 2019, despite the fac he is seri­ous­ly ill, was arrest­ed yet again in Jan­u­ary 2021. Although med­ical reports indi­cate that “he should not be kept under carcer­al con­di­tions”, Devrim Ayık was first incar­cer­at­ed in the prison in Edirne, then, despite his tri­al being held in Izmir, was trans­ferred to the prison of Eskise­hir, some 427 km away, which rep­re­sents over 5 hours of trav­el­ling time. Devrim suf­fers from a seri­ous form of Crohn’s dis­ease and spoke from prison dur­ing a phone com­mu­ni­ca­tion with his family.

Phone recording on May 1st 2021 / Translated from the Kurdish by: Rosida Koyuncu

First of all, on this May 1st, the work­ers’ cel­e­bra­tion,  I wish to salute all the gal­ley slave work­ers in the media and defendors of human rights.

We are in a total­ly dif­fer­ent sit­u­a­tion now. The pow­ers that be attempt to crush the peo­ple and to keep it under con­trol. We see the clear­est reflec­tions of this in the pris­ons. All our rights are con­fis­cat­ed, start­ing with our polit­i­cal rights. In Turk­ish pris­ons, thou­sands of impris­oned com­rades are on hunger strike.

I would like to speak about a few of our prob­lems in prison.

Using the pan­dem­ic as an excuse, the prison admin­is­tra­tion, almost deprives us of the right to breathe. A num­ber of our rights are restrict­ed. While those of our friends with less than one year remain­ing to their sen­tence should be lib­er­at­ed, the pro­ce­dures are not under­tak­en. In order to car­ry out the pro­ce­dures, they are required to state in writ­ing that they have left “the orga­ni­za­tion” and that they repent.

The admin­is­tra­tion does not answer any of our requests. Con­se­quent­ly, all our prob­lems accu­mu­late with no solu­tion being brought to them. More­o­ev­er, on arriv­ing in pris­ons, strip search­es are done. All of our social, cul­tur­al and sports activ­i­ties have been sus­pend­ed.  Our means of com­mu­ni­ca­tion, such as cor­re­spon­dence and fax, required in order to main­tain a link with the out­side world, are shut down. Our let­ters are not sent out. They cons­fis­cate the let­ters we address to the courts, to the Nation­al Assem­bly and to human rights orga­ni­za­tions, they do not send them off. Also, they dis­trib­ute dis­ci­pli­nary sanc­tions based on these letters.

With us over here, there are 12 severe­ly ill pris­on­ers. Care to their food is imper­a­tive. For the most part, a spe­cif­ic diet is required, but this is not respect­ed. Spaces with­in the estab­lish­ment have no san­i­tary pro­tec­tion and these sick pris­on­ers are at high risk of dying, if con­t­a­m­i­nat­ed. In these spaces, the risk of con­t­a­m­i­na­tion is very high.

When tak­en to the hos­pi­tal, they are held in deten­tion cells and these spaces are also very dirty. They keep the sick pris­on­ers hand­cuffed. They do not remove the hand­cuffs. They pro­voke the sick ones, then they can­cel their appoint­ments. Things are  like in a con­cen­tra­tion camp here… Those with Covid receive noth­ing but injec­tions of antibiotics.

They force us to live in true iso­la­tion, in all aspects. We also have finan­cial prob­lems and can­not take advan­tage of the canteen.

Our peo­ple, sen­si­tive per­sons should hear our voice and react. Our voice needs to be heard on social net­works and in the street, everywhere.

With a new law pro­mul­gat­ed two months ago, all pow­ers are giv­en to prison direc­tors. All our rights depend on the direc­tors’ word. Even once our sen­tence is end­ed, if there was a dis­ci­pli­nary sanc­tion, the direc­tor does not autho­rize the lib­er­a­tion. We are forced to live under the arbi­trari­ness of directors.

We have com­rades who have been in prison for 29 years. They have only one more year to serve and must be trans­ferred to open pris­ons. But this is not done. Deputies, begin­ning with those from the HDP and the CHP should take this mat­ter up to the Con­sti­tu­tion­al Court to have this law annulled.

Specif­i­cal­ly, pris­on­ers incar­cer­at­ed for 25, 30 years can­not be lib­er­at­ed because of this arbi­trary law. Chas­tised at the whim of prison direc­tors, the detainees are kept incar­cer­at­ed, despite the fact their legal sen­tence is end­ed. Inter­na­tion­al bod­ies of human rights and lawyers must intervene.

Our request to tri­bunals are stopped. This is an offence. They com­mit this offence. Our legal rights are thwart­ed. We react to this and resist. We are con­vinced this resis­tance will reach its goal. Our peo­ple must pro­tect its chil­dren against this regime attempt­ing to anni­hi­late our cul­ture, our existence.

A few of our friends who were sick with can­cer died here. There should be an echo to this. The sit­u­a­tion of ill pris­on­ers is a mat­ter of extreme urgency. They want peo­ple to leave this place in their cas­kets. Our sick friends suf­fer from dia­betes, intesti­nal can­cer and oth­er seri­ous ill­ness­es. Lawyers must vis­it in order to inter­vene on this matter.

I can’t tell you every­thing over the phone, give names of the sick, because they will mis­treat them even more. The state of health of our sick friends is get­ting more serious.”

These are the words of Devrim Ayık con­cern­ing rights vio­la­tions in the pris­ons, in a record­ing shared with the press by his fam­i­ly. With the treat­ment of his con­di­tion being impos­si­ble in prison, Devrim was lib­er­at­ed in Decem­ber 2019 but arrest­ed again in Jan­u­ary 2021.

While his fam­i­ly launched a peti­tion for his lib­er­a­tion, fol­low­ing med­ical vis­its on April 2 2021, med­ical doc­tors stat­ed his ill­ness has become more seri­ous and that it is impos­si­ble to treat him under carcer­al con­di­tions. Despite these reports, no favor­able steps have been tak­en by the prison administration.

Med­ical doc­u­ments (pdf in Turkish)

In order to sup­port Devrim, do not hes­i­tate in sign­ing the petition.

Crohn Has­tası Oğlum Devrim Ayık için Özgür­lük (Free­dom for my son Devrim Ayık , suf­fer­ing from Cron­h’s dis­ease) #Devri­mAyik­içinÖgür­lük

In a dec­la­ra­tion of May 1st, the Asso­ci­a­tion for Human Rights (IHD) called on the author­i­ties to do their duty for the lib­er­a­tion of Devrim Ayık and oth­er sick pris­on­ers, and against the vio­la­tions of rights in prisons.

(video in Turkish)


Translation by Renée Lucie Bourges
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Dilek Aykan
REDACTION | Auteure
Gazete­ci, siyasetçi, insan hak­ları savunucusu. Jour­nal­iste, femme poli­tique, défenseure des droits humain. Jour­nal­ist, polit­i­cal woman, defendor of human rights.