Prisoners' campaign for Yezidis

Prisoners' campaign for Yezidis

Political prisoners in Turkey have started an aid campaign in solidarity with the Yezidi people, despite their limited possibilities and difficult conditions, in addition to their being exposed to rights violations. The sick prisoners, who are not taken to hospital for their treatment on the pretext of lack of vehicles or gendarme to accompany them, have also joined the campaign.

The prisoners in Sincan Number 2 F Type Prison and the prisons in Amasya, Nevsehir, Yozgat, Afyon, Dinar, İnebolu, Cankırı and Corum launched a donation campaign in solidarity with the people from Sinjar. The prisoners joined the campaign by donating the allowances their families are sending them in order to contribute to betterment of the conditions of Yezidis as well as to draw attention to those conditions.

The prisoners will send their donations to the Yezidi people via the Ankara branch of TUHAD-FED. Calling on all the people to be in solidarity with the Yezidis and to join the campaign, the prisoners said that their campaign will continue for an indefinite period of time.

Speaking to ANF about the campaign, the representative of the TUHAD-FED Ankara branch, Hava Özcan, drew attention to the importance and meaning of the solidarity campaign initiated by the inmates, adding that all the people of the country must be in solidarity with the Yezidis in the face of their sufferings as the pain can one day hit the west, the north or the south as well.

Özcan pointed out to the silence and ignorance of the government about the Yezidi refugees in Turkey and added that as Turkey supported ISIS, it is futile to have expectations from the government for those people who had to flee from the attacks of ISIS. Ozcan said what is of importance is the solidarity of the people, not the help of the AKP government.

Özcan also drew attention to the situation of the prisoners and to the fact that the sick prisoners have not been taken to hospital in the last 4 months on the pretext of “lack of vehicle or gendarme to accompany the prisoners”, adding that the issue of sick prisoners is not an article of negotiations in the peace process but a matter of humanity as the Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan insistently repeats. Özcan said urgent steps must be taken by the Ministry of Justice and the government for the sick prisoners.

Recalling that many of the sick prisoners are suffering from cancer and that some are terminal, Özcan stressed that these prisoners have to be liberated from their cells. Further drawing attention to the fact that the prisoners are kept under surveillance through cameras in their rooms, representative of the TUHAD-FED Ankara branch said the prisoners are punished when they protest at surveillance, adding that all these implementations are nothing but torture.