Situation of 3 hunger striking prisoners threatened with force feeding is still unknown

Sarıkaya: Forcibly intervening against our friends on hunger strike is murder!

INTERVIEW WITH FERDI SARIKAYA

by ZEYNEP KURAY, ISTANBUL

Wednesday, 15 April 2026 (article translated from ANF News)

The forced abduction of Hüseyin Özen, Tahsin Sağaltıcı and Gürkan Türkoğlu – who, along with four fellow prisoners held at Antalya Kuyu Prison, were on an indefinite hunger strike demanding their transfer – to hospital has sparked widespread outrage. Upon hearing the news, Ferdi Sarıkaya, a friend of Özen, Sağaltıcı and Türkoğlu, who had travelled to Antalya City Hospital alongside the families staging a sit-in in Ankara to demand their children’s transfer request be met, spoke to ANF. Sarıkaya reacted to the mistreatment his friends were subjected to, stating: “There is an L-type prison just 100 metres from Antalya pit-like prison. Instead of transferring our friends to that prison to resolve the issue, they have taken them to the hospital,” he said.

‘DEADLINE FOR THE PRISON AUTHORITIES: WEDNESDAY!’

It has emerged that political prisoners Hüseyin Özen, Tahsin Sağaltıcı and Gürkan Türkoğlu, who have been on an indefinite hunger strike demanding their transfer in protest against the absolute isolation and inhumane conditions imposed at Antalya Pit-Type Prison, were forcibly taken to Antalya City Hospital five days ago against their will and without anyone’s knowledge. The families of Özen, Sağaltıcı and Türkoğlu, who have been holding a vigil in Ankara for a month to have their sons’ transfer requests met, immediately travelled to Antalya upon hearing the news and applied to the public prosecutor’s office to be allowed to see their sons.

Ferdi Sarıkaya, a friend of Özen, Sağaltıcı and Türkoğlu who has stood by their families during these difficult times, warned that any forced medical intervention on their friends—who had been taken to hospital against their will—would amount to murder. Sarıkaya also explained that the political prisoners at Antalya Pit-Type Prison had given the prison administration a deadline on this matter, stating, “Hüseyin Özen, Tahsin Sağaltıcı and Gürkan Türkoğlu have announced that they will begin an indefinite hunger strike if they are not returned to the prison by Wednesday.”

‘THREE OF OUR FRIENDS HAVE DROPPED TO 40 KILOGRAMS AND ARE NOW AT A CRITICAL STAGE OF THEIR HUNGER STRIKE!’

Sarıkaya, who travelled from the protest site in Ankara to Antalya alongside the families of Özen, Sağaltıcı and Türkoğlu, announced that there is currently no question of any forced intervention regarding his friends, who were forcibly taken to hospital. Sarıkaya, explaining that Özen, Sağaltıcı and Türkoğlu had been held in the same cell at Antalya Pit-Type Prison before being taken to hospital, said: “56-year-old Hüseyin Özen has been on an indefinite hunger strike for 243 days, 44-year-old Tahsin Sağaltıcı for 263 days and 38-year-old Gürkan Türkoğlu for 263 days. All three of our friends have dropped to 40 kilos and are at a critical stage of their hunger strike. Before Hüseyin Özen was taken to hospital, his family visited him in prison. They explained that Hüseyin, who is usually brought to the visiting area after the families have arrived, and the other two friends on hunger strike were brought to the visiting area before the families arrived this time.”

When they asked Hüseyin about this, he explained, ‘They brought me to the visit 10 minutes before you arrived so that you wouldn’t see me in a wheelchair.’ They had brought Hüseyin in a wheelchair before the visit and seated him in a chair, and then let the family in for the visit. “It’s as if our friends won’t tell their families about this; the prison authorities are trying to conceal the gravity of the situation in their own way, so that it doesn’t get out,” he said.

Sarıkaya, emphasising that the health of his friends on hunger strike was deteriorating due to the failure to meet demands that could be met very easily, described the critical stage they had reached as follows: “Our friend Tahsin Sağaltıcı asked for incontinence pads during his last phone call with his father. Because they have now reached a point where they can no longer get out of bed. All three have developed oedema in their legs, their mouth ulcers have now become visible, and they are struggling to take in fluids,” he summarised.

‘TWO ELDERLY POLITICAL PRISONERS ARE CARING FOR OUR FRIENDS ON HUNGER STRIKE’

Drawing attention to the fact that two elderly political prisoners, who are themselves in need of care, are acting as carers for three friends whose health is deteriorating, Sarıkaya said, “Our three friends are being held in a cell in the section reserved for sick prisoners because they are on hunger strike. As they are unable to look after each other’s needs, two of our brothers, aged around 70 and in poor health, who are in the cell next door, are acting as their carers. They have opened the doors to connect the two cells; in this way, whilst Mehmet looks after Tahsin Sağaltıcı and Gürkan Türkoğlu, Mustafa looks after Hüseyin Özen. But the truly tragic aspect here is that these two elderly men are also people in need of care,” he said.

‘THE SOLUTION LIES IN TRANSFERRING THEM TO THE L-TYPE PRISON 100 METRES AWAY!’

Reminding that the sole demand of the three friends was to be transferred to prisons that are not of the pit type, Sarıkaya pointed out that there was no need to transfer them to another city to meet this demand, stating, “There is an L-type prison just 100 metres beyond the Antalya Pit-Type Prison. You don’t even need a car to get there; it’s a very short walk. If they were to transfer the four political prisoners, along with our friends on hunger strike, to the L-type facility, the problem would be solved. But instead of meeting this demand, which they could easily fulfil, the prison administration and the Ministry of Justice forcibly took our friends to hospital,” he protested.

‘THE FAMILIES OF THE PRISONERS HAVE BEEN PROTESTING IN ANKARA FOR 30 DAYS!’

Sarıkaya, emphasising that their families are also in despair as their loved ones melt away day by day, stated the following:

“Hüseyin Özen’s mother, Ayşe Özen, is 80 years old; Gürkan Türkoğlu’s mother, Lütfiye, is 66; and Tahsin Sağaltıcı’s father, Hilal Sağaltıcı, is 70. All three have been staging a sit-in in Ankara for a month to demand that their children’s requests for transfer be met. Hilal has previously suffered a stroke and has a slipped disc, yet he has been on duty in Ankara for 30 days for his son’s sake. Moreover, he has a fractured finger, but because his son is on hunger strike, he does not even want to go to hospital for a check-up.”

I have also been supporting this resistance from the beginning. There was no intervention until the 26th day of our sit-in, but over the last five days, arrests accompanied by torture have begun. Apart from the mothers, Hüseyin Özen’s two sisters and brother, Hilal and I have been constantly arrested. An order has been given not to arrest the mothers, so they are leaving them alone. But they are arresting other family members and me without hesitation, subjecting us to torture. By refusing to accept the demands of our three friends, they are effectively subjecting both them and their families to torture. Families of detainees who had arranged appointments to meet MPs were even barred from entering the parliament building, and apart from DEM Party MPs, no one has visited us at the protest site. Our elderly mothers were forced to go to the CHP MPs themselves, and they, too, promised to find a solution.”

‘A FEW DAYS BEFORE THEY WERE FORCIBLY TAKEN TO THE HOSPITAL, THEY HAD ALREADY BEEN TAKEN TO THE SAME HOSPITAL’

Sarıkaya, pointing out that Özen, Sağaltıcı and Türkoğlu had been taken to the same hospital a few days before being forcibly taken to Antalya City Hospital, on the instructions of the Ministry of Justice and again against their will, said: “They took them to the same hospital again to check on the health of our three friends. When our friends refused to be examined, they were sent back to prison. A few days later, they were taken to the same hospital again, this time by force. We haven’t heard from them since, but we’ve learnt from their lawyers that they refused the forced intervention and, as a result, no intervention was carried out.”

I would like to take this opportunity once again to appeal to the management of Akdeniz University Hospital, and in particular to Antalya City Hospital. Forced intervention is a crime; it is torture. Before this incident of abduction took place, we had gone to the Antalya Medical Association to voice our concerns regarding a possible forced intervention, and now we have been proven right because our colleagues have been abducted to the hospital. Our colleagues Özen, Sağaltıcı and Türkoğlu have legitimate demands and are resisting for this cause. To forcibly intervene against them would be murder. Instead of forcibly detaining our colleagues in the hospital, they should immediately transfer them and the four political prisoners held at Antalya Pit-Type Prison to the L-type facility just 100 metres away from the prison,” he called for.

‘THEY WERE DETAINED BEFORE VISITING THEIR CHILDREN’

Lütfiye Özen, the mother of Türkoğlu, who was granted permission to visit her children being held at Antalya City Hospital on 15 April 2026, Hilal Sağaltıcı, the father of Tahsin Sağaltıcı; İsmail Özen, the brother of Hüseyin Özen; and Ferdi Sarıkaya, whom we interviewed, were reportedly detained on 14 April by the Political Affairs Department of the Antalya Police Headquarters prior to this visit.