Demands of the political prisoner in Turkey Fikret Akar, who was on indefinite hunger strike against severe isolation in pit-type prison, were accepted on 29 November. However, he was forcibly kept in hospital with a forged stamp, they did not give him vitamins B1 and B3, and kept him in a freezing cold room for a week despite his hunger strike and severe cold.
For this reason, Fikret Akar only ended his hunger strike when he was returned to prison on 5 December.
Resistance is the only command that cannot be defeated.
The result of resistance can be nothing other than victory.
As Fikret Akar said in a telephone conversation on 22 November: “Either I will be transferred. Or I will die. There is no middle ground.”
Fikret Akar began his indefinite hunger strike on 30 March 2025. From 30 March to 29 November, for 8 months, we witnessed his resistance day by day.
This victory is our victory.
Because, starting in February 2025, as the People’s Front, Anti-Imperialist Front, and friends of the Anti-Imperialist Front, we continuously supported the revolutionary prisoners who were on indefinite hunger strikes and death fasts.
International comrades learned a great deal about the hunger strike resistance and process alongside Fikret Akar.
Among the prisoners we supported and stood by were Sercan Ahmet Aslan, Serkan Onur Yılmaz, Ayberk Demirdöğen, Mulla Zincir, and others. Fikret Akar was one of them.
As supporters of the prisoners on hunger strike in this campaign, we carried out many creative actions. We constantly developed new forms of action.
Fikret Akar became one of the prisoners who went on hunger strike for the longest period, 250 days, until his demands were accepted.
Only Nurettin Kaya went on hunger strike for longer, 273 days.
Ahmet Sercan Aslan also had to go on hunger strike for a very long time, 243 days.
According to figures published in the latest TAYAD bulletin, the friends who have gone on hunger strike to date and the duration of their strikes are as follows:
- March 2020 – Şerif Turunç (52 days)
- 1 May 2023 – Nedim Öztürk (138 days)
- 13 September 2023 – Hüseyin Karaoğlan (143 days)
- 20 October 2023 – Nurettin Kaya (273 days)
- 13 November 2023 – Bakican Işık (100 days)
- Sezgin Zengin (100 days)
- 24 February 2024 – Oktay Kelebek and Cem Dursun 181 days
- 29 March 2024 – Rezzan Şengül 182 days
- 3 April 2024 – Vedat Doğan 177 days
- 17 April 2024 – Halil Yakut (100 days)
- 21 August 2024 – Mehmet Güvel (2 days) (Mehmet Güvel is 80 years old, a veteran of the Hunger Strike and a cancer patient).
- 20 October 2024 – Sercan Ahmet Arslan (243 days)
- 10 November 2024 – Serkan Onur Yılmaz (375 days)
- 13 November 2024 – Ferdi İşçi (72 days),
- Mulla Zincir (176 days)
- 19 December 2024 – Bakican Işık (180 days)
- 2 December 2024 – Ali Ülgü (62 days)
- 1 January 2025 – Yurdagül Gümüş (171 days)
- 6 January 2025 – Sadık Çelik (30 days)
- 13 February 2025 – Mithat Öztürk (191 days)
- 18 February 2025 – Ali Hasan Akgül (144 days)
- 18 February 2025 – Ali Aracı (199 days)
- 30 March 2025 – Fikret Akar (250 days)
- Berkin Berberoglu- 166 days
- Ümit Cobanoglu- 200 days
During these 250 days, Fikret Akar suffered numerous violations of his rights. Solidarity actions were organised in response.
As soon as he began his resistance, he experienced problems with vitamin B1 and sugar. As a protest action, B vitamins and sugar were sent to the prison, even though it was known they would not be allowed inside.
As the resistance approached the 200-day mark, the communication ban in Silivri, imposed months earlier, was enforced. Thus, for one month, there was no news from the hunger striker on an indefinite hunger strike.
When we heard from him again, his body had collapsed, and he had lost a lot of weight. This was because he could not eat or drink anything.
We witnessed that Fikret Akar’s body could not tolerate sugar and that he suffered from nausea and diarrhoea. We learned that because he could not take sugar, his source of energy, he was extremely cold.
The Ministry of Justice delegation, seeking to break the resistance, told Fikret Akar to ‘end the hunger strike’. Fikret Akar’s response was clear: ‘Get out of here.’
Then, when Fikret’s condition deteriorated significantly, when he could barely stand or walk, the warden went to the three warden cells and said, ‘Let’s put you in a cell with Ahmet and Doğan. You can no longer take care of your needs.’
Fikret Akar’s response was clear: ‘There is no point in prolonging this. I refuse. Transfer me.’
At that time, Fikret Akar was in poor physical condition, suffering from severe pain and unable to take care of his own needs, so the administration must have calculated that he would weaken. In the days that followed, the protester’s own body became his greatest enemy.
The prison administration, or perhaps even the Ministry of Justice, thought they could break him here.
But all their calculations and manoeuvres failed.
His mouth was covered in sores. Vitamin B3 is good for mouth sores. The prison used every trick in the book to prevent Fikret Akar from getting vitamin B3. Once again, they wanted to break his will by inflicting pain and torment on him.
Fascism has no morality.
But revolutionaries have high moral standards.
What is the greatest source of morale for prisoners on indefinite hunger strike?
How can they endure with such superhuman willpower?
One: Their historical and political legitimacy.
Two: Love for the people.
Three: Love for the homeland.
Four: Class hatred.
Five: Support and solidarity from outside.
OUTSIDE ACTIONS OF SOLIDARITY AND SUPPORT
The outside solidarity and support arm has organised a wide variety of actions continuously since February 2025.
Balloon launches, online support conferences, collective hunger strikes, consulate actions, calls to the Ministry of Justice, calls to prisons, hashtag actions, video recordings, photo shoots, collage preparations, messages to members of the Turkish Grand National Assembly, resistance tents set up in London, Geneva and Amsterdam, and a hunger strike chain were established.
Interviews were given in newspapers and on the radio.
Panels were organised.
Posters and banners were hung in different parts of Europe.
Sensitive MPs such as Gergerlioğlu in Turkey, Porte in France, and Cansu Özdemir in Germany submitted parliamentary questions or addressed their countries’ Ministers of Justice.
The documentary Morg X was made and screened in many places across Europe.
A letter-writing campaign was organised between prisoners. For example, Fikret Akar wrote letters to George Ibrahim Abdallah and the Konnonovich brothers.
Support committees were established in Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine to fight against the S, R, Y type prisons.
The Red Indians in the US dedicated their dances to prisoners on indefinite hunger strike.
From our perspective, a very rich pool of actions has been created.
We have learned and accumulated a great deal.
The international dimension of the indefinite hunger strike in Turkey and its resonance around the world began with the participation of Fikret Akar.
However, this is only the beginning.
We will take the struggle against the Pit-Type Prisons in Turkey and the struggle for prisoners around the world to a higher level by uniting them.
Now we are heading towards new victories.
With what we have learned so far, we will further strengthen solidarity and support.
Long live resistance, long live victory!
Anti-Imperialist Front France, England, Belarus
People’s Front Europe
