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Enormous
willpower and unshakeable resolve are what make the
flags of resistance wave in the hands of those who
are right. The history of our unbreakable willpower
is written under isolation conditions in the F-Type
prisons and in the hospitals.
Hamide
Ozturk started the Death Fast on June 3, 2001 and
is the 97th martyr of the resistance struggle. She
became immortal on September 10 as a monument to the
invincibility of revolutionary willpower. Hamide Ozturk
belonged to the 5th Death Fast Team. When the prisoners
of the Cephe * put on their red headbands on June
3, 2001, she said:
"Nobody
can defeat this willpower. Nobody can make it surrender.
That is what our willpower is"
This
is what our comrades have shown with every day, every
second, every dying body cell and with their last
breath. Nobody can break or divert this willpower.
That is the willpower of the Party-Front. This willpower
was expressed by the 75 Cephelis (supporters of the
Cephe) who have fallen as martyrs in this resistance
struggle. Who can defeat this willpower? Who can defeat
it with manoeuvres and dreams? Who can divert this
willpower from its course?
All
reckonings are doomed to failure which do not take
this willpower into account!
Neither
the willpower of tyranny, nor the willpower of Europe,
nor the efforts of those who seek to bring our willpower
to heel can divert it from its path. The revolutionary
will is superior to all other forms. It is this will
which has rendered ineffective the hundreds of methods
used by the oligarchy and imperialism, and which is
continuing to resist today. This is the willpower
of the Party-Front.
That
is the willpower that has held firm in all areas of
life for decades against the winds of counter-revolution,
against military dictatorships, sieges, putsches and
every form of betrayal. The resistance is an announcement
to both our friends and our enemies that the willpower
of the Party-Front cannot be defeated. All calculations
that our willpower can be overcome or will collapse
as of itself are in vain. Just like all such calculations
of the past 32 years, these too will come to nothing.
The
Justice Minister Aysel Celikel, like all the other
forces of the oligarchy will have to see that they
cannot break our resistance with massacres or with
isolation. So long as they do not accept it they will
continue to bear this burden on their shoulders, and
with each and every new martyr the responsibility
will be written on their charge sheets. Left-wingers
and democratic forces, stop waiting for the resistance
to end of its own accord. Give up such dreams and
speculation.
Revolutionary
willpower has shown that such reckonings will not
come to pass. All those who feel responsibility to
this land and people or for democracy and independence
and rights and freedoms, and who do not want the number
of martyrs to rise further can only do one thing:
recognise the reality of the resistance, with its
willpower and its resolve. All attitudes, policies
and reckonings which do not recognise this willpower
are doomed to failure.
Hamide
Ozturk was in the same dormitory on December 19 in
which six women prisoners were burned alive. The massacre
could not break her will. It only increased her anger.
On
December 19 (2000) Hamide Ozturk was in the C1 dormitory
in Bayrampasa in which six women were burned alive.
She too could have been one of the comrades who were
burnt alive. She was not burned alive but she saw
her comrades burn. She saw Gulser Tuzcu burn to death
at the door.
Massacres
have only strengthened our anger and our will to resist.
Hamide Ozturk was one of the witnesses who told our
people of the massacre: We will cite one of these
reports: these lines are the expression of the growing
willpower and resolve, as well as the helplessness
and the defeat of the perpetrators in the face of
this willpower: "Our resistance on December 19
in Sagmalcilar is a great deed of heroism… We
had nothing in our hands to defend or protect ourselves
with. We did not set up a barricade but we continued
to resist under hours of bombardment... The magnificence
of our resistance was great and the cruelty we experienced
in our dormitories was also very great. Six of our
comrades were burned alive… When the shooting
was still going on I gave Gulseren my word. I embraced
and kissed her and said, "They can kill us all
but we will not surrender." She looked at me
and smiled. We smoked our last cigarette together.
But I got out alive… When I was lying on the
floor I thought: "If only the comrades could
get out of this safe and sound, I would be a martyr."
But I regained consciousness and went out. It was
very difficult… Finally I went up on top again.
When I saw Gulseren at the door in that condition,
I felt very helpless. That was a very frightening
feeling. I could not do anything so I went on down.
If I am still alive, it is to take revenge for our
martyrs. I said I would not fall without first demanding
revenge at the rate of ten for one. I also shouted
that at the soldiers and enemies of the people. I
said, "You will pay at the rate of ten for one."
My only wish is to carry out some kind of action which
has news value, like turning myself into a bomb and
exploding in the brain of the enemy. I am ready to
be consumed, in whatever way, so long as it harms
the enemy. I bow down with respect before the memory
of our martyrs and send you my greetings. January
24, 2001, Hamide Ozturk"
Read
this and recognise the source of our anger. Read this,
and see why the sacrifice actions were carried out.
Read this and see how the sacrificial fighters turned
themselves into a bomb against tyranny. Hamide Ozturk
was a witness to torture; she was detained eleven
times. She was a witness of executions, her brother
was murdered.
Although
our Prisoners' Organisation announced during the selection
of volunteers for the 5th Death Fast Team that no
further Death Fast fighters were needed from Bakirkoy
Prison, they rejected this. Their objection was persistent
and the result of their resolve to volunteer. One
of these volunteers was Hamide Ozturk. She was a volunteer:
she knew poverty and tyranny, she had experienced
it and was a revolutionary for that very reason. She
was a volunteer: whether inside or outside prison,
she fought to put an end to the tyrannical system.
She was a volunteer: She thought: "Whatever is
necessary for this struggle, and if what is necessary
leads us to victory through sacrifice, it will be
a great honour for me to take part in an action like
the Death Fast."
Our
comrade Hamide Ozturk was born in 1970 in Antakya.
She was an Arab Alevi. Her mother tongue was Arabic.
She graduated from her accountancy class in a vocational
college in Antakya. She came into contact with revolutionaries
through her brother Ahmet Ozturk. In 1990, when she
was in the vocational college, she took part in the
academic-democratic struggle of youth. With her very
first action, the November 6 boycott (a protest against
the system's domination of schools and universities)
she was detained, tortured and saw the true face of
barbarism. Later she took part in the struggle for
rights and freedoms in Adana. She carried on the struggle
in Ozgur-Der and in H.O.P. (Platform for Rights and
Freedoms). She was chair of Ozgur-Der and spokeswoman
of H.O.P. She took part in protest actions against
the attacks on prisons or on various sections of the
people. With time, she became more intensely involved
in the struggle. She did not just participate in actions,
she organised them. During this struggle she was detained
11 times. On November 26, 1994 her brother Ahmet Ozturk
was murdered by the police in Erdemli, a suburb of
Mersin.
That
too did not intimidate her or frighten her off. Quite
on the contrary, she took part in the struggle with
even greater eagerness. Her revolutionary ideals and
goals strengthened. Now she devoted her entire time
and existence to the struggle. She took on tasks in
the Mediterranean Region. On April 11, 1996 she was
detained in Istanbul. The State Security Court sentenced
her to 12 and a half years' imprisonment without any
proof or evidence.
Shortly
before her arrest the 1996 Death Fast was being discussed.
She too was one of the volunteers. In 1996 she was
in the 3rd Death Fast Team. In the year 2000, she
said again, as a volunteer for the Death Fast: "In
particular, the 1996 Death Fast, in which I was in
the 3rd Death Fast Team and the promise I made to
Berdan ** when I was at the side of his coffin, was
of great significance. I said to him that now carried
the flag and would never let it fall." (August
3, 2000) She never let the flag fall. Our selfless,
tough, diligent, modest, constantly enthusiastic comrade
Hamide Ozturk, who had the greatest love and devotion
to her Party, her people and her comrades, became
immortal, passing on to her comrades the flag that
she received from Berdan. She departed with the words:
"Either victory or death", and became immortal.
We end our statement with an extract from her writings,
in which she announced her willingness to volunteer:
"As a volunteer in the Death Fast, as a candidate
for the Death Fast action it will be a great honour
if the Party thinks me worthy of this task. I will
be worthy of this honour, dignity and values. You
many rely on it. I will meet death with a smile, without
fear or a lack of resolve. My only worry is that the
Party might not entrust me with this task. ... I will
be worthy of our martyrs who took forward and protected
their values by sacrificing their lives for them.
It is my duty to give victory to our peoples and the
Arab people through such an honourable task. It is
a great honour for me. I love my Party, our martyrs,
our leader, our people and comrades very much. I am
ready to die for them. I was born with the Party-Front
and will fall a martyr for it. Revolutionary greetings
with enthusiasm for our struggle… EITHER VICTORY
OR DEATH! LONG LIVE OUR DEATH FAST RESISTANCE!"
The
willpower that she represented with her will never
be broken, the flag will never fall to the ground!
Devrimci
Halk Kurtulus Cephesi
(Revolutionary People's Liberation Front)
*Cephe:
The Front, or DHKC
** Altan Berdan Kerimgiller: A Martyr of the 1996
Death Fast
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