RIHA - Riha 78's Initiative members Vahit Akgün and Mahmut Manas said that the climate of oppression that was tried to be created on September 12 was prevented by the struggle of the Kurdish Freedom Movement.

 

43 years have passed since the September 12, 1980 Coup, which is considered one of the darkest periods in Turkey's history. During the coup led by then-Chief of General Staff Kenan Evren, martial law was declared and thousands of non-governmental organizations, especially political parties and unions, were closed. During the period when 1 million 683 thousand people were registered, 230 thousand people were tried in 210 thousand cases filed by the State Security Court (DGM). While the death penalty was requested for 7 thousand people who were tried, the death penalty was given to 517 people and 50 of them were executed. 300 people died suspiciously and 171 people were documented to have died from torture. After the coup, 30 thousand people were dismissed from their jobs on the grounds that they were "objectionable", 14 thousand people were stripped of their citizenship, and 30 thousand people were forced to go abroad as "political refugees".

 

Vahit Akgün and Mahmut Manas, who were held in Diyarbakır Prison No. 5 for many years during the September 12 period, told their testimonies.

 

AKGÜN MET TORTURE AT THE AGE OF 17

 

One of the witnesses of the period, Democratic Regions Party (DBP) Riha Provincial Co-Chair and 78's Initiative member Vahit Akgün was detained 40 days after September 12. Akgün, who was a high school student at the age of 17 when he was detained, was first taken to the torture center in Riha center and then to Diyarbakır Prison. Akgün described the detention and arrest process after September 12 as follows: “I was detained on October 20, 1980. Of course, during this process, I was brutally tortured for a few days at the Suruç Police Department, and then I was brought to Urfa. When we were brought to Urfa, they had turned the vocational high school for girls, which is now opposite Cebeci İş Han, into a torture center. At that time, detentions in Urfa were very intense. There was a constant circulation. After the torture was over, they took us to Diyarbakır. We stayed there for 40 days, after which we were brought to the martial law court and were arrested and sent to Diyarbakır Prison. We were subjected to physical and psychological torture. We are held by 9-19 people in single-person cells. Everything was arranged for one person, including his daily meals. We were standing in cells and had to take turns sleeping.”

 

JANUARY 81 RESISTANCE

 

Explaining that a hunger strike was started in prison in January 1981, Akgün recounted what happened at that time as follows: “At that time, we did not know what a hunger strike meant. When friends called us to strike, I threw down our cutlery and lunch boxes with that excitement. When my friends asked me why I did this, I said, 'We won't eat anyway, so we won't have anything to do with them.' They took us to the ward on the 3rd or 4th day of the hunger strike. "The prison administration, which did not give us food at that time, started sending us huge loaves of bread and delicious meals."

 

'THE PIONEERS WERE GIVING US MOTIVATION'

 

Noting that there were many attempts to break the will of the prisoners, Akgün continued his words as follows: “However, the attitudes and behaviors of the pioneers in the Kurdish movement at this point gave us hope. At that time, all the resistance and struggle of the Kurdish people were wanted to be destroyed by burying them in concrete. Their life, relationships and perspectives were giving us motivation. The leading cadres of that period had a determination. 'Even though we surrendered physically, we did not surrender spiritually', this state of not surrendering followed a great resistance. The resistances started first spread to all prisons and then to the entire Kurdish people. The rulers of that period, who said, "I am the master of everything," had to take a step back.

 

'THERE ARE APPLICATIONS EXCEEDING SEPTEMBER 12'

 

Stating that the aggravated isolation of PKK Leader Abdullah Öcalan in İmralı Prison is the product of September 12, Akgün said: “Today, a very different law operates. The most distinguished members of this society are still being tried to be placed within four walls. This is a continuation of de-identification policies. Today, we are faced with a system that goes beyond September 12. Moreover, with much more refined policies. "That's why today, these anti-democratic practices and fascism can be defeated if all different identities, especially the Kurds, come together and wage a common struggle."

 

'THE PRISON BECAME THE CASTLE OF RESISTANCE'

 

Mahmud Manas, a member of the Riha 78's Initiative, stated that he was arrested 4 months before the September 12 Military Coup and was put in Diyarbakır Prison, and noted that the coup targeted the freedom struggle that developed in Turkey and Kurdistan. Stating that torture started in Diyarbakır Prison with September 12, Manas continued: “The administration at that time put Esat Oktay Yıldıran in the dungeon and assigned him there to suppress the struggles. Yıldıran thought that he could suppress this movement in Amed Dungeon by resorting to all kinds of inhuman treatment that could not be imagined. But he could not achieve this with the resistance started by folk heroes in prison at that time. The prison became the bastion of resistance. At this point, today's struggle is a product of the struggle that developed in Amed Prison. Today, we are still involved in this struggle with the strength we received from them. One day we will achieve victory.”

 

MA / Ceylan Şahinli