Hatice Soyler, mother of Ozlem Soyler who has been on a hunger strike since December 16 in the Gebze Prison protesting the Imrali isolation said the isolation must end in practice, not in theory.
Mothers continue to hold vigils in front of prisons to draw attention to the ongoing hunger strikes and death fasts demanding an end to the isolation imposed upon Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Ocalan. Hatice Soyler, one of the mothers who resist in front of the Gebze Prison despite attacks and obstacles by the police, spoke to the ANF.
WHEREVER WE GO WE ARE UNDER SURVEILLANCE
Soyler said she came to Istanbul from Izmir where she lives to support her daughter Ozlem Soyler who has been on a hunger strike since December 16 and other political prisoners. She said the arbitrary practices in Gebze have spread so much that “Forget about sitting by the prison, when two mothers meet up to go to the market we are cut off by the police. Wherever we go we are under surveillence.”
THEY ALL SHIVER IN THIS WARM WEATHER
Mother Soyler said 7.000 political prisoners are wasting away, and that continuing to live with that knowledge is difficult: “Every time I see my daughter, I see she lost more weight. She was a thin, tiny girl to begin with, now she’s completely gone. She says she is OK so I won’t worry, she always smiles, but I know that her health is getting worse. When I hold her hand during free visitation her hand is like ice. They all shiver in this warm weather.”
WE ARE OUT OF TEARS, OUR HEARTS ARE BREAKING
Mother Soyler spoke about the Minister of Justice Abdulhamit Gul’s comments of “The visitation ban in Imrali has been lifted” and stressed that the isolation must end in practice, not in theory. Soyler said they as the mothers stand behind the legitimate demands of their children to the end and called on AKP’s President Erdogan and his wife Emine Erdogan: “Everybody needs justice one day. We don’t want to receive our children in coffins from the prisons. We worry for their lives. All authorities should take the risk and end this tyranny. I want to call on Emine Erdogan in particular: As a mother, think of us. We are out of tears. Our hearts are breaking. Enough is enough! They say mothers shouldn’t cry, they say heaven is under the feet of mothers. So what is this treatment we face? We go to prisons, we are dragged on the ground. We want to sit for one hour, we are stopped. As mothers, we want peace, and we are the ones that most deserve peace.”
