After new mass transfers to the well-type (SRY High Security Prisons) a first letter was received by “Free Prisoner” Fikret Akar from Çorlu Prison, in which he describes the circumstances of forcible prison transfers and the commitment of revolutionary prisoners to continue resistance at any cost.
Çorlu, 03.02.25
“Dear Şükriye, Hello!
I hug you tightly and full of longing. How are you? I hope you are well, I am doing very well. I am writing you this letter from the fountain-like prison in Karatepe (Çorlu).
The expected has happened and we have been forcibly transferred. 19 male and 4 female prisoners were transferred from Silivri. When you receive this letter, you will know who went where. I was brought here together with Doğan Karataştan, Ahmet Arslan, Mustafa Anıl Kesen and Abdulkadir Altunlu. I will write to you about the structure of this place and the details of the forcible transfer.
I have to write quickly. Today is Sunday and there are not enough pens! We’ve borrowed a pen for a few hours, so I’ll write quickly to update you. I am currently in block A, 3rd floor, cell number 13. There are 6 cells in one corridor. I am currently in our corridor with Ahmet Arslan.
Ahmet Arslan is 22-23 years old, a member of Grup Yorum, a young friend from Rize. We communicate under the door across the corridor.
They put the other friends in other blocks. In other words, we were confronted with block isolation right at the beginning. I had explained in my earlier letters that there would be a forced transfer and a long process of resistance would begin in the well-type prisons. It has begun.
We are currently trying to submit our demands to the administration so that they can be met. I estimate that the cell is 3×4 metres in size. There is a toilet-bathroom, kitchen table, wardrobe and table. The room is about the same size as a third-class hotel room. It’s fine for an overnight stay, but it’s not a place suitable for long-term human life.
One of the main problems is that there is no access to the yard.
We would be entitled to 1.5 hours of yard access per day. But they said we have to go out one by one, so we didn’t go out today. Tomorrow I will apply to go out together with Ahmet. If they let us out together, we can go out for a while.
There were no particular problems on arrival at the prison, it was the usual formalities. I have a bit of a headache because we went on a 3-day hunger strike to protest against the forced transfer. That’s the bad luck with short-term hunger strikes.
The body just gets used to the hunger, reacts to it until it gets used to it, and that’s when the hunger strike is interrupted. During the hunger strike, routine health checks are carried out here.
As it was the weekend, the paramedics came by ambulance and carried out the examinations yesterday and today. I think the doctor at the infirmary will do it tomorrow. Probably because this place is newly opened and it has no experience in hunger strikes, you get less water and sugar. 3 litres of water, half a tea glass of granulated sugar, a lemon.
This is all inadequate. At the health check today I had low blood sugar. The paramedic asked me if I was eating healthy food. I said, ‘sugar-salt-lemon’, and he said, ‘your sugar is below the lower limit, you have to take sugar or you will have problems’. Nothing will happen in three days, but let’s see how it will be in the long run.
In the case of a forcible transfer, the right to telephone calls is normally granted at the new place of arrival, even at weekends, and you can call the family. That was not the case here. They said that the place you were sent from has to respond to your application first. Good, and how am I supposed to make an application from here to there? I assume my brothers don’t know about this yet. But maybe friends in other prisons where they have been transferred have called their families and the families have informed each other. I think we’ll call in a day or two.
There are 4 empty cells in the corridor where we are staying. In a way, the corridor is not reserved for us. We have asked for other friends to be brought here. Let’s see, all the cells in the lower corridor are full. There are prisoners from FETÖ (meaning the Fetullah Gülen movement), DAESH (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) and so on.
I don’t know what it looks like on the bottom floor, I think a few cells are occupied there too. There is a wire mesh next to the bars on the cell window. It has a diamond pattern! The windows on all three floors look out onto the courtyard. It’s the same size as in the F-types. I have no television, kettle etc.
I would like to buy it. Sure, I’m not planning to stay here for long. But we’ll need these things during our stay. That will probably be the time when I can read or write the most!
I was going to call my brother this week, it just worked out that way! I think the phone day here is Wednesday, but it’s not certain. It will be clear by the time you get this letter. I will call you next week unless something else happens. I’ll find out the day etc and let my brother know and he’ll inform you.
I’m just thinking about what would be urgent to write. We can hear the voices of young people singing folk songs from outside. The acoustics are good, the sound spreads out much better here than in the Silivri F type. I don’t understand why, but I think it’s the architecture. Or our ears have become more sensitive. The distance here is not great, especially by car, there is not much difference between Silivri and here, but without a car it has become difficult to visit.
Let’s see what the visits here will be like. This much can already be revealed. I’m writing in a hurry, I just wanted to say that I’m fine. There’s nothing to worry about. Whatever has to happen will happen. Tomorrow morning we will submit our applications and our efforts to get out of here will begin.
The rest is the course of life.
I hug you tightly and full of longing.
Take good care of yourself. Say hello to everyone for me.
All my love!
Fikret”
Address:
Karatepe Y.G. Hapishane
A13
Çorlu/Tekirdağ
TURKEY
