ASSOCIATION FOR SOLIDARITY WITH THE FAMILIES OF PRISONERS AND CONVICTS (TAYAD) ASKS;
REZZAN ŞENGÜL:
“The solution to our problem is very simple. This prison holds more than four thousand detainees and convicted prisoners. All of them can use the exercise yard from sunrise until sunset, and in all of their wards the cell doors remain open throughout the day, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, allowing them to come together in a shared living area.”
CEMİL KURT’S FATHER:
“He lives in the toilet. He washes the dishes in the toilet. He eats there. Such a thing cannot be accepted.”
HASAN BASRİ YILDIZ:
“For four years I held press statements in front of Çağlayan Courthouse. I was never punished for any of them. Now I am here because of those very same statements. Although every one of those statements resulted in decisions not to prosecute, I am imprisoned because of them.”
THERE ARE MORE THAN 4,000 PRISONERS IN MARMARA PRISON
All of them can use the exercise yard from sunrise until sunset.
The doors of the cells in all of their wards remain open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Only the Revolutionary Prisoners are subjected to isolation.
Two prisoners are held together in 8-square-metre cells.
Having been defeated in the Well-Type Prisons, fascism is now attacking in order to turn every prison where the Revolutionary Prisoners are held into a Well-Type Prison. They attack because of their helplessness in the face of resistance—the only commander they have never been able to defeat.
Today, the centre of resistance is Marmara No. 6 L-Type Prison.
In the Marmara L-Type Prison, where ten Revolutionary Prisoners are held, six prisoners are on an indefinite hunger strike. One of the resistance fighters, Can Kaba, was released last week while continuing his resistance. Five prisoners continue the resistance.
THE ESSENCE OF THE ATTACK IS TO FORCE THE REVOLUTIONARY PRISONERS INTO IDEOLOGICAL SURRENDER!
The rights enjoyed by more than four thousand prisoners are denied to just ten prisoners.
They tell the Revolutionary Prisoners:
“We will drive you to madness through isolation within isolation.”
In the 8-square-metre cells where two prisoners are held together, it is impossible for both prisoners to stand up at the same time.
The cells are so small that prisoners who cannot walk are suffering muscle atrophy.
By keeping prisoners in unhealthy conditions, they force them to wash their dishes and their food in the toilet sink.
The shared living area is monitored by cameras twenty-four hours a day.
They attack the right to privacy.
The reason these prisoners are thrown into these torture cells is, in the first place, because they covered the cameras inside the cells.
By prohibiting the Revolutionary Prisoners from using the exercise yard, breathing fresh air, walking, drying their clothes and meeting even their most basic needs, fascism declares:
“Everywhere will become a Well-Type Prison.”
They want not only bodies but also ideologies to be buried inside these 8-square-metre cells.
Fascism hopes that by leaving them isolated like a stone at the bottom of a well, they will abandon their ideology.
This attack against the Revolutionary Prisoners is an ideological and political attack.
“THE FOOD IS PREPARED IN THE TOILET,
THE DISHES ARE WASHED IN THE TOILET.
WE DID NOT RAISE OUR CHILDREN FOR THIS.
IMPROVE THEIR CONDITIONS.
WE DEMAND THE SAME RIGHTS THAT THE OTHER 4,000 PRISONERS ALREADY HAVE!”
In these 8-square-metre cells, the dishes are washed in the toilet, and the food is washed in the toilet.
FROM THE JUNTA PRISONS TO THE WELL-TYPE PRISONS
Speaking outside the prison, the father of Grup Yorum member Cemil Kurt explained the just reasons behind the resistance:
“I came to visit my son. He is in No. 6 Prison in Silivri. He has been here for a week. The children are on an indefinite hunger strike. They are being kept in single cells. I have just spoken to him, and that is what he told me. The sinks are in the same place. We wash our dishes in the bathroom and prepare our meals there. The place where we sleep is there, the place where we get up is there… It is no better than the cells in Erzurum… It is an L-Type Prison, but it is even harsher than a Well-Type Prison.
As families, we do not accept these conditions. We do not want our children to die. They are on an indefinite hunger strike.
The state should know about this, the public should know about it, journalists and the press should know about it, and these practices must be stopped. The doors of our children’s cells must be opened. As their family, we have always opposed this. I personally oppose it. I can never accept such a thing.
Please pay attention to this. I have nothing more to say. We cannot bear to lose our children. We did not raise our children so that they would lie in prison cells.
I raised this child through great hardship and sacrifice. Today I myself am ill. I take between nine and fifteen medicines every day. I may collapse and die tomorrow, and perhaps they will not even allow my son to attend my funeral. I cannot accept that.
Please open our children’s cell doors. If they are prisoners, let them remain prisoners. Let them have a shower. Let them eat their meals. Let them live somewhere where dishes are not washed in the toilet…
He lives in the toilet. He washes the dishes in the toilet. He eats there. Such a thing cannot exist. Does such a thing exist anywhere in Turkey? Not only in Turkey—it exists nowhere. Please put an end to this. I have nothing else to say.”
TAYAD MEMBER HASAN BASRİ YILDIZ:
“FOR FOUR YEARS I PROTESTED OUTSIDE ÇAĞLAYAN COURTHOUSE AND WAS NEVER ARRESTED.
FOR FOUR YEARS IT WAS NOT A CRIME.
NOW THEY CALL IT A CRIME AND HAVE IMPRISONED ME.”
Another of the prisoners on an indefinite hunger strike is TAYAD member Hasan Basri Yıldız.
Ninety per cent visually impaired, Hasan Basri Yıldız has been resisting since 18 May 2026.
Instead of releasing a prisoner who cannot see, they imprisoned him for holding press statements.
Fascism, which treats the exercise of democratic rights as a crime, also uses prisons as centres of destruction.
Held together with Grup Yorum member Can Kaba in an 8-square-metre cell, Hasan Basri Yıldız is imprisoned for demonstrating outside Çağlayan Courthouse for four years, despite repeated decisions not to prosecute him.
Explaining that under fascism the law serves only the interests of fascism itself, and that resistance is therefore the only path, Hasan Basri Yıldız said during a telephone conversation with his brother:
“The hunger strike continues. Today is our fifty-ninth day. We are becoming weaker now.
Last night Can and I examined our bones to see where the joints begin and end, because they have become so visible.
The reason is that we are being held in these 8-square-metre cells. People are forced to wash their dishes in the same sink where they eat. Two people cannot even stand up together in an 8-square-metre space.
This is contrary to human dignity, to life itself, and to morality.
We have always said this, and we will continue to say it, because we will continue to resist.
That is why we are on hunger strike.
There are many violations of rights in this prison, but what made matters even worse was that because we objected to cameras monitoring the shared area, they punished us by throwing us into these cells.
I have been living in a single cell since around 9 March. I have now been on an uninterrupted hunger strike for approximately fifty-eight days.
We know that we are the ones who tell the people the truth directly in this country. I have never told the people a single lie.
For four years I held press statements outside Çağlayan Courthouse. I was never punished for any of them. Yet today I am imprisoned because of those very same statements.
Although decisions not to prosecute were issued in every one of those cases, I am still here.
That is why I am imprisoned.
Six of my comrades here are on hunger strike. We will never accept this injustice.
Gürkan became a martyr for this reason. He lost his life for this reason.
No one will ever be able to confine the children of the people in Well-Type Prisons.
We say this openly to everyone.
Yes, our comrades are wasting away.
Can Kaba is beside me. Can Kaba is 1.90 metres tall. Now he has become as thin as a shepherd’s staff.
Cem Dursun has reached the same condition…
They have reached the eightieth day of their hunger strike.
That is why we continue to resist.
None of our lives is more precious than the life of Gürkan Türkoğlu.
We will never surrender to these inhuman conditions.
Those who covet even a morsel of bread from the people’s table should know this reality.”
Hasan Basri Yıldız’s sister, who participated in the families’ protest outside the prison, also said:
“Many people have already died during hunger strikes. Gürkan Türkoğlu is one of those we have recently lost.
Now they too are on hunger strike.
We want the people, the members of parliament and the state to do something.
As families, we do not want people, young people and our children to die inside this prison.”
THE 1.90-METRE-TALL CAN KABA HAS BECOME AS THIN AS A SHEPHERD’S STAFF!
I DO NOT WANT MY SON—WHO WAS THROWN INTO A CELL FOR COVERING THE CAMERA—TO DIE!
Speaking at the same protest, the mother of Grup Yorum member Can Kaba said:
“My son, Can Kaba, is being held in a cell in Marmara No. 6 L-Type Prison because he covered the camera. Today is the fifty-third day of his hunger strike. We have just come out from visiting our children. They have become very weak. The people must do something about this as soon as possible. We do not want our children to be killed.”
THE SOLUTION TO THE PROBLEM IS VERY SIMPLE:
THE CONDITIONS PROVIDED TO MORE THAN FOUR THOUSAND DETAINEES AND CONVICTED PRISONERS MUST ALSO BE APPLIED TO THE REVOLUTIONARY PRISONERS!
During a telephone conversation, Grup Yorum member Rezzan Şengül said that the solution to the problem is very simple:
“Instead of solving our problem, they are trying to develop different methods of attacking our resistance.
Yet the solution to our problem is very simple.
This prison holds more than four thousand detainees and convicted prisoners.
All of them can use the exercise yard from sunrise until sunset.
Likewise, the doors of the cells in all of their wards remain open throughout the day, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, allowing them to come together in a shared living area.
Our demands are very clear and very definite.
We are aware of our rights. No one granted us these rights as a favour. They were won through countless martyrs in the prisons.
Therefore, we will never accept these attacks on our resistance.
The clearest answer to these attacks came today from our new comrades who joined the struggle.
Cemil Kurt and Emircan Yazı began an indefinite hunger strike today.
We had already said that, apart from resolving our problem, we would respond to every attack directed against us.
We want our problem to be resolved.
The solution consists of entirely just and legitimate demands.
We stand firmly behind them.
We told them only this:
Our comrade Gürkan Türkoğlu did not hesitate to give his life, and none of our lives is more valuable than Gürkan’s.
Therefore, with Gürkan’s determination and clarity, we have declared that we will continue along this path.
Today we continue to resist.
WE ARE RIGHT, AND WE SHALL WIN!“
WE WERE NOT UNDER CELL PUNISHMENT, YET WE WERE THROWN INTO CELLS!
WE ARE NOT SERVING AGGRAVATED LIFE SENTENCES.
WE ARE REMAND PRISONERS, YET WE HAVE BEEN PLACED IN CELLS!
Can Kaba explained that Cemil Kurt and Emircan Yazı had also begun an indefinite hunger strike in protest against the cell conditions:
“The chief wardens came to speak with us.
They came because your letters, the efforts of members of parliament, and all of your work are putting them under pressure and exposing what they are doing.
They came to talk.
We stated our demand very clearly.
Until our demand is met, our ward is our shared living area.
We will continue until we are allowed to use it together, just like the other four thousand prisoners here.
We repeated our determination once again.
They are being exposed.
That is why we are writing even more letters and submitting even more petitions.
We ask all of you to make an even greater effort so that together we can resolve this.
We are becoming weaker.
Our existing health problems are worsening because we are being held in cells and because we are on hunger strike.
For example, I suffer from shortness of breath.
Brother Basri is already ninety per cent visually impaired.
He needs surgery, but because of the conditions we are currently being held in, he cannot undergo the operation.
These are the health problems we face.
Remaining under these conditions is an even greater threat to our health.
Therefore, we will continue to resist until we obtain our rights.”
WHY ARE THE RIGHTS GRANTED TO 4,000 PRISONERS DENIED TO THE REVOLUTIONARY PRISONERS?
BECAUSE WE DEFEND OUR DIGNITY AND OUR RIGHT TO RESIST!
We call upon the peoples of the entire world to resist fascism!
We do not merely issue a call—we show the way.
From workers to civil servants; from students to neighbourhood residents; from the people of Greece to the people of Iran; to all the peoples of the world, we say:
Resist imperialism. Fight against it!
We call upon everyone to defend the right to resist, the right to win rights, and the right to seek justice through struggle!
Because imperialism and fascism cannot destroy revolutionaries ideologically.
When they look at revolutionaries, they see their own end, and they are deeply afraid.
The enemy is helpless.
The enemy is cowardly.
The enemy is cruel.
Because they cannot force ten Revolutionary Prisoners to bow their heads.
They cannot make them surrender.
Just as they could not make Gürkan Türkoğlu surrender…
The weapons of isolation that they have found to use against the courage and strength of revolutionaries have long since been defeated.
They are merely repeating themselves.
They dream of burying, within 8-square-metre cells, an ideology that is the strength of all the peoples of the world and the builder of the future.
Historically and politically, you are already dead.
History cannot be turned backwards.
Nor can you stop the forward march of history.
Today we may physically be inside 8-square-metre cells.
Do not let that deceive you.
Our strength lies in the unstoppable course of history.
WE WARN THE ADMINISTRATION OF MARMARA NO. 6 L-TYPE PRISON:
ISOLATION AS TORTURE IS A CRIME!
Stop torturing our children.
Provide the Revolutionary Prisoners with the same conditions that are granted to the other 4,000 prisoners.
End isolation!
INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY FOR POLITICAL PRISONERS (IS4PP) 
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