Republican News · Thursday 14 March 2002

Two further Turkish hunger strikers die

Two more hunger strikers have died in Turkey, bringing the total number of dead to 48 in the struggle against the state's introduction of high security F-Type prisons.

Yusuf Kutlu died in Sincan prison on Saturday 9 March after 279 days on Death Fast. Born in 1973 in Hatay and an ethnic Arab, Kutlu was arrested in 1994 and had served time in prisons in Malatya and Bartin. After the massacre of political prisoners on 19 December 2000 he was transferred to Sincan F-type prison. He died on the 505th day of the Death Fast.

A protest was held by Irish solidarity campaigners at the Turkish Embassy in Dublin on Tuesday evening, 12 March.

Yeter Guzel also died at the weekend in Bayrampasa Hospital in Ankara. She was 28 years old. From her childhood she had been detained on numerous occasions and tortured for struggling against injustice.

In 1999, the communist activist and health worker was jailed in Gebze Prison after a police raid on the Esenyali Health Centre where she had been working as a nurse.

After joining the seventh Death Fast Team and being released from prison, she continued the action outside prison in Alibeykoy (Istanbul). She was arrested in a police operation in November 2001 and taken to Bayampasa Prison. Her situation grew worse and she died in Bayrampasa Hospital.