I am an avid reader of The Irish Times, which is indeed one of the best newspapers of its kind. Its editorials are generally balanced and factually correct. This is why the feature article by Kitty Holland entitled "Fasting till death" published in the weekend supplement on September 8, 2001, has disappointed me. There are so many factual errors. Truths are conveniently laid aside. The issues at hand are reflected from a single perspective. The other side of the story is completely ignored.
Let me start with simple things. All but two of the Turkish names, whether of places or persons, are so misspelled they are beyond recognition.
It is alleged some 42 people have died so far. In reality, 22 convicts who refused medical treatment died in the hospitals. Naturally, one would think that even one is one too many. But why exaggerate with the assertion that Kurds, Alevis and Anatolians support this hunger strike?
I cannot understand why Ms Holland made no effort to check some of the allegations that were put to her by the people whom she interviewed.
Contrary to Ms Holland's statement, the imprisoned PKK terrorists or members of the other separatist organisations do not support the ongoing strikes.
The hunger strikes and the death fast are supported by 18 organisations which associate themselves with Marxist-Leninist extreme leftist ideology. As of September 11th, there were 25 prisoners on hunger strike (at one stage this number was 1,200) and 172 members of the Revolutionary Peoples Liberation Party/ Front (DHKP-C), the main supporter of the ongoing campaign, are on death fast.
Ms Holland mentions Alevis and Anatolians in her article. Alevis are a sect of Islam in Turkey. They are very enlightened, progressive, liberal, well-educated people. They are much pampered, because all political parties want their votes.
I do not know who or what Ms Holland means by Anatolians? The name of the peninsula where modern Turkey is situated is Anatolia. From that aspect, most Turks are Anatolians, but certainly there never ever was a group called Anatolians, terrorist or otherwise.
"Communism is illegal in Turkey", Ms Holland wrote.
She repeated this in a news piece published on September 10th. What is actually against the law is "... trying to change the secular, democratic nature and structure of the state".
I should remind your readers that for basically similar reasons establishing a Nazi or a fascist party is forbidden in Germany and Italy. Democracies elsewhere have taken measures to protect their own existence.
Nobody in Turkey can be held in prison without trial for attending "left-wing meetings or selling left-wing papers".
Some especially complex trials involving terrorists do take longer time to prepare. But this is the same in some parts of Western Europe. Furthermore in the dormitory-type prisons, terrorist groups did not allow their comrades to attend their scheduled trials, thus causing unnecessary delays.
In the old dormitory-type prisons, inmates lived and shared lavatories and slept on bunker beds with no privacy.
There were 60 to 80 inmates living in one dormitory. Some of these wards were gradually taken over and controlled by prisoners convicted of serious crimes or by former terrorists.
During the last 5 years, 86 prisoners were killed by fellow inmates. These prisons had become virtually crime academies or indoctrination centres for various terrorist organisations.
Things had come to such a point that the terrorists were putting fellow inmates on trial for ideological "crimes" and executing them. In some cases they kept detailed transcripts of these mock trials so as to set an example to less trustworthy members.
The Turkish government had no alternative but to separate the organised criminals and the terrorists from the rest of the prison population. The operation had to be launched because the inmates in the old-type prisons were opposing the transfers to the F-type prisons built in line with UN and European norms. An unbelievable number of guns, knives, prison-made flame throwers, and mobile phones were seized after this operation.
In F-type prisons, at the very least, terrorists will no longer be able to plan, lead and execute their ghastly operations from their prison wards.
I would like to remind your readers that only three years ago they planned, controlled and lead the murder of one of the most prominent Turkish businessmen (Ozdemir Sabanci), his secretary and the director-general of his company, from prison. Things had reached to such a stage that the prison authorities were not allowed into these wards even for headcounts.
Ms Holland makes no effort to explain why Turkish public opinion and the Turkish media, which are extremely sensitive to all allegations and issues pertaining to human rights, are showing so little support for these hunger strikers.
To sum up, Ms Holland seems to be full or sympathy for the terrorists but can't bring herself to express any sympathy for 342 people who were assassinated by just one of these groups. She also fails to mention that after their murderous crimes they published military-type communiquΘs saying "an enemy of the people was eliminated yesterday at 3.15 in his house".
The latest outrage in Istanbul only a few days ago, when one suicide bomber blew himself, two policemen and numerous other bystanders up, was perpetrated by a former hunger striker. He also was editor-in-chief of one of their propaganda sheets.
I can understand the sentiments expressed by certain segments of the Irish public for the Turkish hunger strikers. But to identify the situation of the Irish hunger strikers in British jails with the ongoing strikes of some prisoners in Turkey might even be considered as an affront to the Irish hunger strikers.
In conclusion, the struggle against terrorists will not succeed unless and until its true nature is well understood and identified. If anything, the horrors of this week should have taught us that.