Simon Cooper
& Ruth Riordan, Istanbul
In a modest flat in the Istanbul suburb of Sisli, a lawyer named Behic Asci has not eaten for over 120 days. His ongoing hunger strike — or "death fast" — is an act of defiance against unjust laws, a stand of solidarity with hundreds of Turkish political prisoners denied their most basic human rights, and a courageous call for solidarity from human rights supporters around the world.
Asci began the death fast on International Lawyer's Day, April 5, because, he says, he could no longer sit back and watch his clients die.
Born in 1965, Asci has dedicated his legal career to the cause of human rights and social justice. A prominent member of the Turkish Association of Progressive Lawyers, Asci has represented more than 10,000 clients, including many of the political prisoners who have been sentenced for their membership of banned revolutionary socialist organisations. Political prisoners held in Turkey, including Kurdish political activists, number in the thousands.
Since 1982, 122 people have lost their lives through death fasts in a bid to secure basic human rights and end the policy of solitary confinement in Turkey's jails.
When we arrived at his flat for the interview, Asci was flanked by two-dozen supporters from the Association of Solidarity with the Families of Prisoners (TAYAD). Since its formation 20 years ago, TAYAD has campaigned relentlessly against government repression to bring the plight of the political prisoners to national and international attention.
Asci said some of the most horrendous crimes against political prisoners were committed during the introduction of the F-type isolation prisons in 2000. Attempts by the prisoners to resist their transfer to the new jails were met with extreme violence and 28 prisoners were murdered by the prison authorities.
Six of those killed were set alight and burned to death. Prison authorities simply returned the remaining ashes to the victims' families. The other 22 prisoners died from gunshot wounds. The perpetrators remain unpunished to this day.
Asci argued that the Turkish legal system provides no protection for the political prisoners held in isolation. In one instance when a guard demanded one of Asci's clients stand up for a prisoner count, she responded that given she was in an isolation cell there was no need for her to stand to be counted. Enraged at this small show of defiance, the guard attacked the prisoner, crushing her skull against the cell wall.
When Asci appealed to the court to protest his client's mistreatment, his suit was rejected as part of a "terrorist campaign" against F-type isolation prisons. The court concluded that the prisoner must have crushed her own skull.
The isolation prisons are designed to terrorise, humiliate and break the morale of the political prisoners. Many of the prisoners Asci represented have had their feet taped together and their hands taped behind their backs. Left alone, immobilised, for hours or days at a time and unable to avail themselves of toilet facilities, they are forced to endure the indignity of repeatedly soiling themselves. Many of Asci's clients, both men and women, had been raped while in custody, often by prison guards using batons.
Asci related another experience of one client during a court hearing who had been held in isolation and who had to halt midway through reading a statement to the court. He had lost his hearing and could no longer hear his own voice.
Prisoners in the F-type prisons typically suffer from a range of psychological illnesses including stress, anxiety and depression. The authorities also routinely deny prisoners medical assistance and access to legal representation. According to Asci, prisoners are arbitrarily refused visits from family members that they are legally entitled to. Their books, newspapers and other reading material are confiscated. The letters sent to their families are heavily censored — if they ever arrive at all.
Throughout the interview Asci was calm and eloquent as he explained the factors that led him to make this drastic protest. But the physical signs of such a long time without food were also apparent. Normally a human can survive at most for 60 days without eating. But vitamin supplements can allow a death faster to survive for as long as 300 days.
Asci said his death fast had already succeeded in modestly breaking through the defacto media censorship around isolation and the human rights abuses committed in the F-type jails. He has received support from progressive organisations, fellow lawyers and other professionals, artists and numerous human rights supporters. But his death fast will continue with the single central demand: end isolation.
Ultimate victory in the campaign for human rights in Turkey does not rest within the borders of Turkey alone, Asci said. Major western powers like the US and the European Union have refused to criticise Turkey's isolation prisons and have instead endorsed Turkey as a partner in the "war on terrorism". Only strong support and solidarity from human rights campaigners all around the world, combined with resurgent political and social movements within Turkey itself, can hope to hope to end the ongoing torture of Turkey's political prisoners, Asci concluded.
[Email messages of solidarity to Behic Asci at <avukatbehic@mynet.com>. To contact TAYAD, email <sydtayadkomite@mynet.com> or visit <http://www.tayad-committee.com>]