The Socialist Party of the Oppressed (ESP) on Sunday ended a three-day hunger strike at its Istanbul provincial office in solidarity with political prisoners who are protesting the use of high-security solitary confinement prisons and demanding their closure due to the imposition of inhumane conditions and isolation.

ESP members on hunger strike told ANF that these prison conditions are not only the concern of a specific group but a threat to all segments of society. They called for expanded solidarity and immediate collective action.

Prison policies reflect what is being imposed on society

On the third day of her hunger strike launched in support of three comrades protesting absolute isolation in high-security prisons, Serpil Topal from the ESP stressed that the practices in prisons are in fact a reflection of what is being imposed on society as a whole.

Topal pointed out that the repressive policies of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) alliance have now extended to all sectors of society. She said: “We are facing a system where expressing one's opinion on social media is criminalized, journalists are detained and imprisoned for their reporting, workers’ strikes are banned, femicides are on the rise and met with impunity, and young people, especially university students, who raise their voices against a futureless reality are being silenced through judicial repression. This is fascism.”

Fascism first tries to break the will of revolutionaries

Topal emphasized that fascism seeks to maintain its power and hegemony by first targeting the will of society’s vanguards, revolutionaries and socialists, and that prisons are one of the primary tools used to achieve this.

Topal noted that the government, having previously attempted this through F-Type high-security prisons, has now constructed new forms of isolation through so-called pit-type prisons after failing to succeed. She stated: "Revolutionaries resisted F-Type prisons, paid heavy prices, and achieved certain victories through struggle. In response, the government built pit-type prisons where it can impose even harsher conditions of isolation. These are prisons where not just revolutionaries or socialists, but any human being, simply as a social being, is deprived of the most basic rights, like seeing the sunlight or talking to another person. That is why this is not just the problem of a specific group, but one that concerns all society. Because what the government is trying to do is imprison women, young people, workers, and all struggling segments of society, break their will inside these walls, and strip them of even the most basic human emotions, thoughts, and dignities."

Kerem Bükre, member of the Central Committee and Istanbul Provincial Executive of the ESP, said that the state is using prisons as a tool to break the will of revolutionaries.

Bükre, who himself participated in hunger strike protests as a political prisoner during the construction of F-Type prisons, recalled: "Even before the F-Type prisons, there were many attacks. You may remember that during the 1980 coup era, there were also attempts to impose uniform clothing on prisoners. But one of the most brutal assaults occurred with the December 19 massacre. Political prisoners were burned alive, and many others were seriously injured. Just before the massacre, the Prime Minister at the time, Bülent Ecevit, declared, ‘To implement the policies of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), we need to implement F-Type prisons.’ The goal was to crush the will of socialists and communists who could lead a potential social uprising. They carried out the 19 December 2000 massacre, but they failed to achieve their goal. They couldn’t impose their system within the F-Type prisons. Political prisoners responded with a death fast resistance and reclaimed the fundamental rights that were being stripped from them through struggle. Since 2015, even those hard-won rights have been taken away, and today the state is trying to implement, through cell-type prisons, what it could not accomplish in the F-Type prisons."

No sun, no human contact

Bükre recalled how, during the introduction of F-Type prisons, the state attempted to deceive the public by portraying them in the media as 'five-star hotels.' He pointed out that with Y-Type prisons, the government did not even bother to create such illusions, precisely because these facilities are no different from a deep, isolating pit. He said: "Imagine this: you are allowed only one hour of fresh air a day. Even that one hour is taken from you if it rains or if the weather is cold. You never see the sun, because three layers of iron bars and glass block the light. When food is delivered, you do not even see the guard. You are ordered to the yard by a voice command. You are kept in total isolation. After being there for a long time, even if you are eventually released, you are likely to experience serious psychological, and even physical, health problems."

The state forgets the strength of the prison resistance tradition 

Bükre said that capitalism today is undergoing a crisis of existence, and the state has been intensifying its attacks in an attempt to suppress any potential popular uprising. He added: "Today, people are being arrested even under Law No. 2911. At the slightest demand for rights, they are threatened with solitary confinement. Most recently, students detained during the Sarachane protests were held in cell-type prisons for two weeks. Just as F-Type prisons were intended to subdue society and the working class, the same goal applies to these new pit-type facilities. But what they forget is the strength of the prison resistance tradition within the revolutionary movement in Turkey. Since 1980, there have been dozens of acts of resistance and many victories. They have never succeeded in breaking that resistance, and they never will."

Attacks will continue without joint resistance outside and inside prison 

Bükre underlined that revolutionaries have already been resisting in pit-type prisons through hunger strikes since they were placed there, and that it is those on the outside who must now raise their voices. He called for expanded solidarity.

He said that these pit-type prisons pose a threat to everyone and that this awareness must guide the response, and added: "After May Day in 1996, they opened the coffin-like prison in Eskişehir to suppress the rising anti-fascist movement and placed socialists who had been arrested in operations before and after May Day into that facility. Revolutionaries responded with the 1996 death fast and managed to close the coffin cells in Eskişehir, because they had support from outside. Today, the same must happen if we are to shut down the S- and Y-Type cell prisons. We must not leave the entire burden to the revolutionaries. These prisons could hold anyone. If we cannot build a link between the resistance inside and the public outside, the attacks will continue. Today they place revolutionaries in these cells, tomorrow they will put ordinary citizens."

Fascism advances by spreading fear

Enes Güleli, a member of the Socialist Youth Associations Federation (SGDF), said that pit-type prisons are being used by the fascist regime as a tool to break the will of revolutionaries, erase them politically, and suppress organized struggle. He stressed the need for unity in the face of these attacks.

Güleli added that what pushed him toward becoming a revolutionary was precisely the normalization of torture. He said: "Fascism always advances by spreading fear. For example, the public fears being sent to prison. That is one of fascism’s most effective tools, scaring people into submission. Because its goal is to instill fear and force people to abandon organized struggle. And that is exactly why I believe we must fight. It’s also why, as a revolutionary, I am participating in this three-day hunger strike in solidarity with my comrades. These hunger strikes are both a political stance and proof of an unbreakable will. They are an act of resistance against a system that seeks to legitimize torture."

We have no choice but to resist

Enes Güleli warned that if the public remains silent in the face of this form of torture targeting revolutionaries, it will eventually come for everyone. He recalled the recent example of the detentions during the Sarachane protests and added: "If we do not stop these cell-type prisons today, if we do not build solidarity, then next time it will be someone else, and eventually, everyone. There’s a slogan that says, ‘If you stay silent, the next knock will be on your door.’ In fact, that time has already come and is passing. We have nothing left to lose but our chains. Fear won’t help us escape our fate. There’s nothing beyond death. We have no choice but to resist."