The SRY-type prisons, referred to by prisoners as “pit-type,” are highly controversial. Consequently, the overwhelming majority of the progressive, democratic public demands their closure. Because these “High-Security Prisons” are, in reality, a “high” level of torture and a center for prolonged killing for prisoners.
By perfecting isolation, they want to break the revolutionary prisoners.
However, the revolutionary prisoners who refuse to be broken are exercising their right to resist, using their only weapon, their bodies, to go on an indefinite hunger strike.
The indefinite hunger strikes continue uninterrupted. Because the Pit-Type attack continues uninterrupted.
Such widespread resistance in a prison has transcended Turkey’s borders and entered the agenda of progressive and democratic organizations and NGOs.
For this reason, an international delegation wanted to make a fact finding mission about the Pit-Type prisons between February 18-22. After these collecting facts, the delegation members were to prepare reports on their observations and impressions.
The seven-member delegation came from five countries: Spain, Italy, Russia, Belgium, and France. The delegation included journalists, lawyers, academics, and organization representatives.
Before coming to Turkey, the lawyer member of the delegation had obtained power of attorney to visit her imprisoned colleagues, attorneys Aytaç Ünsal and Behiç Aşçı, in prison.
ABUSE AT THE DEPORTATION CENTER
Collecting information and data about a country is guaranteed by international law. It is also a right protected by the Turkish constitution.
The delegation’s program included visits to NGOs such as the Medical Association, the Istanbul Bar Association, TAYAD, and People´s law office, as well as meetings with journalists.
However, the delegation had not even been in Turkey for 24 hours and had only managed to visit the law office, the first stop on their program, when they were detained on the street as soon as they left the office.
The delegation members were not told why they were detained.
They were taken to the deportation center in Arnavutköy.
The delegation members were held in very poor conditions.
They were not given water, food, or access to a toilet.
The male members of the delegation were handcuffed with plastic cuffs, with their hands behind their backs.
Although none of them spoke Turkish, they were not provided with an interpreter.
They were not allowed to meet with lawyers who came to provide them with legal support.
They were not allowed to notify their countries’ consulates.
The police constantly shouted, yelled, gestured, and tried to intimidate the delegation until they left the country.
The delegation did not understand what the police were saying, but they understood the word “terrorism.”
Thus, the on-site investigation was deemed terrorism by the Turkish police.
NATO COUNTRIES’ COLLABORATION WITH TURKISH FASCISM CONFIRMED
As soon as news of the detention spread, the comrades and family member of the delegation members contacted in their home countries at the consulates in Istanbul. However, with the exception of the representative from Russia, all of them were from NATO countries.
And they very clearly demonstrated their collaboration and partnership with Turkish fascism.
ITALY: One journalist, an Italian citizen among the delegation members, was not at the law offive with the others. Therefore, she was not detained with them.
However, he learned that restrictions had been placed on her passport.
Unable to make sense of this, she went to the Italian Consulate in Istanbul.
The Consulate’s attitude astonished her: they did not let her in. They said, “You are free at the moment, there is no problem. If you are arrested, you can call us again.”
FRANCE: The French state, the embassy, did nothing.
A lawyer was hired just to be able to communicate with them.
The lawyer called the embassy repeatedly. They came up with a thousand excuses not to stand up for their own citizen.
The French Embassy’s response was a document of utter shame for France:
“We are in Ankara, everything happened in Istanbul. This place is very far from Istanbul. The Turkish police are not giving us any information. There are many French prisoners in Turkey, and we have no news about them.”
Finally, they sent an email. It said: “Our partners are not responding to us.”
Who are their partners? The Turkish state, or their own citizen?
They even mockingly wished him “good luck.” Imagine a state wishing “good luck” to one of its own citizens who is in prison.
Why? Because they know very well what happens in prisons and police stations in Turkey.
There is very clear collaboration here between France and Turkey.
SPAIN: The Spanish state did not take a different stance from the Italian and French states.
The only country that stood up for its citizens was RUSSIA. Russia really cared and ensured that its own citizen returned safely to her country.
Turkey forced the delegation members to sign a document stating, “I am leaving the country of my own free will.”
The French citizens among the delegation members did not agree to sign anything. When he resisted so strongly, they TORTURED him.
They put him in a straitjacket, handcuffed his hands, arms, and legs, and beat him continuously.
However, despite all the verbal and physical violence, they could not break his will.
In the end, they had to deport him without getting him to sign.
THE WHOLE WORLD HEARD ABOUT THE PIT TYPES
The Turkish government wanted to silence the delegation seeking to conduct on-site research on Pit types by hastily arresting and deporting them. They wanted to prevent anyone from learning the horrific truths about the Pit Type prisons.
However, by reacting so excessively, they achieved the exact opposite.
They caused a huge stir, especially in Russia and Italy. But it also made headlines in many European countries such as Belgium, Italy, Spain, France, Portugal, Greece, and Austria. Countries that had probably never heard anything about SRY prisons until that day now did:
News stories appeared in the press in Canada, Namibia, China, Congo, Latin America, Lebanon, Indonesia, Singapore, and Pakistan.
THE DELEGATION FULFILLED ITS MISSION
The delegation was hastily detained and deported, preventing them from completing their program.
As a result, they were only able to gather limited information about Pit-type prisons, as much as they could gather at the people´s law office.
However, they witnessed the reality of Turkish fascism in all its nakedness.
While the Turkish state sought to conceal the truth, suppress information, and silence the delegation members, it only made them more sensitive. And it could not prevent it from becoming a topic in the world press.
Thus, in the broadest sense, it was a successful fact finding mission.
Subscribe to stay up-to-date
