Day of Action in Dublin in Support of Turkish Hunger Strike
A rally, attended by 100+ people, including activists and support groups from Dublin, Belfast, Cork and Wicklow, was held at the Turkish Embassy in Dublin on July 7th. Beforehand a Black Flag protest took in Dublin City centre.
At the Rally there were speeches from 'Solidarity with Hunger Strikers in Turkey' (Dublin), the West Belfast Ex-Prisoners Group, IKM (London), the local SF Cumann and the support group in Cork. The protest lasted for about two hours. A minutes silence was held for all the 27 prisoners who have died and for the upcoming anniversaries this week of Republican hunger strikers Joe McDonnell and Martin Hurson.
The rally ended with the symbolic entry of two activists onto Turkish territory as they carried a black flag into the grounds of the embassy and placed a picture of Gokhan Ozocak, the latest prisoner to die, at the door of the building.
A public meeting was held afterwards in the Teachers Club, attended by about 50 activists. A report was given on the recent delegation to Turkey, by Alex McCrory from Belfast and Rory O Driscoll from IKM in London. While in Turkey they stayed in one of the Death Fast houses, where relatives of prisoners are on solidarity hunger strikes, in a working class area of Istanbul and spoke of the emotive atmosphere of living so close to young people who were over two hundred days into a hunger strike. Just as the delegation was leaving Turkey one of the hunger strikers, 22 year old Zehra Kulaksiz, fell into a coma. On their return home they heard that Zehra had died, on the 223rd day of her fast.
The delegates also reported that, due to state repression of pro-hunger strike protests in Turkey, it is difficult to hold public demonstrations there and that international solidarity action are very important. Many of the hunger strikers are now reaching a critical phase and several deaths per week are expected in the coming period.
Concern was also expressed about the whitewashing of the Turkish state in reports from the EU Committee against Torture - the Committee was too willing to accept the views of Turkish politicians and as a result the Committee's inaccurate reports were being taken on board by the likes of Amnesty and Human Rights Watch. There was a report too on the recent exposure of lies of the Turkish Government about the death of six women in Bayrampasa Womens prison in the massacre last December.
Thanks to all the groups and activists who turned up on the day.