The Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Law and Human Rights Commission co-spokespersons Nuray Özdoğan and Serhat Eren issued a written statement on the anniversary of the massacre in prisons that took place in 2000. It was called "Return to Life operation".

The statement said that 22 years have passed since the massacre, called operation "Return to Life", carried out on 19 December 2000 against prisoners on hunger strike against the F-type prison practices in prisons, which caused the death of 30 prisoners and the injury of nearly 300 prisoners. The political leaders of the period who ordered the massacre carried out in front of the Turkish and world public opinion and the perpetrators who committed the crime continue to be protected by the policy of impunity.”

The statement continued: “The prison brutality of 12 September, the massacre in Amed prison on 24 September 1996, and the massacre of 19 December 2000, were put into effect as a continuation of each other and as a product of the same mentality. This torture practice, unfortunately, continues. The rights of the prisoners defined by national and international law have been ignored, and the aggravated isolation system has been transformed into a form of government.

Open the archives

The statement continued: “The isolation, which has become a form of administration in prisons, has spread to the whole country by going beyond the prison walls. The prisoners' struggle against diseases in prison conditions, their right to access health services, their sentences prolonged, their exposure to strip searches, the prohibition of their social rights, the implementation of personalized execution regimes show that the policies of massacre and severe isolation have continued in the 22-year period since December 2000.”

The statement added: “The policies that led to the violation of the right to life in prisons that have spread over time should end and ill prisoners should immediately be released. The protection of the prisoners' right to life should be granted and the end of torture and ill-treatment practices secure.

In order to confront the 19 December massacre and finally reveal the truth, we demand that the state open its archives and initiate a judicial and administrative investigation against those responsible for this massacre, which is a crime against humanity. If not today, these truths will definitely come out tomorrow, and those responsible will give an account of every crime they have committed before an independent judiciary.”

Background

During the week of December 19-26, 2000, 10,000 Turkish soldiers violently occupied 48 prisons to end two months of hunger strikes and "death fasts" by hundreds of political prisoners. The hunger strikers are protesting the state's plan to transfer its prisoners from large wards to US-style "F-type" cells holding one to three occupants. Operation "Return to Life" -- which left 30 prisoners and two soldiers dead -- lasted a few hours in most prisons, and up to three days at one prison. Eight prisoners have reportedly "disappeared", and at least 426 prisoners have been wounded. 1,005 prisoners have been transferred to F-type cells.

The armed operation ostensibly aimed to "rescue" members of illegal, radical left organizations from "forced" starvation at the hands of their leaders. But the official number of prisoners conducting death fasts has reportedly increased to 353 since the operation, up from 282. Unofficial reports say that up to 2,000 prisoners are starving themselves, with the active support of 10,000 others.

Human rights groups suspect security forces of burning prisoners with firebombs during the operation. According to the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey, some bodies were buried without being identified, and other deceased prisoners' families and lawyers were not admitted to the autopsies.