Anarchist prisoner Umut Firat Suvariogullari, writer of the newspaper Meydan, who has been confined for the last 23 years, is on hunger strike since the 13th of December 2016 in the prison type T in Yenisakran of Smyrna, denouncing the State of Emergency declared by the Turkish state and the inhuman conditions of imprisonment imposed to all political prisoners. A prison within prison through debarment of visitation, deprivation of all their rights as prisoners and continuous torture.
In the 23rd of December 2016, the court of Istanbul convicted Hüseyin Civan, editor-in-chief of the anarchist newspaper Meydan, of “terrorist propaganda” and in particular “of propaganda for the methods of a terrorist organization constituting coercion, violence or threats through legitimizing or praising or encouraging the use of these methods” and sentenced him to one year and three months in prison. The Chief Public Prosecutor’s office had ordered an investigation on the newspaper since December 2015, related to articles published in its 30th issue with the caption “Banning Everything”.
The imprisonment of Hüseyin Civan is part of the oppressive campaign of the Turkish state, which, during the last years, manifested itself through war in the Kurdish regions, mass persecutions and murderous attacks against movements of resistance and revolutionary organizations. This campaign has been further intensified after the unsuccessful coup d’état of last July and the extension of the state of emergency. The Erdogan regime uses the coup in one hand to purge all state mechanisms (army, judicial system, public services) by accusing its political opponents of attempt to overthrow it, and on the other hand to impose total war to the “internal enemy”, aiming to dissolve class and social resistance. At the same time, it provokes its supporters along with the Grey Wolves to attack the neighborhoods and the spaces of leftish and anarchist activists and organizations.
Towards this direction, anarchists, communists, trade unionists, teachers, reporters, artists and all those who question the omnipotence of the regime in every possible way, are facing prosecutions, torture and imprisonment. Moreover, in this same context, substantial basic rights are abolished, mobilizations and demonstrations are prohibited, the operation of newspapers, radio and tv stations is suspended, censorship is imposed and internet access is blocked, political parties and organizations are characterized as terrorist groups and activists’ houses are being invaded and politicians and social spaces are being attacked.
The form of state aggression in Turkey is defined both by its position in the arena of geopolitical alliances and antagonisms and by the long-term orientation of state and parastate terrorism against the revolutionary and political movements in the interior.
The iron fence of control and oppression that expands in every aspect of the social life in the interior is complemented by the strategy in the wider region of Middle East, which, based on the chauvinism of the Turkish state, includes war attacks against the Kurdish communities, military interventions of the Turkish army in Northern Syria and other regions, opportunistic collaborations with the EU in the context of NATO and even with ISIS itself.
The EU-Turkey agreement on refugees, which characterized Turkey as a safe country at the same time as it imprisons thousands of refugees in concentration camps in its south-eastern and western borders and unfolds the strategy for the establishment of a totalitarian system in its interior, denotes what the bosses and states are preparing for all of us in the near future, especially in a period of intensification of intra-dominion antagonisms in the wider region but also globally.
As Anarchist Political Organization (APO), we express our solidarity with the anarchist comrades of DAF (Anarchist Revolutionary Action) and the Meydan newspaper and to everyone who fights against state totalitarianism, prosecution and imprisonment of those who are struggling to keep alive the vision of a world of equality, solidarity and freedom.
Against state and capitalistic brutality and modern totalitarianism, the sole hope of the repressed is to stand united against the common attack they face. The only prospect for the realization of the actual social needs for a free and equal society is through the flames of struggles and international resistance. From nearby Turkey to revolted Rojava, and from the slums of France to the struggles of Mexico, the resistance of indigenous people in Northern America and the mass demonstrations against the state in the US, no oppressed is alone as long as the struggle for freedom is alive.
Let us take our lives into our own hands, let us build a new, emancipated society based on dignity, equity, freedom and solidarity on the ruins of the world of power, state and capitalism, by fulfilling the vision of social self-governance.
FREEDOM TO ANARCHIST HÜSEYIN CIVAN
MEMBER OF DAF AND EDITOR-IN-CHIEF OF THE ANARCHIST NEWSPAPER MEYDAN
SOLIDARITY TO ANARCHIST PRISONER UMUT FIRAT WHO IS ON HUNGER STRIKE AND ALL THOSE WHO RESIST WORLD DICTATORSHIP OF STATE AND CAPITALISM
AGAINST WAR, IMPOVERISHMENT AND MODERN TOTALITARIANISM STRUGGLE FOR GLOBAL SOCIAL REVOLUTION, FOR ANARCHY AND LIBERTARIAN COMMUNISM
Solidarity Gathering, Thursday 2 February:
Athens: Turkish embassy 18:00
Thessaloniki: Turkish consulate 17:00
Patra: Central Square 18:30
Anarchist Political Organisation (APO) – Federation of Collectives
apo.squathost.com | anpolorg@gmail.com
January 2017
