Prison hunger strike claims 23rd victim
The death toll from Turkey’s prison hunger strike has reached 23 after a former inmate died after a six-month fast to protest a new maximum security prison system.
Ugur Turkmen, a member of the banned Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front, died late last night at his home in the southern city of Mersin, the prisoners solidarity group Ozgur Tayad said today.
Turkmen began his fast in November in an Ankara prison where he served two years for membership of an outlawed group, and continued it after his release in January, Ozgur Tayad said.
About 250 inmates and some of their relatives are fasting. They have been taking sugared and salted water with vitamins to prolong their fast.
The hunger strike began as a protest by political prisoners against their transfer from large, dormitory-style prisons to new maximum security prisons with one or three-person cells. Clashes broke out in December when security forces transferred inmates to the new prisons, leaving 30 inmates and two soldiers dead.
Inmates say the new structure leaves them isolated and vulnerable to abuse by guards. The government says the old prison system with wards that hold up to 100 prisoners, are used as training camps by Kurdish, Islamic and leftist groups.
Turkmen’s death, the first in the hunger strike for three weeks, could increase pressure on the Turkish government to reach a deal with strikers, whose demands include 18-person wards and the abolition of anti-terror laws.
Turkey’s parliament has passed a law allowing inmates in the small cells to take part in some collective activities. The government also plans to allow civilian inspection of prisons.
Human rights groups, including Amnesty International, say the changes don’t go far enough. Several European countries as well as the 43-member Council of Europe, of which Turkey is a member, have called Turkey to take measures to end the fast.
