METU students support Serkan Onur Yilmaz

Students and communities of METU (ODTÜ), one of the most important universities, also for progressive students in Turkey, published a statemnt for Serkan Onur Yilmaz and pit-type prisons.

Here’s the translation of the statement, signed by over 30 communities.

SERKAN ONUR YILMAZ IS NOT ALONE!
SHUT DOWN WELL-TYPE PRISONS!

Pit-type isolation prisons are the darkest mechanisms of oppression in our time. These structures, the most concrete tools of inhumane practices, systematic oppression, and psychological destruction, are made up of single-person cells, windowless, and concrete – literal pits. The prisoner is entirely cut off from daylight, the flow of time, and all forms of human contact, trapped in a concrete grave. The purpose of these structures is to isolate the prisoner not just physically, but mentally and spiritually, first estranging them from themselves, then from the world, and ultimately breaking their will completely. Similarly, these methods aim to threaten the public with subtle intimidation, erase collective memory, and crush resistance.

It must not be forgotten that the ultimate goal of the ruling power is to extend the oppression from these dungeons to the entire country — to turn a whole nation, where free thought, opposition, and solidarity are imprisoned, into one large open-air prison.

Today, young people on campuses, in the streets, and on social media who question, criticize, and resist face investigations, detentions, and suppression policies meant to silence and intimidate them. But this youth, who refuse to be silenced and who oppose the threat of dark wells and isolation, is confronting this danger head-on. We know that during the events of 19 March, those who threw two of our comrades into pit-type prisons will continue to exert pressure in order to imprison revolutionary youths who fight against the regime and the capitalist class it represents, to prevent them from engaging in politics, and to maintain their tyrannical regime at the highest level.

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As METU Students, we stand against pit-type prisons, torture, inhumane treatment, and isolation; we express our demands:

• Well-type prisons, which violate human dignity and international law, must be shut down immediately!
• The right of all prisoners to live under humane conditions must be guaranteed!
• All forms of physical, psychological, and systematic torture and ill-treatment of detainees and convicts must end!
• The demands of all prisoners on hunger strike or death fast, including Serkan Onur, must be met, and their health conditions must be monitored by independent doctors without any external influence!

Serkan Onur Yılmaz is not alone. We are fighting for the revolutionaries imprisoned in pit-type prisons.
Today we raise our voices for them, and tomorrow for everyone.
As METU Students, we will continue to raise our voices and grow our solidarity against these inhumane practices.

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While fascism, with all its oppressive policies, aims to isolate those who resist it from society, the revolutionary prisoner Serkan Onur Yılmaz is on a death fast for 291 days, putting his body on the line to demand the closure of pit-type prisons. Although his transfer request was granted, he continues his resistance so that all prisoners can live under humane conditions and be free. Serkan Onur’s struggle — sacrificing his health and body — is not just for his own freedom, but for all revolutionary prisoners and all youth targeted by the system. It is for the days when these inhumane dungeons will be torn down, and we will reach the sunlight.

As METU Students, we continue to build our fight against torture and repressive practices on a broad scale. We are well aware of why the AKP-MHP government is trying to fill prisons with political prisoners using its policies of oppression and suppression. We see clearly that, at a time when the struggle is sprouting on all fronts, the regime seeks to sever those who resist from society and take revenge on them, escalating pressure and attacks even further.

We believe that the defeat of the government — which imprisons revolutionaries in pit-type prisons — will come through the flourishing struggle spreading like a wave across all of Turkey.

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SIGNATORIES

• HDK METU Assembly
• METU Alevi Culture Research Society
• METU Amateur Astronomy Society
• METU Amateur Photography Society
• METU Archaeology Society
• METU Computer Engineering Students
• METU Science Fiction and Fantasy Society
• METU Biology and Genetics Society
• METU Environmental Society
• METU Mountaineering and Winter Sports Club
• METU Economics Society
• METU Feminist Solidarity
• METU Physics Society
• METU Civil Engineering Students
• METU LGBTQAA+ Solidarity
• METU Media Society
• METU Debate Society
• METU Music Societies
• METU Players (Theater Group)
• METU Student Activity
• METU Student Collective
• METU Psychology Society
• METU Art History Society
• METU Ceramics Society
• METU Cinema Society
• METU Sociology Society
• METU THBT (Theater Club)
• METU International Youth Society
• METU Architecture Society
• Free University Movement METU
• Libertarian Youth

THE METU students and their communities have sent a strong message of solidarity.

SOLIDARITY IS THE STRONGEST WEAPON!

LONG LIVE THE RESISTANCE AGAINST PIT-TYPE PRISONS!

SERKAN ONUR YILMAZ MUST LIVE, ALL PRISONERS BE TRANSFERRED TO A NON-PIT TYPE PRISON AND THEIR FINAL LIBERATION!