Serkan Onur Yılmaz, who is imprisoned for alleged links to the banned Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party/Front (DHKP-C) and has been on a hunger strike for over 200 days protesting the conditions in high security prisons, has described the facilities as “graves for the living” in a recent letter to the BirGün daily.
Maximum security prisons, also known as Y-type and S-type prisons, were built in 2021 to accommodate people sentenced to aggravated life as well as political prisoners, both of whom have been categorized as dangerous prisoners. Human rights advocates have described the conditions in these prisons as “inhumane” and said prisoners were kept in solitary confinement, which caused “unprecedented stress.”
They said ventilation in these prisons was poor and that inmates are kept in prolonged solitary confinement. Food was inadequate and of poor quality, and inmates were constantly pressured by guards to stay silent.
According to Turkish law, an inmate can only stay in solitary confinement for a maximum of 20 days; however, there are currently hundreds of inmates who have been in solitary for more than two years.
Four inmates, including Yılmaz, are currently on a hunger strike in protest of conditions in these prisons. Although some have been transferred to other facilities as a result of their protests, they continue their strike in solidarity, demanding that all political prisoners be removed from these notorious institutions.
Bakican Işık, a member of the folk protest band Grup Yorum, is one of those inmates on a hunger strike.
Grup Yorum, known for its politically charged lyrics and criticism of the Turkish government, has long been the target of censorship. The government has banned its concerts since 2016, and band members have faced repeated detentions. The group’s cultural center has repeatedly been raided by police, and several members remain imprisoned.
Işık has demanded the full closure of S and Y-type prisons. As he enters the 177th day of his strike, his mother told BirGün that she would do everything in her power to keep her son alive.
“As a mother, I will not let my son rot in prison under such inhumane conditions. No mother gave birth to her child so they would decay in these places. As a mother, I am doing everything I can to keep my son alive,” she said.
