Slight signs of hope in Turkey after yet another death by hunger strike

The Turkish Supreme Court has ordered the immediate release on health grounds of the lawyer Aytac Unsal, who has been on hunger strike for 213 days to protest against his sentence to 10 and a half years for “terrorist association”, one week after the death in prison of his colleague Ebru Timtik after 238 days of fasting.

“She left quietly, in a hospital room, where she had been transferred from prison after her condition had plummeted.

She left on the 238th anniversary of a hunger strike calling for a fair trial in a country, Turkey, where fairness and justice are non-existent concepts. Especially if you are a woman. Especially if you are a human rights lawyer. Especially if you do not bend your back in front of a power that would like to shut your mouth.
That’s how she died, Ebru Timtik, of hunger and injustice. Her heart stopped simply because she no longer had anything to pump in a body stripped bare by starvation.

She died defending her right to a fair trial, after being sentenced to 13 years, together with 18 other lawyers like her, detained on terrorism charges, only for having defended other people accused of the same crime.

She died as Ibrahim and as Helin and Mustafa of Grup Yorum, who died after 300 days of fasting to fight the same charge.

She died fighting with her own body, to the extreme consequences, a battle that in Erdogan’s Turkey it is no longer possible to fight with a word, a vote, a street demonstration.

She died as heroes do, sacrificing her life for the rights of all.
There is only one way to celebrate the memory of this great woman: not to remain silent. Make her voice go as far as possible, where she can no longer go.

There are such strong ideas capable of surviving even death.

Goodbye Ebru. Long live Ebru.”

(Lorenzo Tosa)