Hunger strikes in Turkey (2016–2017)

Last updated

Several hunger strikes were undertaken in Turkey from 2016 to 2017.

Contents

Background

In Turkey, the hunger strike has been used as a form of resistance historically, however, it was not until after the coup of September 12, 1980, that hunger strikes were recognised as a national issue in Turkey when a hunger strike was held at Diyarbakir Prison to protest inhumane practices in the prison. [1] Other large-scale hunger strikes include one that took place at Buca Prison in 1996, in which 12 prisoners died, and another that began in October 2000 in prisons throughout the country to oppose the construction and transfer of prisoners to F-type prisons, which are high-security and isolate prisoners from lawyers, families, and other outsiders, and in which 107 people died by the middle of 2003. [2] [3]

Hunger strike in 2016

Claim for return of family's body in Sur

In August 2015, after the ceasefire between Turkish government and Kurdistan Workers party (PKK) has broken down in July, [4] Kurdish activists declared a "self-rule zone" in Sur in Diyarbakir. [5] This resulted in heavy clashes between the Turkish security forces and Kurdish militants and 24,000 residents in Sur were displaced, and a number of civilians were killed During the clash, a strict curfew was implemented by the Turkish security forces which made the citizen difficult to flee from the clash. [5]

Since January 2016, the families of those who were killed during the clashes claimed the return of their families’ bodies, which remained in the street for days, and started a hunger strike. This included the family of Ramazan Ogut, Mesut Seviktek and Isa Oran, who were militants of the Patriotic Revolutionary Youth (YDG-H), and Rozerin Cukur, who was believed as a civilian. [6] [7]

It was reported that Mesut Seviktek and Isa Oran were killed on 23 December 2015 in the midst of the clash between Turkish security forces and Kurdish militants. [8] However, their bodies were not handed over to their families, [8] which led the families to start a hunger strike at Human Rights' Association office on 2 January 2016. [8] [9] On 19 January 2016, after 18 days of hunger strike, Diyarbakir Governor's Office informed to Human Rights Association that their bodies were dispatched to Gazi Yaşargil Training and Research Hospital and their families identified the bodies, which were damaged. [10] Their burial was allowed on 22 January and thousands of people joined the march for their farewell. [11] The family of Ramazan Ogut, who was killed on 30 December 2015 and the family of Rozerin Çukur, who was killed on 8 January 2016 also joined the hunger strike in January 2016. [6] [12] The body of Ogut was recognised in May by a DNA test and buried on 3 June 2016. [13] On 1 March, it is reported that the father of Rozerin Cukur would go on death fast unless the body of his daughter was returned to the family within the same week. [14] [15] On 6 June 2016, her body was retrieved to her family from Gazi Yaşargil Training and Research Hospital. [16]

Request for meeting with political figure in jail

On 1 September 2016, 50 members of Kurdish leading parties announced that they would start a hunger strike if they could not confirm the information about the welfare and safety of Abdullah Öcalan, who was a founder of PKK and was jailed in 1999. [17] [18] [19] According to the members, no one was able to see him since April 2015, while his leadership was important for the peace negotiation for the conflicts between Turkish and Kurdish forces, [17] and claimed for the meeting between Öcalan and lawyers or his family. [18] The 50 members started a hunger strike on 5 September 2016. [18] On 10 September 2016, Turkey allowed the family of Öcalan to visit him and his brother, Mehmet Öcalan visited him on 11 September 2016. [20] Öcalan left his comment through his brother that Turkey should restart the peace negotiation with Kurdish forces. [20] On 12 September 2016, the 50 members announced that their strike was ended as their demands were met. [20]

Hunger strike in 2017

Protest against dismissal by academia

After the failure of 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt, the Turkish government declared a state of emergency, which continued until July 2018 and allowed the government to purge the member of Islamic groups who were accused of planning the coup d'état from the position of the government. [21] In addition to this, based on the degree-laws which were enacted after the coup, almost 150,000 civil servants were dismissed without any jurisprudential oversight, which included 41,705 employees from the educational field. [22] To claim the job back, Nuriye Gülmen, who was dismissed from her job at Eskisehir Osmangazi University started the protest in front of the Human Rights Monument on Yuksel Street, in Ankara on 9 November 2016. [21] This resistance activity spread to other provinces of the country, despite multiple interventions from the police, including detentions. [21] However, as the government did not respond to their protests, on 9 March 2017, Nurie Gülmen and Semih Ôzakça, who were the symbol of the activity, started a hunger strike, which continued until 26 January 2018. [21]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kurdistan Workers' Party</span> Kurdish armed organization

The Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK is a Kurdish militant political organization and armed guerrilla movement which historically operated throughout Kurdistan but is now primarily based in the mountainous Kurdish-majority regions of southeastern Turkey and northern Iraq. Since 1984, the PKK has been involved in asymmetric warfare in the Kurdish–Turkish conflict. Although the PKK initially sought an independent Kurdish state, in the 1990s its goals changed to seeking autonomy and increased political and cultural rights for Kurds within Turkey.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abdullah Öcalan</span> Founder of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK)

Abdullah Öcalan, also known as Apo, is a political prisoner and founding member of the militant Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leyla Zana</span> Kurdish politician (born 1961)

Leyla Zana is a Kurdish politician. She was imprisoned for ten years for her political activism, which was deemed by the Turkish courts to be against the unity of the country. She was awarded the 1995 Sakharov Prize by the European Parliament but was unable to collect it until her release in 2004. She was also awarded the Rafto Prize in 1994 after being recognized by the Rafto Foundation for being incarcerated for her peaceful struggle for the human rights of the Kurdish people in Turkey and the neighbouring countries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sebahat Tuncel</span> Kurdish politician in Turkey

Sebahat Tuncel is a Turkish politician of Kurdish origin, women's rights advocate, former nurse and member of the Parliament in Turkey. She was elected a member of parliament while being in prison.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Timeline of the Kurdistan Workers' Party insurgency (1978–2015)</span>

This is the timeline of the Turkish-Kurdish conflict. The Kurdish insurgency is an armed conflict between the Republic of Turkey and various Kurdish insurgent groups, which have demanded separation from Turkey to create an independent Kurdistan, or to have autonomy and greater political and cultural rights for Kurds in Turkey. The main rebel group is the Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK, which was founded on November 27, 1978, and started a full-scale insurgency on August 15, 1984, when it declared a Kurdish uprising. Apart from some extended ceasefires, the conflict has continued to the present day.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Selahattin Demirtaş</span> Turkish politician of Kurdish origin.

Selahattin Demirtaş is a Turkish politician and author of Kurdish origin. He was the co-leader of the left-wing pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), serving alongside Figen Yüksekdağ from 2014 to 2018. Selahattin Demirtaş announced that he left politics after the May 2023 elections.

The word serhildan describes several Kurdish protests and uprisings since the 1990s that used the slogan "Êdî Bese" ("Enough") against Türkiye. Local shops are often closed on the day of demonstrations as a form of protest.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leyla Güven</span> Kurdish politician

Leyla Güven is HDP MP for Hakkari, co-chair of the Democratic Society Congress (DTK) and former mayor of the municipality of Viranşehir in the Şanlıurfa Province of Southeast Anatolia of Turkey, where she represented the former Democratic Society Party (DTP).

Mazlum Doğan was a journalist and a founding member of PKK. He was a Kurdish Alevi which was often told to attract new recruits to PKK. He was the first chief editor of the propaganda newspaper Serxwebûn of PKK. In 1979, he had planned to leave Turkey towards Syria, but was arrested and served time in the infamous Diyarbakir No. 5 prison. Mazlum Doğan committed suicide in protest of the Turkish coup d'état and the inhumane conditions he and other prisoners were facing inside of the penitentiary. Today he is presented as a hero and a martyr by PKK and related organisations.

The 2011–2012 Kurdish protests in Turkey were protests in Turkey, led by the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), against restrictions of Kurdish rights by of the country's Kurdish minority's rights. Although they were the latest in a long series of protest actions by Kurds in Turkey, they were strongly influenced by the concurrent popular protests throughout the Middle East and North Africa, and the Turkish publication Hürriyet Daily News has suggested that the popularly dubbed "Arab Spring" that has seen revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia may lead to a "Kurdish Summer" in the northern reaches of the Middle East. Protesters have taken to the streets both in Istanbul and in southeast Turkey, with some demonstrations also reported as far west in Anatolia as İzmir.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2013–2015 PKK–Turkey peace process</span> Failed peace process between Kurdish militants and Turkey

The Solution process, also known as Peace process or the PKK–Turkish peace process, was a peace process that aimed to resolve the conflict between the Turkey and PKK as part of the Kurdish–Turkish conflict (1978–present). The conflict has been ongoing since 1984 and resulted in some 40,000 mortal casualties and great economic losses for Turkey as well as high damage to the general population.

In late July 2015, the third phase of the Kurdish–Turkish conflict between various Kurdish insurgent groups and the Turkish government erupted, following a failed two and a half year-long peace process aimed at resolving the long-running conflict.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Civil Protection Units</span> Militia in Turkey

The Civil Protection Units, also known as Civil Defense Units, is a primarily Kurdish rebel group and main armed force in Turkish Kurdistan. The YPS was formed by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) to better organize and train the youth fighters in the Patriotic Revolutionary Youth Movement, otherwise known as the YDG-H. In 2015 the YDG-H reorganized themselves in to what is known as the YPS today.

The 2016 siege of Sur, also known as the Sur curfew took place as part of the Kurdish–Turkish conflict in Sur district of Diyarbakir in Turkey, lasting for more than 3 months and destroying much of the neighbourhood. Heavy artillery and machine gun fire was utilized during clashes in the city involving the Turkish army and police against the Kurdish militants. At least 25 people had been killed in Sur by early March 2016, with rights groups reporting more than 200 killed by the end of the siege on 10 March. The HDP party said that most of the casualties were civilians.

Kemal Pir, also known as Laz Kemal was a Turkish Marxist–Leninist revolutionary and one of the ethnically Turkish founders of the Kurdistan Workers' Party.

Vedat Aydın was a Kurdish politician in Turkey and human rights defender. He was married to Sükran Aydın.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Imprisonment of Abdullah Öcalan</span> Imprisonment of the leader of the Kurdistan Workers Party in Turkey

Abdullah Öcalan has been imprisoned on İmralı Island in the Sea of Marmara since February 1999. He is serving a life sentence for violating article 125 of the Turkish Penal Code. Initially he was sentenced to death but the conviction was commuted to a life sentence in October 2002. Abdullah Öcalan's imprisonment and the detention conditions are an issue that constantly causes constraints in the Turkish-Kurdish political sphere which has also an influence on the relations between Turkey and international organizations.

Dersim Dağ is a politician of the Peoples Democratic Party (HDP) and a member of the Turkish Parliament. She was 22 years of age when elected, and at the time was one of the youngest parliamentarians.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kurdistan Workers' Party insurgency</span> Armed conflict between Turkey and PKK

The Kurdistan Workers' Party insurgency is an armed conflict between the Republic of Turkey and the Kurdistan Workers' Party, as well as its allied insurgent groups, both Kurdish and non-Kurdish, who have either demanded separation from Turkey to create an independent Kurdistan, or attempted to secure autonomy, and/or greater political and cultural rights for Kurds inside the Republic of Turkey.

References

  1. ↑ Sevinç, Murat (2008). "Hunger Strikes in Turkey". Human Rights Quarterly. 30 (3): 655–679. doi:10.1353/hrq.0.0018. ISSN   0275-0392. JSTOR   20072863. S2CID   145227911.
  2. ↑ Anderson, Patrick (1 November 2004). "'To lie down to death for days'". Cultural Studies. 18 (6): 816–846. doi:10.1080/0950238042000306882. ISSN   0950-2386. S2CID   153633095.
  3. ↑ Bargu, Banu (2014). Starve and Immolate: The Politics of Human Weapons. Columbia University Press. doi:10.7312/barg16340. ISBN   9780231538114. JSTOR   10.7312/barg16340.
  4. ↑ "Sur, Turkey: residents pay price of violence as curfew enters fourth month". the Guardian. 3 March 2016. Retrieved 8 November 2022.
  5. 1 2 Saadi, Sardar (August 2021). "Waiting for justice amidst the remnants: urban development, displacement and resistance in Diyarbakir". Social Anthropology. 29 (3): 847–861. doi: 10.1111/1469-8676.13083 . ISSN   0964-0282. S2CID   239623137.
  6. 1 2 "4th day of hunger strike by families to reclaim the bodies of their children". ANF News. Retrieved 9 November 2022.
  7. ↑ "Families mourn children caught in crossfire in Turkey's southeast". Middle East Eye édition française (in French). Retrieved 9 November 2022.
  8. 1 2 3 "Families of 2 youths killed in Sur go on hunger strike to reclaim bodies". ANF News. Retrieved 9 November 2022.
  9. ↑ "'Babamın cenazesini terkettiğimiz evde bırakmak zorunda kaldık'". BBC News Türkçe (in Turkish). 5 January 2016. Retrieved 9 November 2022.
  10. ↑ "Bodies of two slain youths finally retrieved from Sur and identified". ANF News. Retrieved 9 November 2022.
  11. ↑ "Oran and Seviktek laid to rest amid calls for resistance". ANF News. Retrieved 9 November 2022.
  12. ↑ "Curfew in Sur to be ceased for 2,5 hours for the retrieval of bodies". ANF News. Retrieved 9 November 2022.
  13. ↑ "Sur'da hayatını kaybeden Ramazan Öğüt'ün cenazesi 154 gün sonra alınabildi". soL (in Turkish). 3 June 2016. Retrieved 9 November 2022.
  14. ↑ "Families denied bodies of their slain children in Sur to go on death fast". ANF News. Retrieved 9 November 2022.
  15. ↑ "Kurdish families begin 'death fast' over children's bodies left in streets". Middle East Eye. Retrieved 9 November 2022.
  16. ↑ "Body of Rozerîn killed in Sur 5 months ago received after identification". ANF News. Retrieved 9 November 2022.
  17. 1 2 "Kurdish politicians declare hunger strike – DW – 09/01/2016". dw.com. Retrieved 10 November 2022.
  18. 1 2 3 "In Turkey, Kurds begin hunger strike over jailed leader". Middle East Eye. Retrieved 10 November 2022.
  19. ↑ Arif, Joe Sterling,Meriame (10 September 2016). "Turkey allows family visit to jailed Kurdish leader". CNN. Retrieved 10 November 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  20. 1 2 3 "Jailed Kurdish leader backs peace talks – DW – 09/13/2016". dw.com. Retrieved 10 November 2022.
  21. 1 2 3 4 Karadag, Acun; Bozkurt, Nazan (2021), Aydin, Hasan; Langley, Winston (eds.), "Intellectuals on Hunger Strike for Reinstatement to Their Job: The Case of the "Yuksel Resistance"", Human Rights in Turkey: Assaults on Human Dignity, Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 261–291, doi:10.1007/978-3-030-57476-5_12, ISBN   978-3-030-57476-5, S2CID   230582324 , retrieved 8 November 2022
  22. ↑ Kaya, Muzaffer (2018). "Turkey's Purge of Critical Academia". Middle East Report (288): 25–28. ISSN   0899-2851. JSTOR   45198320.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.