The Human Rights Association (IHD), the Association of Lawyers for Freedom (ÖHD) and the Marmara Association for Assistance and Solidarity with Families of Detainees and Convicts (MATUHAY-DER) announced their report on rights violations that took place between June and September in Kürkçüler Type F Prison and Suluca No. 1 High Security Prison. The report was released at a press conference held at the Adana Branch of the Human Rights Association and was prepared on the basis of face-to-face meetings with prisoners, letters sent from prison and formal applications received.
The report first drew attention to the violations in Suluca No. 1 High Security Prison. It stated that prisoners’ most basic right to health is systematically obstructed and noted that prisoners who refuse to submit to the imposition of oral cavity searches are denied transfers and subjected to disciplinary punishments. The report also addressed the water quota imposed on prisoners in both Suluca and Kürkçüler Prisons, underlining that the water provided is dirty and lime-contaminated. It emphasized that prisoners are forced to use the same water for both drinking and hygiene, which compels them to purchase expensive bottled water from the prison canteen. The report further noted that the food provided in the prisons is low in nutritional value, unhygienic and insufficient in portion size, and that the needs of sick prisoners who require special diets are being ignored.
The report said that prisoners held in single cells are locked inside for 23 hours a day and are allowed only one hour of outdoor time. It noted that even during this hour, only four to six people from the same corridor are allowed into the yard, a practice described as “conditions of total isolation.” Violations in the prison were listed as arbitrary practices, disciplinary punishments, a ban on Kurdish books and newspapers, the obstruction of telephone calls and the non-delivery of parcels. The report drew attention to the “pit-type” structure of Suluca Prison, emphasizing that it poses a serious threat to human health. It highlighted that the cells measure only 8 by 5 steps, the windows are as small as 30 by 40 centimeters and are surrounded by thick wire mesh. This, it stated, severely restricts both daylight and airflow, turning the prison into what was described as a concrete coffin.
Kürkçüler F Type Prison
The report stated that similar rights violations are also taking place in Kürkçüler Type F Prison, noting that prisoners are deprived of workshops and social activities, that those sentenced to aggravated life imprisonment are prevented from seeing one another and that the imposition of oral cavity searches continues.
In the conclusion of the report, it was emphasized that prisons have been turned into spaces of systematic isolation. An urgent call was made to the Ministry of Justice, bar associations and human rights institutions to launch investigations. The Adana Branch of the IHD and the Adana Representation of the ÖHD stressed that the report is not limited to only two prisons and that similar conditions have become widespread in high-security prisons across Turkey, and called for prisons to be made compatible with human dignity.
Demands
After the report was presented, a joint statement was read out by Aziz Oruç, a member of the ÖHD. Oruç said that the peoples and faith communities persistently voice their demand for social peace, justice and a democratic solution, and added: “However, the systematic policies of pressure and isolation imposed particularly in prisons directly attack these hopes.” Oruç underlined that these policies target not only prisoners but society as a whole, and continued: “Today, prisons have not been removed from their role as places of isolation and torture that target the prisoners’ right to life and human dignity. Isolation is a direct attack on social peace.
The conditions of isolation imposed on prisoners must be lifted unconditionally. Torture, ill-treatment and arbitrary execution of sentences must be brought to an end. Ideological interrogations conducted by observation boards must be abolished. Freedom of communication in all mother tongues, including Kurdish, must be guaranteed. Ill prisoners must be released, and the right to health must not be left to the arbitrary decisions of prison administration. Social peace and democracy are only possible through a legal system that recognizes the equality of peoples, confronts the past and guarantees justice. No policy of oppression, violence or denial will suppress this rightful and dignified demand.”