On the 25 September 1999, Turkish soldiers and policemen attacked the prison of Ulucanlar, in Ankara, after some prisonners refused their cells search and made hostages for claiming their protests. The balance of this attack is : 12 prisonners killes, 20 else seriously injured.

The rebellion spreads to other prisons, in all the country. The reasons of that situation is the bad conditions of detention, daily torures , the using of « isolation cells », prisonners’ transfers which when many are killed “when they try to escape”, as the official report.

These massacres of prisonners are not news in Turkey. Authorities did it often. The Human’s Rights Association in Turkey (IHD) published several reports about them. The last 20 years, more than 200 prisonners had been killed in similar events.

Lawyer Eren KESKIN, Vice-President of IHD has been kept in custody with hundred persons, when she tried to make a press meeting and warned the public about the situation of prisonners in Turkey. Lawyer Eren KESKIN did participate in the past ÖCALAN’s defence and is active since a long time for protecting women in prison who are constantly totured and sexually harrassed.

The prisonners ask :

1- To abolish the « isolation cells »,

2- To stop the transfers,

3- To stop tortures ans persecutions,

4- The responsibles of these massacres should be identified and judged,

5- The judge must allow that lawyers assist the victims’autopsy.

Extracts of reports from Human’s Rights Association in Turkey (IHD) about the Turkish prisons :

On the 21 December 1980 : Serif YAZAR and Hakan MERMEROGLU were deadly shot by policement in the prison of Alemdag.

On the 2 January 1982 : During an attack of police, Bahadir DUMANLI is killed in the prison of Alemdag.

On the 2 August 1989, after a long hunger strike in the prison of Aydin, Hüsnü EROGLU and Mehmet YALCINKAYA had been killed during their transfer to the prison of Eskisehir.

On the 21 September 1995, because they refused to answer to the call, Tufan KILIC, Ugur SARIASLAN and Yusuf BAG had been killed by policemen.

On the 4^th January 1996, the prison of Ümraniye was assaulted by police and « Special Forces ». Riza BOYBAS, Orhan ÖZEN and Abdulmecit SECKIN were killed and 59 else prisonners injured.

On the 24 September 1996, authorities massacred 8 prisonners ; Edip DÖNEKCI, Nihat CAKMAK, Erkan PERISAN, Ridvan BULUT, Hakki TEKIN, Ahmet CELIK, Mehmet Sabri GÜMÜS and Cemal CAM had had their head crushed.

On the 25 September 1996, Mehmet BATUGE, Kadir DEMIR, Kadir DAL were killed in the prison of Diyarbakir.

(CILDEKT, 11 octobrer 1999)

Leyla Zana shocked by the massacres in prison

On the 5 October, after two weeks of isolation, the Kurdish imprisonned MP’s could have some visits of their relatives once per week, during 4 or 5 minutes, behind grille. Then we have had confirmation about their condition of detention. The three MP’s Hatip Dicle, Orhan Dogan and Selim Sadak, have been transferred in a collective dormitory where 45 to 50 political prisonners are detained, most of them accused to be members of PKK.

Concerning Leyla Zana, she must now live with 5 else women accused to be members of extreme-left Turkish movements, though she lived alone since 1994 in a quite large cell. That narrow place obliges them to make turn for sleeping. According many testimonies, Leyla Zana is still shocked by the savage repression of a prisonners’ protest in the central prison of Ankara.

From the window of her cell, she assisted to the massacre of seven prisonners with truncheons and cudgels by hundred of policemen and gendarmes during the night of 26 September 1999. "These savage scenes, the cries of victims, everything haunt me all the time" as she declared to visitors. People who saw her, find her shocked, thin and psychologically troubled. During the repression, Habib Gül, Ertan Özkan, Nihat Konak, Ümit Altintas, Halil, Türker, Mahir Ünsal, Sakir Dönmez, Abuzer Cat, Nihat Salmaz, Ahmet Devran, Zafer Karabiyik, Önder Gencaslan have been killed.

The Turkish Primer Minister declared that "State is determined to restaure its authority at any price". Then a relative and temporary calm had been obtained with the death of 12 men and hundred of injured. One of the survivor of this butchery, Cemal Çakmak, in an interview published by the daily newspaper Özgür Politika on the 7 October 1999, stated that the Turkish authorities had lists leaders who were arrested during the revolt, deadly beaten then shot for masking their death like like the result of an armed riot inside the prison.

In 1996, a similar massacre happened in the prison of Diyarbakir. The families of victims claimed and murders had been identified. Then, from delay to delay, the trial is not ended and the murders are still free and in service.

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Summary