An internationalist from Belarus who has been following the process of political prisoners in Turkey and other countries for a long time, wrote a letter for the political prisoner Fikret Akar in Turkey. Fikret was one of dozens of hunger striking prisoners in Turkey, who has carried out his resistance against pit type isolation prisons and for his transfer to a normal prison for 8 months. Finally his demands were accepted.
“Hello, dear Fikret!
I have been meaning to write to you for a long time, and now, finally, I have managed to set aside the time to do so.
Some time ago, I sent you some sweets—this was part of an international campaign we organized in response to the attack of the prison administration, which had denied you the ability to purchase the sweets you needed while on a hunger strike.
My name is Nadezhda; I live in Belarus, I’m a member of the Anti-Imperialist Front, and work alongside other comrades from various countries to provide support and protection for political prisoners, among other initiatives.
For several years, I have been studying the revolutionary struggle in Turkey, and I am very interested to learn how you spend your days in prison. I know that revolutionary prisoners follow a specific daily routine and continue their work regardless of the conditions. I would love to hear more about this from you.
Who are you sharing a cell with right now? Are you given the opportunity to go out into the exercise yard? Is the yard shared with other prisoners? Or—as in F-type prisons—is there direct access to it from your cell? How is your health? I’ve heard that you’re still having trouble with your legs following your long hunger strike, which caused nerve damage.
A year ago, when we were campaigning for the lives and demands of Serkan Onur Yılmaz, Ayberk Demirdoğan, and yours, we established a Russian-language Solidarity Committee for Political Prisoners in Turkey. The committee includes comrades from Belarus and Russia, a former political prisoner from Ukraine, and the Kononovich brothers—whom you know. As a Committee, we have participated in international solidarity actions in support of the resistance of revolutionary prisoners in Turkey. We have held one-day hunger strikes, taken photographs with placards, released balloons, and sent postcards to revolutionary prisoners. We rejoiced at every victory, and we were deeply shaken by the martyrdom of Gürkan Türkoğlu.
Since the summer of this year, we have also been actively working to provide aid to political prisoners in Ukraine. There are thousands of such prisoners there. Most of them are not revolutionaries, communists, or even social activists; rather, they have all suffered at the hands of a fascist regime because of their humanity, their Soviet convictions, and their rejection of fascism. For instance, people receive long prison sentences for things like posting Victory Day greetings online, sharing images featuring socialist symbols, or defending the Russian language.
Among these political prisoners, there are, of course, committed anti-fascists who continue their resistance even while in custody. However, unlike in Turkey, there is no revolutionary organization in Ukraine, and the prisoners are not united or coordinated with one another.
One such committed anti-fascist—whose life was saved from certain death thanks to international efforts—is the Ukrainian Alexander Melnik. In March 2024, he was sentenced to seven years in prison, accompanied by the confiscation of his property. The court claimed this was for “collaborating” with the Russian Armed Forces during their occupation of the Kyiv region. In reality, he was punished for saving the residents of a dozen villages near Kyiv from starvation by delivering food, medicine, and fuel to them.
Alexander Melnik has been held in several pre-trial detention centers and penal colonies. From each of these locations, he has managed to report the truth: the humiliation, invasive searches, beatings, and attempted sexual assaults; the grueling forced labor and extortion; the damp, unheated cells; and the complete lack of proper medical care, clean drinking water, or adequate food. It was thanks to Alexander that we learned the true state of affairs at Vinnytsia Penal Colony No. 86, which had been turned into a veritable concentration camp for political prisoners. Consequently, when he was transferred there, he was already prepared to fight to the very end, knowing full well that he would not leave the place alive.
Working alongside the Anti-Imperialist Front and the Ukrainian Association for the Protection of the Rights of Political Prisoners and Human Rights—an organization established this year by the Kononovich brothers—we coordinated our first international campaign on August 5th to protest the torture and killing of political prisoners at the Vinnytsia colony. That day, 425 people from 16 countries took part in a one-day hunger strike, including 92 prisoners held within Ukraine. This marked the first collective hunger strike by political prisoners in Ukraine, as well as the first international show of support for Ukrainian prisoners. News of this action spread widely across the Russian-language media space; the posts I was able to track alone garnered several hundred thousand views.
Alexander Melnik served as a leader of the resistance within the Vinnytsia colony; as a result, immediately after the hunger strike was announced—and even before it began—he was placed in a punitive isolation cell. He was held there for over two months, and for the first month, he was denied even boiling water.
Our second international campaign, held on September 11th, was therefore aimed at securing Alexander Melnik’s release from isolation, while continuing to protest the torture taking place at the Vinnytsia colony. This second action involved a one-day hunger strike by 408 participants, alongside pickets held outside Ukrainian embassies and consulates in eight different countries.
The third action took place on October 16. As part of this initiative, we held a one-day hunger strike and organized pickets in front of various embassies. We were particularly pleased to receive support from TAYAD and Mehmet Güvel.
We observed that people in Europe and beyond are responding enthusiastically to the call to participate in actions defending Ukrainian political prisoners. For many, learning about the torture and inhumane conditions in Ukrainian prisons came as a shock. Even we were unaware of much of this—and, in fact, we still have very limited information, as the prisoners themselves are afraid to speak out.
Just before the third action, we received news that Aleksandr Melnyk had been urgently transferred to a different penal colony. Notably, this did not follow the standard, two-month-long transit procedure—which typically involves moving a prisoner through various pre-trial detention centers before reaching a new colony—but was instead a direct transfer from one colony to another. As we joke, he was treated like a “VIP”.
Upon his arrival at the new facility, the head of the colony and the chief of the operational unit met with him personally to ask about his demands—an unprecedented occurrence. He is currently undergoing a comprehensive medical examination, as his health has suffered due to torture and his confinement in inhumane conditions. He has sent word that he is doing alright and thanks his comrades for their actions and support.
Securing Melnyk’s situation marks our first major victory in the campaign to defend political prisoners in Ukraine. We have proven that resistance and international solidarity yield results, and that this is the only path toward achieving justice. We are currently planning an action for November in defense of political prisoners in Ukraine. We are also continuing the struggle for Cem Dursun and Taceddin Erol Şahin—who are approaching their 200th day on hunger strike—as well as other prisoners who are resisting isolation and attacks within Turkish prisons. Furthermore, we are campaigning for the right of Özgül Emre, currently imprisoned in Germany, to write and receive letters in her native language.
Our goal is to connect the resistance taking place in prisons across various countries: revolutionary prisoners in Turkey, Palestinian prisoners in Zionist jails, Irish republicans in British prisons, political prisoners in Ukraine and Russia (where attacks on communists have recently intensified), as well as political prisoners in the Spanish state, Germany, and France. If the enemy isolates and tortures the leaders of the anti-imperialist and anti-fascist struggle, it is our duty to become their voice, support their resistance, and secure their release from the confines of prison.
You might also be interested to know that we have organized two political study groups in Belarus conducted in English. In these sessions, we are reading The Star of Our Struggle, Half of Our Name – Lenin—a collection of letters about Lenin written by free prisoners in Turkey—as well as Mahir Çayan’s Uninterrupted Revolution.
With warm regards from Belarus,
Nadezhda”
