Sociologist and Yüksel Street activist Veli Saçılık, who was released from public service through an emergency decree, has applied for MP candidacy at the HDP (Peoples’ Democratic Party) in the upcoming forced election of 24 June.

Saçılık is one of the countless activists who have been participating in the action "We want our job back" in Yüksel Street in Ankara for 546 days in protest of their dismissal from the civil service, as part of which academics Nuriye Gülmen and Semih Özakça went on hunger strike and imprisoned for months.

"Peace and freedom will prevail"

Commenting on his application for candidacy with the Peoples’ Democratic Party, Saçılık said: "In response to all the massacres, I decided to apply for candidacy with the slogan 'Peace and freedom will win'. Never in my life will I stand side by side with those who said the wolf's tooth has licked blood. I had to show that my place is on the opposite side. It is extremely important for me to muster my strength for the left, for socialism, for the oppressed and for all peoples. That's why I applied to the HDP".

During the night of 18 to 19 December 2000, 8,500 heavily armed soldiers and gendarmes, including specially trained special battalions and elite intelligence units, stormed 20 Turkish prisons under the name "Operation Return to Life". At that time, about 1,150 prisoners were on hunger strike in 48 prisons, 300 of them were already on death row to prevent the introduction of isolation (so-called F-type) prisons. Veli Saçılık was also one of the people jailed for political reasons. Saçılık lost one of his arms when police bulldozed the walls of the Burdur Prison.