Hi;
I am a citizen of Turkish Republic. I read the questions on the "problems in
the Turkish prisons". First of all, I would like to apologize because of my
horrible English then I would like to explain the situation as far as I
could have learned from the media and some Turkish leftist groups.
The problem in the prisons began several years ago. Government decided to
put the prisoners into private cells several years ago. In 1994 there was
another hunger strike which ended up with several deaths and government took
his decision back. But, after a while, government (this time a new one which
is a coalition of a so-called social democrat group, a nationalist party
which has lots of old-paramilitary murderers in it and a central right wing
party) decided to put them again to the cells. Prisoners are totally against
the idea of cells because, before, they had a solidaity, they were able to
protect themselves from the attacks of the guards or at least eye-witness
certain things and they were able to report these to the human rights
organizations. But, now as they would be in private cells, this would be a
big problem. Im a country like Turkey, assume that every year several people
are disappearing in the police stations, lots of them are tortured severely,
you can understand what might be reason of their fear.
Now, the behaviour of media was horrible this time. Because, in 1994, they
were at least informing the publiuc about certain facts and some -not most-
of them were supporting the prisoners. But, now, anybody who is supporting
the prisoners are accused not to be patriot and being a supporter of
terrorist groups. The truth is, most of the prisoners who are in hunger
strike are mostly in there just because of hanging illegal flyers on the
walls or being in a demonstration.
There is another fact which is a big question mark for everybody. The main
group in hunger strike is dhkc (http://www.ozgurluk.org/dhkc/) which is a
radical group having lots of mysteries over them. Once they killed one of
the major businessman's brother in a very well protected building's
executive floor. This murdr has lots of mysteries on it because, this
businessman was telling that the Kurdish problem should be solved not with
weapons but, with economic strategies which was a shock for the government.
So, right after his brother's death, he stopped talking about the Kurdish
problem. During the killing, the building's telephony exchange was not
working in a mysterious way etc. So, god knows what happened but, one thing
is clear for me which is DHKC is involved in some dirty games. Anyway, after
military attacked on the prisoners two weeks ago, (30+ prisoners were
killed) nobody knows what happened inside. One says that the leaders of the
groups inside the prisone ordered their man to burn themselves, the
prisoners are saying that soldiers and police officers burned them but, the
reality is unknown. For me, I am tended to believe that the anti-terror
police officers who were mostly chosen by the nationalists may burned
them...
Another thing which makes me very upset is the idea of "Turkish Prison" and
Turks are mixed to each other. Midnight express is a big example which is
used to offend me in US and in Europe. I got used to being discriminated in
European countries, especially in Germany but, even in US this offense
happened to me. The reality about that movie is there was not a good Turk in
there. (please see the following articel written by a famous Turkish
director: http://www.araf.net/dergi/sayi00/metinler/zaim940.shtml)
I was once arrested because of being in a political demonstration. I ws put
in DAL (in english it is DIL=Deep Investigation Laboratuary) which is a
famous police station in Ankara. It is famous because the political
prisoners have been severely tortured in this place since 1970s. They tested
drugs on the prisoners that's why they have the name: Laboratuary. One day,
I was watching a movie on torturing in Argentina and it shocked me but, the
methods they were using, the architecture of the buildings, the sizes of the
cells and even the placement of the restrooms were all same.
So, as we, the Turkish people became the most famous torturers of Hollywood,
there is another fact which is neglected by a very ethnocentric point of
view which is "how can it be possible to have same methods of torturing in
two very different places of the world?"
A final word on the Midnight Express: ME, my father, my brother were all
tortured. Even my father lost his mind after being tortured for more than 4
months. His illogically written notes can give me some hints. He took some
notes in his law book (because he was a lawyer) after he was brought into a
cell in which he was allowed to read after being tortured, he wrote that he
heard some people speaking English... And in the Midnight Express, an
American Citizen was being tortured and Hollywood found this interesting
but, the truth is the only untouchables in my country are drug dealers (big
ones) and the American Citizens. Same in Saudi Arabia, American women
soldiers may wear whatever they want, American soldiers are the only
privileged non-mouslims who can walk through the streets of Mecca (as you
may knew, Mecca was only open to Mouslim's by religious laws) etc. (I am not
trying to protect some religious rules, even I am an atheist, this is just
another example given in order to prove you how can it be possible to have
prejudices about some people, how could it be possible for a Power to create
a new knowledge, a new truth, a new fact...
So, not Foucault may help us to solve this issue but also, Zinn and Galeano
may help us, all the leftist historians who has written about the Military
coups, dictatorships, human rights may help us.
Thanks
Hakki
p.s. I am very sorry again for my English and if especially US citizens find
my words offensive. I was not trying to be offensive but, trying to explain
the facts. For me, it doesn't matter which culture ae you from, for me there
are better criterias to measure a human being then race, culture, country of
origin etc.
_________________________________________________________________
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I am a citizen of Turkish Republic. I read the questions on the "problems in
the Turkish prisons". First of all, I would like to apologize because of my
horrible English then I would like to explain the situation as far as I
could have learned from the media and some Turkish leftist groups.
The problem in the prisons began several years ago. Government decided to
put the prisoners into private cells several years ago. In 1994 there was
another hunger strike which ended up with several deaths and government took
his decision back. But, after a while, government (this time a new one which
is a coalition of a so-called social democrat group, a nationalist party
which has lots of old-paramilitary murderers in it and a central right wing
party) decided to put them again to the cells. Prisoners are totally against
the idea of cells because, before, they had a solidaity, they were able to
protect themselves from the attacks of the guards or at least eye-witness
certain things and they were able to report these to the human rights
organizations. But, now as they would be in private cells, this would be a
big problem. Im a country like Turkey, assume that every year several people
are disappearing in the police stations, lots of them are tortured severely,
you can understand what might be reason of their fear.
Now, the behaviour of media was horrible this time. Because, in 1994, they
were at least informing the publiuc about certain facts and some -not most-
of them were supporting the prisoners. But, now, anybody who is supporting
the prisoners are accused not to be patriot and being a supporter of
terrorist groups. The truth is, most of the prisoners who are in hunger
strike are mostly in there just because of hanging illegal flyers on the
walls or being in a demonstration.
There is another fact which is a big question mark for everybody. The main
group in hunger strike is dhkc (http://www.ozgurluk.org/dhkc/) which is a
radical group having lots of mysteries over them. Once they killed one of
the major businessman's brother in a very well protected building's
executive floor. This murdr has lots of mysteries on it because, this
businessman was telling that the Kurdish problem should be solved not with
weapons but, with economic strategies which was a shock for the government.
So, right after his brother's death, he stopped talking about the Kurdish
problem. During the killing, the building's telephony exchange was not
working in a mysterious way etc. So, god knows what happened but, one thing
is clear for me which is DHKC is involved in some dirty games. Anyway, after
military attacked on the prisoners two weeks ago, (30+ prisoners were
killed) nobody knows what happened inside. One says that the leaders of the
groups inside the prisone ordered their man to burn themselves, the
prisoners are saying that soldiers and police officers burned them but, the
reality is unknown. For me, I am tended to believe that the anti-terror
police officers who were mostly chosen by the nationalists may burned
them...
Another thing which makes me very upset is the idea of "Turkish Prison" and
Turks are mixed to each other. Midnight express is a big example which is
used to offend me in US and in Europe. I got used to being discriminated in
European countries, especially in Germany but, even in US this offense
happened to me. The reality about that movie is there was not a good Turk in
there. (please see the following articel written by a famous Turkish
director: http://www.araf.net/dergi/sayi00/metinler/zaim940.shtml)
I was once arrested because of being in a political demonstration. I ws put
in DAL (in english it is DIL=Deep Investigation Laboratuary) which is a
famous police station in Ankara. It is famous because the political
prisoners have been severely tortured in this place since 1970s. They tested
drugs on the prisoners that's why they have the name: Laboratuary. One day,
I was watching a movie on torturing in Argentina and it shocked me but, the
methods they were using, the architecture of the buildings, the sizes of the
cells and even the placement of the restrooms were all same.
So, as we, the Turkish people became the most famous torturers of Hollywood,
there is another fact which is neglected by a very ethnocentric point of
view which is "how can it be possible to have same methods of torturing in
two very different places of the world?"
A final word on the Midnight Express: ME, my father, my brother were all
tortured. Even my father lost his mind after being tortured for more than 4
months. His illogically written notes can give me some hints. He took some
notes in his law book (because he was a lawyer) after he was brought into a
cell in which he was allowed to read after being tortured, he wrote that he
heard some people speaking English... And in the Midnight Express, an
American Citizen was being tortured and Hollywood found this interesting
but, the truth is the only untouchables in my country are drug dealers (big
ones) and the American Citizens. Same in Saudi Arabia, American women
soldiers may wear whatever they want, American soldiers are the only
privileged non-mouslims who can walk through the streets of Mecca (as you
may knew, Mecca was only open to Mouslim's by religious laws) etc. (I am not
trying to protect some religious rules, even I am an atheist, this is just
another example given in order to prove you how can it be possible to have
prejudices about some people, how could it be possible for a Power to create
a new knowledge, a new truth, a new fact...
So, not Foucault may help us to solve this issue but also, Zinn and Galeano
may help us, all the leftist historians who has written about the Military
coups, dictatorships, human rights may help us.
Thanks
Hakki
p.s. I am very sorry again for my English and if especially US citizens find
my words offensive. I was not trying to be offensive but, trying to explain
the facts. For me, it doesn't matter which culture ae you from, for me there
are better criterias to measure a human being then race, culture, country of
origin etc.
_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com