On the 19th December 2000, the fascist Turkish state carried out a massacre in 20 prisons simultaneously, an attack which had been planned for over a year and was aimed at the mass eradication of revolutionary prisoners.
On the 19th December, soldiers, special forces and police using heavy equipment, firearms, gas bombs, and incendiary chemical weapons began the massacre, which would last for four days and result in the deaths of 28 revolutionary prisoners and the wounding of hundreds more. In Bayrampaşa prison, female prisoners were burned alive. Almost three thousand people protesting the massacre on the outside were also arrested. In the hunger strikes following the massacre, 122 revolutionary prisoners lost their lives.
The fascist state responsible for the 19th December massacre, had previously also killed 3 prisoners in an attack on the 21st September 1995 in Buca prison, and 10 in an attack in 1996 in Diyarbakir E-type prison.
The prison massacres on 5th July 2000 in Burdur E-type prison and on 29th September 1999 in Ulucanlar prison in which 10 prisoners were killed were grim “rehearsals” for the 19th December.
The Ecevit-Bahçeli fascist coalition, who were in power at the time and gave the order for the 19th December massacre, with this attack aimed to put into operation the F-type isolation prisons and break the will of revolutionary prisoners. However, despite these brutal assaults and massacres no revolutionary prisoners surrendered. Resisting to their final breaths, they protected their revolutionary ideals and identities. .
In an attack in Maraş on 19-25 December planned by this bloodthirsty state against Alevis, Kurds and revolutionaries, 111 people were killed and over a thousand wounded.
And on the 28th December 2011 in Roboski, 34 Kurdish villagers were killed when they were bombed by aircraft.
The Turkish state, whose history is stained with blood and massacres, whitewashed and rewarded those responsible for the massacres in prisons, Maraş and Roboski.
Bugün de faşist Erdoğan-Bahçeli diktatörlüğü devletin katliamcı geleneğini sürdürmektedir. İmralı ve F tiplerine S ve Y tiplerini ekleyerek tecridi yaygınlaştırmaktadır. Hapishaneler birer işkence, tecavüz ve ölüm evlerine dönüşmüş durumda. Hapishanelerde tutsaklara tecrit uygulayarak, hasta tutsakların tedavilerini engelleyerek ve tahliye etmeyerek ölüme terk etmekte, işkence, çıplak arama, sürgün ve sevkler, iletişim yasakları, yayınlara erişim yasakları, hücre baskınları, İdare ve Gözlem Kurulları aracılığıyla tutsakların tahliyelerini engelleme gibi hak gaspları ve saldırılarla devrimci tutsakları teslim almaya çalışmaktadır.
Today, the fascist Erdoğan-Bahçeli dictatorship carries on the state’s sordid tradition of slaughter. By adding to the existing Imrali and F-type prisons the new S and Y types, they intend to expand the system of isolation and solitary confinement. Each and every prison has now been turned into a house of torture, rape and death. By imposing isolation on prisoners in prisons, preventing the treatment of sick prisoners and condemning them to death by not releasing them, torture, strip searches, transfers, communication bans, bans on access to publications, cell raids, and preventing the release of prisoners through administrative and observation boards, the fascist state is trying to force the surrender of revolutionary prisoners.
However now, just as before, revolutionary prisoners are resisting these attacks. Our struggle to support the resistance of revolutionary prisoners and hold those responsible for the massacres to account will continue.
The 19th December, Maraş and Roboski massacres are unforgotten and unforgiven!
Prisoners Voice Platform (TSP)
