I wrote this message last week in order to inform list members about what
is happening in Turkish jails. Due to yesterday night 13 prisoners died
as a result of hunger strikes. Just after the eighth person lost her life,
government decided to recognize (-but only recognize) the existence of
plausable "mediators". The hunger strikes are now over. We lost 13 people.
So I forward my question again. I interpret the silence of the list
members on the topic due to the "hardness" of the question.
It is sometimes the best way to judge (- and may be to reach a
more accurate understanding) the value of a scholarly work, is to reread
it with reference to some very recent events. There is a continuing
hunger strike in Turkish prisons for 65 days. Two of 280 prisoners died.
20 of them lost their chance to live without serious health
problems.(it is now 13 after the resolution)
What they demand from the government is, in a nutshell, the abandonment of
anti-democratic measures concerning the prisons and closing of a prison
that is designed to confine "political" detainees i.e., those of them who
thought "wrongly"
The government is still refusing to accept their demands even
they know that tens of them will die in a couple of 12 hours.
Hundreds of people are protesting the deafness of government
usually by accusing them because of their insensibilty to "human rights"
So the question follows. Always bearing Foucault's comments on
"humanism" in our minds, how is it possible to support those people in
the prison. Is there an immanent, inalienable right to live? Are there
"human" rights? I am sure that there is nobody in this list who will
refuse
the concept "human rights" without offering an alternative. BUT, how is it
possible to construct inalienable and non-transcendental conception of
human rights when we think of Foucault.
(The crucial point is that there are some concepts
that cannot be easily criticised because of their political content that
are very useful in activating people in resisting.)
Sincerely.
Koray Caliskan
Caliskak@xxxxxxxxxxx