Long Kesh 1981- Turkey 2001
The Derry Journal, September , 2001
AT THE tender age of eight Michael Devine watched his father fade into death during the 1981 hungerstrike. His father was the last of ten republican prisoners to die in that watershed year.
Twenty years later in 2001, thousands of miles away in Turkey, he sat by the bedside of a dying man he had never met before. He would die while the Derry man was there last weekend.
Michael Devine Junior had an uncomfortable and emotional revisiting of the dark days of the 1981 hungerstrike. He has a natural empathy with the group of Turkish prisoners currently protesting against isolation prisons in Istanbul.
But unlike Ireland's 1981 experience, the deathfasters in Turkey have already sacrificed more than double the number that died in the confines of Long Kesh. Young women are also among their number.
One of the oldest forms of protest, the fast to the death, is being followed through to the end, without any resolution in sight. Michael Devine Junior joined a delegation of republican activists from across Ireland on a fact finding mission to Istanbul last week.
What he found would affect him deeply. "The whole experience in Turkey affected me deeply. I would have a deep understanding of hungerstrikes and what they are like but visiting these people in these houses really brings it all home to you. It is important that people like me who witnessed this in 1981 show solidarity with these people."
The Turkish deathfasters are housed in an area called Armutlu, a place closely monitored by the Turkish authorities. Michael says the area is around the same size as Carnhill in Derry. "There is a great sense of belonging to one another there. The spirit that we found there was immense."
One deathfaster, Arzu Guler, a young woman, made an impassioned plea to the people of Derry earlier this year to support their cause and oppose the Turkish regime in whatever way possible. She now has very little time left. "They came out and supported us when we had our hungerstrike in 1981," Michael stated. "I saw it as my personal duty to do the same for them. They appreciated our visit and I really felt that their struggle was our struggle. These people, the poorest of the poor felt that they were not just fighting for themselves, but setting a benchmark for oppressed people elsewhere.
"When the hungerstriker died at the weekend, I got very upset. After his funeral we went to visit the deathfast house where the women stay. This was very upsetting. I felt like going home, but they were going to get on with it, so we felt that we had to do the same. I was angry and emotional."
Michael said that meeting the families of the dead hungerstrikers sparked an immediate sense of affinity. "I knew how they were feeling. When I met the families I knew that they were feeling very emotional, but they were also very determined."
The Turkish authorities have attacked the funeral corteges of the hungerstrikers. They deploy a gas which burns the skin of mourners.
"There is no dialogue taking place at the moment, so the onus is on us all. These people need international pressure brought to bear on the government. "I feel it is the duty of the Irish people to come out in their support. It may be far away, but the plight of these people is something which is close to my heart."
On Saturday, October 13, Derry activists committed to highlighting the plight of the Turkish hungerstrikers, will hold a rally in the Guildhall Square.