Turkish activists meet to resolve prison hunger strike that has left 122 dead

http://www.thenewanatolian.com/tna-17441.html

Turkey

Deputies meet with activists on F-type prisons The New Anatolian / Ankara 03 November 2006

Font Size: default medium large A group of prisoner support activists yesterday met with deputies to communicate their concerns after months of trying to secure a meeting. The group from the Association of Aid and Solidarity for Prisoners' Families (TAYAD), headed by Mehmet Guvel, asked for support from deputies to end a hunger strike involving prisoners and their relatives that has claimed 122 lives so far. The hunger strike, started to protest F-type prisons, which isolate prisoners by keeping them in individual cells, has been overlooked by Justice Minister Cemil Cicek as he has repeatedly said he views the action as an offense. The ministry and other officials are working to improve the conditions in prisons and there is no reason for such a show of protest, says Cicek, adding that those on the hunger strike are doing so for political reasons. F-type prisons, introduced by then former Justice Minister Hikmet Sami Turk of the previous government, have been strongly criticized by both domestic and international human rights activists for restricting rights of prisoners and confining them to isolation. A group of intellectuals recently sent a package of petitions and shirts printed with images of F-type prisons to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, Justice Minister Cemil Cicek, and other Cabinet members and deputies to attract attention to conditions in the prisons. The TAYAD members, at a meeting with ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party Hakkari Deputy Mustafa Zeydan, Bingol Deputy Abdurrahman Anik, main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) Balikesir Deputy Sedat Pekel and Motherland Party (ANAVATAN) Mersin Deputy Huseyin Guler, said that the matter should be brought to Parliament at once to stop the loss of life. The group's leader said that they will continue meetings this week and will submit a report on the problems in the country's F-type prisons. TAYAD is known to be a fiercely leftist group and has been accused of looking on the terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) favorably and was subjected to cooperative attacks in northwestern Turkey a couple of months ago because of its alleged support for the terror group. It made the headlines with news stories related to the rising nationalist wave in response to an escalation of articulation of separatist claims by the PKK supporters.