In a written statement, the PKK-PAJK Prison Committees commemorated “with respect and gratitude” the prisoners who were murdered in Amed (Diyarbakır) on September 24, 1996.

The statement released on Thursday includes the following:

“The policy of massacre against the Kurdish people and revolutionaries is the most basic feature of the fascist Turkish State. Putting opponents, revolutionaries, socialists, patriotic Kurds into prisons and subjecting them to massacres whenever possible are practices that have been implemented since the foundation of the Republic of Turkey and is the most basic policy adopted for prisons.

As a result of this mentality and policy, the anti-Kurdish fascist Turkish State attacked the prisoners in the Amed Prison on September 24, 1996, and brutally murdered twelve of our comrades. This crime against humanity, which was committed by smashing the heads of the prisoners with iron bars, revealed the Kurdish hatred and inhuman face of the fascist Turkish State in its purest form.

The same mentality has recently imprisoned tens of thousands of our comrades and patriotic people just because they are Kurds who do not deny their identity and who claim their most basic legitimate rights like other peoples. Sick prisoners are not treated nor are they released from prison to be treated. The policies of isolation, oppression and torture on all prisoners, including Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan, have become systematic practices equal to an enemy law. Prisons have been turned into places of revenge, torture and oppression, fascism and racism.

However, as in the past, our comrades have embraced the 40-year-old tradition of prison resistance and put up magnificent resistance worthy of our leaders, our martyrs, our people and the historic process against all kinds of will-breaking policies of the enemy. Following the Great Prison Resistance in 2019, the prisons have become one of the most significant resistance fronts in the “Time for Freedom” campaign and played their role properly in the struggle to overthrow the AKP-MHP-Ergenekon fascist government.

On the anniversary of the 1996 massacre, we once again commemorate with respect and gratitude our comrades Mehmet Aslan, Kadri Demir, Ahmet Çelik, Edip Derikçe, Mehmet Nimet Çakmak, Rıdvan Bulut, Mehmet Kadri Gümüş, Erhan Hakan Perişan, Cemal Çam and Hakkı Tekin, who were martyred in the Amed Prison Massacre on September 24, 1996. We state that we will claim their legacy by destroying fascism, realizing Öcalan’s physical freedom and liberating our people. We call on our people and the broader public to take their place in this struggle and increase the resistance against fascism.”