Hüseyin Aykol
In his weekly column for the Yeni Yaşam newspaper, Hüseyin Aykol writes about violations of human rights in Turkish prisons and shares the voice of prisoners in his column by sharing letters he received from a number of prisons in Turkey.
One of the prisoners in İzmir’s Şakran No.2 T-Type Prison, Orhan Çaçan says in a letter he sent two weeks ago:
“We are pleased to hear from you after such a long time. Unfortunately, the prison conditions have not allowed us to reach you as often as before and read the publications you sent. Last week, they brought us a list of publications that we can request to subscribe to. But none of them are decent or readable publications. That’s why we didn’t subscribe. We are currently reading Birgün newspaper. Not bad but not exactly what we want. Hunger strike in prisons is now on the agenda. I think we will bring peace, democracy and freedom to the country. Dear freind, even if I say the situation here is good, you know that it is not. Prisons are a place of isolation and restriction. After the pandemic, it has almost doubled. We are now living in complete grave silence. Of course, the insides of the prison is over-crowded again. After the new laws and regulations to decrease numbers it didn’t take long. Consequently, the number of prisoners has increased considerably. We are currently 18-20 people in a cell that is designed for 8-10 people. We have difficulty simply breathing.”
”It is much more challenging for those of us with chronic diseases. I need to breath fresh air because of tuberculosis. The conditions I have prevent me from even breathing! That’s why I asked the ministry to be transferred to one of the L type security prisons in Istanbul. They haven’t answered yet. It would be great if you could help. ”
Mehdi Boz is in Elazığ High Security Prison in Turkey’s eastern province of Elazığ (Eleziz), he sent a letter on December 8, 2020, he says:
“We are trying to be good despite all the pressure and difficulties. We are already in isolation; With the pandemic, it has further aggravated the isolation. In the 21st century we are still dealing with book bans. We cannot be able to buy personal books since March. They announced a while ago: They would give a book every two months. We could also buy a book on religious holidays, new year and birthdays. They are really mocking us. They will also decide how many books we will read.”
”My health problems continue as before. Nothing has changed. I do not go to the hospital due to the pandemic restrictions. I write a petition that I do not want to go hospital because prisoners become corona positive at the hospital. I need to use medicine regularly because of my kidney problem but it is not given to me. The doctor says, “You need to renew your report for this” or “we are writing, but the pharmacy does not give it because there is no payment” I have not been able to take medicine for 7-8 months. Here, a few friends had corona positive. We heard that they are good now. We heard that 8-9 prisoners here also had tested positive but they recovered. Take good care of yourself.”
Barış İnan, a prominent cartoonist and illustrator jailed in Istanbul’s Kandıra No.2 F-Type Prison, drew 15 cartoons for Yeni Yaşam newspaper and he sent a letter recently:
“We missed you. It’s been so long that we haven’t see you. Let’s see how long it will take. They will definitely enact another restriction so that we cannot read you. We are not permitted to read your newspaper (Yeni Yaşam) and we cannot receive any publications. Now we will be able to subscribe to newspapers and magazines weekly by depositing money from the canteen or here. I subscribed to several magazines today. However, some of them are quite expensive, although they are discounted. By the way, for some magazines we had to open a bank account for subscription, we sent money to them, even if they do not normally receive money from prisoners. We live in an interesting times!”
Erdal Kotan, in Elazığ No.1 High Security Prison, says in her new year card:
“I hope you are in good health and stay positive. We are trying to be good too; There is nothing that has changed here. The pandemic process has also been turned into an opportunity for prison administration. I wish 2021 will bring peace, brotherhood and freedom. “
