ANKARA - While the hunger strike against increasing rights violations and isolation continues, Prof. Dr. Şebnem Korur Fincancı pointed to the health dimension of the strike: Şebnem said: ‘’It is clear that isolation is torture in terms of health outcomes.’’

 

More than 4,000,000 people died due to the coronavirus (Covid-19), which emerged in Wuhan, China in December 2019 and spread all over the world. The coronavirus has also turned into a tool to increase the pressure in Turkey, as in many other countries. Prisons are at the forefront of the places where the oppression is experienced the most. Within the scope of Covid-19 restrictions that started in 2020, open and closed meetings were prohibited in prisons, and after a while, closed meetings were allowed. However, the "normalization steps" announced by the government from time to time did not affect the bans in prisons. In addition, no measures were taken to protect the prisoners. In addition, with the execution package issued on the grounds of pandemic in 2020, many ordinary prisoners, including perpetrators of violence, were released, while political prisoners were not benefited from the law.

The hunger strike launched against the increasing pressure in prisons during the pandemic and the aggravated isolation on PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan is on its 223rd day. While the resistance exceeds seven months, health problems are increasing in the indefinite-alternating action of the prisoners.

 

Turkish Medical Association (TTB) Central Council Chairperson Prof. Dr. Şebnem Korur Fincancı drew attention to the health problems existing in prisons and increasing with the pandemics.

 

‘Prisons are the bleeding wound of this country’

 

Şebnem said that with the statement made after the cabinet meeting held in the past days, the "normalization" process started as of July 1, but pointed out that the normalization in question did not occur in prisons. Stating that they called for vaccination in prisons immediately due to the occupancy rate of the prisons during the pandemic process, Şebnem said: ‘’This risk has increased with the hunger strikes recently. We also receive information about health problems from the prison. Sometimes a whole ward can get sick. Such as taking precautions, some steps need to be taken to strengthen the hunger strikers and prevent the weakening of their immune system, but prisons are the bleeding wound of this country.’’

 

‘There are no other mechanisms’

 

Şebnem said that since the AKP came to power, prisons have other dimensions, and that during this time, as healthcare professional organizations, they participated in the negotiations regarding hunger strikes and assumed the responsibility of conveying the demands of those on strike to the government. Şebnem said: ‘’But, unfortunately, the AKP government does not allow us to establish this communication in any way. It did not allow us, but also made some arrangements to legitimize forced intervention for those on hunger strike. In fact that people go on hunger strike with the thought that they have no other choice in conditions where all rights are violated is a very serious problem in order to demand their rights. Because other mechanisms should be in place to seek their rights, but there is no such thing.’’

 

‘People are being killed and tortured’

 

Referring to AKP's ‘Human Rights Action Plan’, Şebnem defined this plan as ‘Human Rights Violation Action Plan’. Explaining the reason for this by saying, ‘’People are being killed and tortured one after another,’’ and continued: ‘’Yes, we have problems with prisons. We learn about the problems in prisons from the letters that prisoners write to us, from their relatives, or from lawyers. As a physician's organization, our ability to assess their health disappears.’’

 

‘Prisons are still risky because vaccination is not completed’

 

Emphasizing that the vaccine is meaningless without community immunity, Şebnem emphasized the need to continue the precautions until 70 percent of the population is vaccinated. Şebnem shared the following information regarding the vaccination situation in prisons: ‘’But these measures have evolved into torture in prisons. Closed meetings were eliminated at the beginning of the pandemics. However, closed meetings are already behind the glass and do not pose a risk. But instead of taking appropriate measures, the government has adopted from the beginning as the easiest way to eliminate and ban closed meetigns. There is a similar situation now. It poses a risk to prisons and those on hunger strike, as vaccination is not completed in all incoming families. But we also know that using it as a torture method is also a problem.’’

 

‘Forensic Medicine Institute reports are not taken into account’

 

Stating that the lawyers who visited the prisons applied to the TTB, Şebnem stated that they evaluated the reports on the medical conditions of the prisoners. Şebnem said, “The judiciary often ignores neither these reports nor the reports of forensic medicine institutions. You know, a legal regulation was also made. Prisons were also included in these legal regulations. With the authority given to the prosecutor's office in the legal regulations, the prosecutor's office continues to ignore the health status of the people it considers as 'dangerous for society' and keep persons inside. Aside from the torture of bringing and taking the 80-year-old person to the hospital, the fact that they are still keeping him inside is an indication of this.’’

 

‘Isolation is torture’

 

Stating that the political prisoners who are on hunger strike in prisons should be provided with the basic materials on health and hygiene in this process, where the pandemic continues, Şebnem finally said: ‘’We know that the prisons are overcrowded, we also know that there are conditions where they cannot keep their distance, which is very important. The government must evaluate the reasons for going on a hunger strike. We have said from the beginning that isolation is torture. It is clear that isolation is torture in terms of health outcomes. Therefore, the government should both prevent these regulations and give rights to those on hunger strike in the way of negotiation.’’