TURQÍA: CLOSE THE PIT-TYPE PRISONS! END ISOLATION! - UPOTUDAK

CLOSE THE PIT-TYPE PRISONS!

END ISOLATION!

Prisons have always been the scene of great resistance in the struggle between the oppressors and the oppressed. They have also been the site of the first acts of defiance against the climate of fear created by the state apparatus over society, through the honourable resistance of revolutionary prisoners. The Turkish state continues to use prisons as a means of suppression to crush and eliminate social opposition. The fascist Turkish state, which has massacred political prisoners in dozens of prison massacres, is escalating these attacks with different types of prisons. 

The massacre that took place in Turkey between 19 and 22 December 2000 marked the beginning of a new phase in prisons. Following the creation of F-type prisons, which aimed to isolate revolutionary prisoners under severe conditions of solitary confinement and destroy the collective values they had built, the fascist Turkish state intensified its attacks by opening different types of prisons. Finally, it put into operation the S and Y type prisons, known as pit-type prisons. According to information provided by revolutionary prisoners held there, they spend 22.5 to 23 hours of the day in single or triple cells and are only taken out to concrete areas in a different section for 1 or 1.5 hours. The cells are quite small in size and have their windows covered with metal sheets over iron bars, meaning there is almost no airflow. Designed for one or three people, they are monitored by cameras 24/7. Across Turkey, since 2021, a total of 51 prisons have been opened, including 22 prisons known as Type Y and 7 prisons known as Type S, in an attempt to enforce social isolation, solitary confinement, severe isolation and segregation.

Prison cells, solitary confinement, torture, execution by burning, preventing the treatment of sick prisoners, physical violence during trips to and from hospitals and courts, confinement in sponge rooms, strip searches, sexual violence, harassment, rape, visitation bans, letter and telephone bans, and forced transfers have become the new means of attack and pressure aimed at isolating revolutionary prisoners from their views. 

In pit-type cells, when sick prisoners resisted being strip-searched and having their shoes removed while being taken to hospital, their right to treatment was taken away. More than 10 books and two pens were banned in cells, books sent by revolutionary publishing houses were not delivered, and letter bans were applied frequently and arbitrarily. and the absence of a barber are also prominent forms of oppression.

In Turkey, numerous parties, organisations, human rights institutions, democratic forces and relatives of prisoners have come together to form the ‘Close the Pit-Type Prisons Initiative’. The initiative's demands are the closure of pit-type prisons, an end to all forms of isolation policy, the opening of prisons to independent human rights organisations, accountability for violations committed by the Ministry of Justice, and freedom for political prisoners. In line with these demands, they launched a campaign starting in November 2025. 

As democratic forces, we must embrace this campaign launched in all areas where we are present in Europe and be the voice of revolutionary prisoners. We must reach the widest possible audiences through the joint struggle platforms created and ensure that the Pit-Type Prisons are closed and the revolutionary prisoners are removed from these facilities. We call on all Turkish and Kurdish migrant workers, internationalist and anti-fascist forces to embrace the struggles of the revolutionary prisoners.

SUPPORT THE RESISTANCE AGAINST PIT-TYPE PRISONS!

FREEDOM FOR ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS!