Turkey: 11 executed in Turkish prison
01 November 1999
After the death of eleven left-wing political prisoners in Ulucanlar, Ankara's central jail on 26 September, prisoners all over the country protested for about a week, taking over 90 prison wardens hostage. Turkish human rights organisations described the events that triggered off the revolts as a massacre, the Turkish prime minister Bulent Ecevit declared, shortly before security officers stormed the building, "the state must impose its authority, whatever the costs".
After the uprisings, hundreds of paramilitaries surrounded prison buildings around the country. Negotiations, with the help of lawyers and independent intermediaries, ended on 1 October, with the last 17 hostages being released from Bayrampasa prison in Istanbul and the government promising an unlikely prosecution of the security officers responsible for the shootings. The prisoners died from head injuries and gun shots, seemingly fired from close range.
The prison revolts had started when an attempt was made to transfer political prisoners from Ulucanlar to other jails around the country. Although prison conditions in Turkey are appalling, the existence of common sleeping areas had up to now allowed prisoners to organise themselves. The relocation of inmates, and specifically political prisoners, to "modern" jails entails single cell accommodation and therefore isolation and more exposure to abuse by prison staff.
The recent events mirror those of three years ago. Unlike the massacres of Ulucanlar, they have been internationally condemned. Special Branch forces had stormed prisons in Diyarbakir and Umraniye and battered several PKK and left-wing inmates to death. The following 69-day hunger strike cost eleven prisoners their lives. Then, like now, the authorities refused to release the dead bodies for independent autopsy or even return them to the families. After pressure from the families and public protests, authorities have allowed the release of tissue samples which are supposed to identify if the victims of this recent incident were shot from close range. Fellow prisoners reported that those killed were first knocked unconscious and then executed by Special Branch officers.
Jungle World 6.10.99; Guardian 28.9.99.