The daughter of jailed Kurdish politician Gültan Kışanak posted a picture sent by her mother on social media. The picture shows Gültan Kışanak with Figen Yüksekdağ, former MP and co-chair of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), and journalist Gazel Bulut.
Daughter Evin Jiyan Kışanak wrote: “Conductor Gültan Kışanak, violinist Figen Yüksekdağ and flautist Gazel Bulut, they send their love and regards.”
The three women are incarcerated in Kandıra high security prison in Turkey’s western province of Kocaeli.
Gültan Kışanak, former MP, was elected mayor of Diyarbakır (Amed) in 2014. She was removed from her post by the Turkish ministry of the interior to be replaced by an appointed trustee, and arrested in October 2016.
Figen Yüksekdağ, former MP, was stripped of MP status and arrested in November 2016 while she was serving as the co-chair of HDP.
Gazel Bulut, a journalist, was jailed in July 2017 over ‘terrorism’ charges when her daughter was 20 months old. Upon her application to the prison administration to be transferred to a prison in Istanbul or Kocaeli to be close to her family, and to take her daughter with her, she was transferred to a prison even further away from her home.
Kandıra high security prison is one of the F type prisons in Turkey designed to inflict isolation on inmates.
Kurdish political prisoner Garibe Gezer died under suspicious circumstances in Kandıra prison on 9 December 2021. The prison administration said that she was found dead in her cell and gave the reason of her death as suicide.