Bayram Memmedov, an anarchist and conscientious objector comrade, who was arrested in 2016 in Azerbaijan and who was released in 2019 with amnesty, was found dead in Istanbul. According to the crime scene investigation report prepared by the Turkish police, which was partially released to certain media outlets and shared in the social media platforms, Memmedov fell into the sea on May 2, while trying to grab his slippers, drifted offshore at sea and disappeared. The police report prepared by the police on Memmedov’s death did not define his death as ”suspicious”. The behavior of the Turkish police, acting hastily, as if they are trying to cover up the issue, made Memmedov’s death more suspicious in our eyes.

According to the police report, the police arrived at the scene upon receiving information about a male individual who could not get out of the sea on 02.05.2021 at around 15.00 on the Moda 2 beach (in İstanbul). According to the eyewitness testimonies, the 25-30 years old male individual had his slippers fall into the sea, went into the sea to take them out, however, he could not get out of the sea himself and after disappeared after fluttering in the sea.

Who are these eyewitnesses that saw Memmedov going to the sea to take his slippers? Did the police identify these eyewitnesses and take their formal statements? In a crowded and central place in İstanbul such as the Moda beach, why the eyewitnesses or anyone else in the area did not intervene in the situation? Are surveillance records on the event investigated? Why and how such a death could be defined as ”not suspicious”? Is it because the police is trying to cover up a potential murder case, without an autopsy or a proper investigation?

It is evident from the report that the police have arrived to the scene after Mammadov’s disappearance and his body was found at sea by the security guards near the Haydarpaşa Train Station. Is it not suspicious enough that the body, rather than sinking or drifting offshore, drifted about a two kilometers long indented coastline to finally reach the Haydarpaşa Train Station?

Further questions can be added to these questions and we are certain that in the near future they will be powed. However, for the time being we declare that we will pursue the truth about the suspicious death of our anarchist comrade and we will not let this death to be covered up! We demand to know! #WhatHappenedtoBayram ■

Yeryüzü Postası

Anarchist Bayram Mammadov has been the target of the Azerbaijani state since the first day he opposed it. He was tortured, slandered, imprisoned, and ultimately forced to live as a political exile. Now the Turkish state says that Bayram committed suicide. We know they are lying. As we wrote in our banner, the state murdered Bayram. We were protesting today in front of the Azerbaijan consulate with our banner to spread the truth to the whole world. We will not stop asking what happened to Bayram!. ■

Devrimci Anarşist Federasyon

Honor and struggle for anarchist Bayram Mammadov

It was 2016 when anarchist Bayram Mammadov together with Gias Ibrahimov were arrested by Azerbaijani cops, in accusation of writing graffiti on the statu of Dictator Heider Aliov who is the father of recent Dictator of Azerbaijan Elham Aliov; On the statu of Dictator Heider Aliov was written "happy slave's day". The comrades were tortured by Azerbaijani cops to admission the accusations. The cops forced the comrades to accept the fake accusations about serious criminal activities of drugs by torturing them. Although the comrades were tortured and forced to accept false drug charges, it was clear that the totalitarian regime in Azerbaijan was seeking to criminalize the comrades on false charges. The totalitarian regime even tried to force the comrades to publicly apologize in front of the statue of dictator Heidar Aliov, but the comrades bravely refused the political demand of the regime. The comrades were eventually sentenced to 10 years in prison on false charges, but were released under public pressure against the azerbaijanian regime, after three years of torture in the prisons of the totalitarian regime in Azerbaijan.

Anarchist Bayram Mammadov, who has been living in Turkey for some time after his release in 2019, today, May 5, that his dead body had been taken from the water.(according to the information)

"What happened to him needs to be clarified."

The dictatorial regime of Azerbaijan, along with the dictatorship of Turkey, which is moving towards a theocratic regime, are longing for an empire built by Ottoman Islamist terrorists. Severe domestic repression along with attacks abroad are part of this terrorist mechanism that the Turkish and Azerbaijani regimes are pursuing as planning.

Elham Aliov is the political legacy of the Soviet Communist Party and the KGB. Former Azerbaijani dictator Heydar Aliyev, as the founder of the New Azerbaijan Party, was a member of the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party from 1982 to 1987; Dictator Heidar Aliov has repeatedly shown his loyalty to the Soviet Communist Party and the KGB (Dictator Heider Aliov was the member of KGB from 1941 until 1969). In 1969, Heidar Aliov was appointed by the KGB to Secretary-General the Communist Party of Azerbaijan (That is why Haidar Aliov left the KGB). After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the bolshevic Hiday Aliov continued its domination on Azerbaijan by creating the party of New Azerbaijan in 1992, and finally bolshevik Heydar Aliyev died on December 12, 2003, at the age of 80.

Dictator Elham Aliov, got the power in Azerbaijan after the death of his Bolshevic father. Dictator Elham Aliov was study in Moscow International Relations Institute and educated by KGB. The Moscow International Relations Institute, specifically, was one of the centers to making spies and mercenary for KGB, which the students were coming from other regions to be trained by KGB and then returned to their hometown to do the policies of KGB. (The Moscow International Relations Institute was created in 1944 by KGB specifically to create the international students who have ability to do the policies of KGB in their hometowns). The fact that Elham Aliov was a teacher in the Moscow International Relations Institute from 1985 until 1990 is a proof that Dictator Elham Aliov like his Bolshevic father was a member of KGB and Bolshevic.

The suspicious death of anarchist Bayram Mammadov should be brought to the attention of the international movement. Bolshevic Elham Aliov has taught the KGB assassination plots in Moscow for many years, this is not out of reality that these neo-bolsheviks have killed our comrade Bayram Memmedov.

Bolshevikism is the enemy of working class. ■

Abtin Parsa
5 may 2021

Originally posted on Indymedia.nl

Every Moment of the Oppressed is a Crisis! - Atakan Polat

Every moment of an oppressed person is a crisis. We are born into a crisis that has been going on for centuries, and this crisis rises at the age when we start to sell our labor; By hours and days, it continues by selling our lives. Even life itself turns into crisis, transformed. We always hear the words "the burden of the crisis"; living becomes a burden for us oppressed. Unpaid invoices, pocket money that cannot be paid, books that cannot be received, calluses sinking as they walk, waist twisted by working… Even the university diploma of the oppressed often turns into a crisis with unemployment. They are all crises and crises never subsided.

Every moment of an oppressed person is a crisis. The economic crises of the governments are added, but these crises do not develop involuntarily. The crisis that powers use to grow, gain and exploit more; the rich get rich, the poor get poor.

Today we are in a crisis again, this time in the corona crisis. Maybe many of us thought we were in a health crisis, but when the places we worked were closed, we all faced the fact that the issue was economic for the governments. We learned that with the new bans announced overnight, cafes, restaurants and bars were closed and we were unemployed. We learned, but we could not learn why the places where tens of thousands of us work were closed when everywhere was open.

In the corona crisis, many bans were imposed. And we were among the segments whose lives were most upset by these prohibitions, as workers working in cafes, restaurants and bars. It's not just a joblessness. It was said that the money will be distributed under the name of short work allowance, but to those who have the appropriate conditions. If our conditions were suitable, that is, even if we were lucky, we did not know how to meet our needs with the short work allowance we received. But we knew that the short-time work allowance, which was shown as grace, was actually covered by the unemployment insurance fund that the state created by stealing from our salaries for every day we worked. So even when the state had to reluctantly give us back what it stole from us, it was trying to make our lives appear to be owed to it.

It was also said that it was forbidden to lay off workers in this crisis. Well, most of us were already working without insurance… The bosses fired us as they wanted whenever they wanted. We, the workers of cafes, restaurants and bars, who were employed without insurance during the corona crisis, were the first to be discarded. We were not prohibited from firing because we were not "officially" employed. The experiences of our insured ones were not much different. Because firing was forbidden, but it was not forbidden to sign a letter of resignation with the threat of "paying the salary". Can you find any numbers regarding the workers who resigned from their jobs or were forced to do so? Can any institution of the state publish data on this? It does not explain because it does not suit those who exploit us, our labor, our future.

We are in a crisis right now and we don't have five cents piled up in the corner. Because the money earned daily is spent daily and the money we earn in one day is not enough to accumulate. Way to go, the food goes, it goes to the phone bill ... Accumulated five penny with us or the unemployed in a few days after Turkey's standards of healthy and average budget should be allocated for a balanced diet 2 thousand 447 Liras 72 cents, the budget should be allocated for necessities average of 7 thousand 973 Liras that we learned As thousands of uninsured café, restaurant and bar workers, we wake up every day to keep up with the day, but the government's “grant” to our insured ones with these bans is not enough to even pass near these standards.

When what we have is not enough to live, he spends the money that is not there; We borrow money from banks. Unless we can pay our debts, we will borrow even more. As we borrow money, the owners of the banks and the state that shakes hands with them will win. I don't know who is a billionaire, who doubled his wealth in this period and the economy grew by 6.7 percent according to TURKSTAT data. This is the case not only in the land we live in, but in all geographies. At the end of July 2020, the wealth of approximately 2 thousand 189 richest people in the world reached a record 10.2 trillion dollars. Not only did billionaires' billions increase, new billionaires were added to billionaires. The unemployed were added to the unemployed and the poor to the poor for the exploiters to exploit more easily.

Every moment of an oppressed person is a crisis. So who wants to live with crisis? Nobody wants. It is necessary to take to the streets with the oppressed like us to know that the rulers are unjust and to create a just world in order to eliminate crises. Emma Goldman said years ago: “Ask for work. If they don't give you work, ask for bread. If they do not give you work or bread, then take bread." It is obvious that those who take our work, our bread and our future will not give what they want. We know that we cannot meet our needs unless we come together, shoulder to shoulder. And yet, today, as throughout history: They will not give, we will take! ■

Atakan Polat
Genç İşçi Derneği (Young Workers Association)

Originally Posted:
http://gencisci.org/ezilenin-her-ani-kriz-atakan-polat/

Shared without permission.
Automatically Translated.

May 1st is the day of struggle and solidarity. For centuries, workers have been rebelling against the persecution of bosses and the injustice of capitalism in their workplaces; they bring their struggles together in the streets and squares. This year, we enter May 1st on days that are extraordinary for us every day, but this time for the rich. The corona crisis has become a new one of the ongoing crises of the system for young workers who are in crisis every day. We had to grapple with difficulties as hundreds of thousands and millions, both desperate and unconcerned, as well as those who stayed in their homes with their accumulated, paid leave or who did not need a salary to close home already. The struggle for us is every day in our lives, where we have to choose between working disease and staying hungry.

We speak as young workers, those who serve their homes closed under the name of corona virus outbreak measures. It is now time to raise our voices, which we maintain between cashiers, we deliver from one cargo engine to another, and we whisper between parcels on our back, and orders in the kitchens.

Who are we? We are young workers, we are forced to work even under the most inoperable conditions.

We are cargo workers, in our workplaces where measures are regarded as expense or delayed, we are forced to keep up with an increased workload. The simplest mask, as if we had to touch what hundreds and thousands of people touched from home to home, from warehouse to home every day, are the ones who eat little by little in our disinfectant demand. In these days when walking around the street is prohibited, we are the ones carrying shoes from warehouses to houses.

We are warehouse workers. Among the boxes we have to raise for cargoes, we measure the limits of the product that a person can carry by forcing them with his body. We are paying the increase in the workload due to the epidemic by decreasing our salaries despite the increase in working hours.

We are market workers. We are seen as snoring as a source of virus in workplaces where the human tail is not missing at the door. On days when people are afraid to spend even 1 hour outside, we have no employees working for less than 13 hours. Precautionary preparations are not even included in working hours. We are the ones who take care of the departments that they are not interested in before and who are forced to do things that are not responsible.

We are fast food workers. We are those who are not paid or delayed while working in the world's largest chains. As a reason for this, we are billed for less incoming orders. We are forced to be even faster in the industry where we work fast.

We are waiters, komis, dishwashers who are fired; In this system of injustices, where we do not have the luxury to close home, we are the ones who are taken away from work. We are workers who are forced to use their annual leave and sometimes even use it as luxury.

FOR SOME FREE
LEAVE FOR SOME

We, the young workers, have been the most exploited and the most oppressed since the beginning of the process. This violence continued to increase to our friends working in different service sectors, where precarious, flexible working conditions are used as a weapon. While only a few of the workers working in secure jobs were on paid leave, none of the service workers had paid leave. Those who can take leave are either used their annual leave or leave for free leave and are sentenced to starvation at 39 lira per day.

EMPLOYEE EXPLOITATION ALWAYS MORE

For those of us who have to work to live and whose sector is not directly affected, precautions were presented as a reason for our struggle with increasing workload. Our working hours participated in the preparatory phase of the mandatory measures. We have worked more in the workplaces where we have always worked more, this time with our salaries reduced by half. The government said that layoffs were prohibited, but many of us were already laid off until the whole process was over. Legal cases were created for unpaid leaves, with the excuse of banning layoffs.

In the epidemic, capitalism continued to exploit child labor without slowing down. For other young workers, double standard practices… After the declaration of curfew under the age of 20, young workers who could work with a permit were granted “privilege”. A small amount of assistance for basic foodstuffs and other needs could not be accessed, we were forced to take care of our families trying to get along.

We are entering May 1st when we are most aware of the increasing pressure, exploitation, and our lives trying to be devalued. We call on our fight against bosses who steal our lives with or without viruses. We call on all young workers to participate in the program we have prepared for May 1st and to raise the sounds we make amongst us. ■

Declaration of May 1st from the Young Workers Association (Genç İşçi Derneği) of Turkey.
You can find them on Twitter

Originally posted (and in the original Turkish) on Meydan.org

Translation by DAF (Devrimci Anarşist Faaliyet)

The Kurds' reward for defeating ISIS is being sold out to a psychotic dictator. "World's Greatest Dealmaker" indeed.

Red n Black Salamander has had their work has shown up in Occupy Wall Street zines, South Korean anti-government pamphlets, Rojava fundraisers, more anarchist meme pages than they care to count, the wall of a small hippie diner deep in the Colorado Rockies, and even a few of the more mainstream liberal publications like Huffington Post and Paste Magazine.

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In September, one of our members got a message from a contact in DAF (revolutionary anarchist action) group, based in Anatolia (I used to refer to DAF as being in Turkey, but I was however corrected when I got there; they see Turkey as the oppressive state, which they want nothing to do with!). I quickly piped up and said how interested I would be in going along, mostly as I had met someone from DAF three years earlier, and had been very impressed by them. Luckily I did not have to fight for the chance to go, and on 11 October, I found myself on a flight from Birmingham to Istanbul.

When I got there, I had to find my way to one of DAF’s 26A cafés, based in Taksim (the main district of the European side of Istanbul). I was going to be picked up, but as the Turkish state had invaded Northern Syria a few days before, everyone in DAF was at an emergency meeting. When I got to the 26A café, I was met by several comrades, who gave me food, tea and a long explanation of who they were. I was happy that one of them asked which pronouns I preferred (they/them), and I explained my appreciation of this; they were shocked to hear how some people who call themselves feminists are transphobic in the UK, and started to talk about how this could be possible, also noting how ridiculous this was! Luckily someone noticed how tired I was, and I was shown the commune. This was a two-bed flat, with a living room, bathroom and no kitchen – but as it was based above the 26A café, they did not need one. I found out that seven people lived here, and that they had strict rules around cleanliness, and a no-drug policy because a lot of the local gangs involved with the drugs trade were in the pockets of the state, and would happily beat up anarchists. I was given the living room to sleep in, which had a fold-out sofa bed. That night, I heard the police shouting and probably beating someone up outside; a regular occurrence, I later found out!

Next morning I was woken at 8.30am for a shared breakfast (and more tea), where no one is allowed to start until everyone who is sharing is there. I was told that there was a Saturday Mother’s protest a few streets over at 12pm and they wondered if I would come? I replied that I would, and just before 12, we were off. I was advised to only bring my ID. On the way there, we were patted down by armed police which held a line across the narrow street, and just round the corner there were police in full riot gear lining the side of the street and across it at both ends. We had to squeeze past them to get into the kettled demo, which was outside the human rights association, down a back street. We were handed out pictures of the people who went missing during the 1980’s and 90’s, these were people who were captured by the state, tortured and then murdered. The mothers want justice for their loved ones, and to bring about recognition of militarisation of the Turkish state, and state violence. I was told that they had had over 750 protests, and that they used to have their protests in a square, from which they were banned last year. Each week they talk about a different person who has been disappeared by the state. I was also warned that this is the first protest since the invasion of Northern Syria, and if anyone was to mention it, then the police would be violent. Most of the people there were elderly, and many of the mothers have died, never being able to properly say farewell to their missing love ones, as they were never given their remains to bury.

The speaker started her speech, mentioned that this week's son’s mother had died, so she would talk on her behalf. Shortly into her speech she mentioned the invasion, and instantly there was a shout from the police, and they started pushing forward. At the same time, the police line behind us moved to block off the street leading towards the big square, leaving us one escape route. I was grabbed by the arm by one of the comrades and taken away. They told me that it would be bad for me if my face was recorded as being there, as a foreigner. We waited round the corner and saw an older women come round the corner and collapse, where she was caught and carried into a nearby building by several protesters. The people I was with walked me away, and we went a long route back to the café. I have to admit I was crying at this point as to let out my emotions; in the UK when we see police violence, as anarchists we usually run to it, and are able to let out our anger, unless we are massively outnumbered! But on the mainland UK, the police never use tear gas or rubber bullets on protesters, as of yet! Anyway, back at the café, the anarchists sat down and did a write up of the protest and put it up on social media, sharing the video and pictures that had been taken. Having the café enabled them to have a place to meet and write together.

A little while later that day, we went for a walk down to the harbour and got a boat over to another district, called Kadiköy, on the Asian side of Istanbul. After a disorientating walk through the little crowded streets, we got to the café, to find that a line of riot vans and cops were filling the street. I was told this was unusual, and that there must be a game on in the sports centre on the other side of the street. We sat down at a table, and more tea was ordered and pasta. We were only a couple of meters away from a cop armed with a machine gun. Everyone ignored him, so I tried to as well, though I was very anxious. At this point I will explain the economics of DAF. The cafés are volunteer-run, but all the money that they make is communal; it is for everyone in DAF to pay for what they need to survive, and this includes rent, bills, clothes, and travel money, etc. If you turn up to the café as a an anarchist, the food and drink and free. The rest of the money goes to paying for their publications and activism. A lot of the members lived in shared flats which they call communes, but they didn’t seem crowded, as most of the time everyone hangs out in either of the two cafés or at their workshop space. Whenever DAF are running low on money, then they all go and get work elsewhere for a bit, to help raise the collective fund. It is rather impressive, especially as they have such a range of people involved, from young children and those in high school to workers and older members.

After having our lunch we went to their workshop, a few streets over, passing a few friendly street doggos on the way. People seem to really love the street cats and dogs in Istanbul and leave food and water out for them. In the workshop, I talked to the translator for my talk and explained a few phrases like “cat herding”, in that trying to organise anarchists in the UK is a bit like trying to herd cats; very difficult, this being due to everyone being in separate groups, and the remains of the individualist anarchist ideology. I gave my talk about the AF and anarchism in the UK later that day, but it didn’t seem enough time. There is so much that goes on here, and so many things that have come up that we have had to deal with and learn from. The usual current questions came up (Brexit and Extinction Rebellion), and I went into details on these topics and the problems with them. They seemed to enjoy the talk and we had a picture taken before I ended up in another long talk with my friend Hüsseyin.

This is when I found out that they do not refer to themselves as Turkish! Oops. We talked till late and I learnt more about their anarchist theory; in that they are revolutionary anarchists, holistic (intersectional), and have long discussions so that everyone is on the same page when it comes to theory, so that things can be decided by full consensus. This may seem a long way to do it, but considering we have so many fallings out and splits in the AF, I am starting to wonder if full consensus is a better way to do it.

The next day we went to a memorial back at the workshop. It was in memory of two of their comrades, Tayfun Benol and Ali Kitapci, who died in a union anti-war meeting in Ankara on 10^th October 2015. The MIT (Turkish state special intelligence), had given the information about the meeting to ISIS, who suicide-bombed the meeting. It killed 103 people, and while everyone was trying to help one another from the building, the police came in and gassed everyone. It took the first ambulance 30 minutes to arrive. Mercan, another anarchist told me how Tayfun was like a father to a lot of them in DAF, he kept trying to tell her to go back to university, as he never got the chance! Tayfun was father to two of the members of DAF, both of whom came to the memorial. At the memorial we watched a short documentary about Tayfun, and they plan on doing documentaries of all the 103 that were killed. They ended on singing a song about fallen comrades, and how we must continue fighting.

Afterwards, and with much more tea, I was told about how DAF have seen the PKK over the years, from a Marxist organisation, similar to Maoism with Abdullah Öcalan as their leader, a nationalist group they could never support, move towards the democratic confederalism that it practices now. How, after their leader was imprisoned and the headquarters bombed, the Kurdish people within the group started to self-organise, have massive protests, and burn cars. It is now a people’s liberation movement; it's still not anarchist, but it's something that anarchists could get involved with and help to change. Anarchists in 2009, who founded DAF later in the same year, were the first to raise an anarchist flag at Newros (Kurdish new year). They were welcomed, although everyone kept on asking them who had died, as black is the colour of mourning. Every year DAF hold Newros celebrations, something that is banned in Turkey, along with a lot of other cultural things, and many Kurdish people attend. I should point out at this point that DAF is made up of people from many different cultures, including a lot of oppressed ones, and they celebrate these cultures by putting on events for them.

When war first broke out in Syria, a lot of refugees fled into Turkey. The Turkish state responded by going to the border, putting people into camps, bombing local settlements so people couldn’t stay in them, and by arming ISIS members. DAF members went to the border and helped people across the border in both directions; getting those who fled from the war across the border and deeper into Turkey to avoid the camps, and those who wanted to go fight for Rojava and other free regions in Syria. It was difficult, as they had to avoid both the Turkish army and ISIS, and they also had to find mine-free areas so that they could help people through.

DAF had the idea to start up a route for anarchists across Europe to get into Northern Syria to help rebuild the area and support people there, as well as push the whole revolution in a more anarchist direction. However in July 2015, a media declaration of some young anarchists and socialists, who planned to go and take toys for the children stuck in Kobanî, and to stay and help out, was attacked by ISIS, killing 33 people. Not long after this, the border became more difficult to cross, and is now closed for people going either direction. Again it is believed that the Turkish state gave this information to ISIS so that it would be attacked.

I also learnt about other campaigns DAF are involved in, like the conscientious objectors. In Turkey if you're male and in your 20s, you have to do one year of military service. In the years before, a million people might object each year, and would have to go to court to defend themselves. DAF try and find these people and call events to invite them along to, so that they can organise them. DAF have a solicitor member who can help them with these cases. For example, it helps them to say they are a member of a conscientious objectors' association. If the military court thinks you're not a conscientious objector, then they may try and make you join the army, or you can go to prison. It is illegal for them to do this, as Turkey signed a European agreement which says that it is a right to conscientiously object, but a lot of people don’t know this, so DAF try to raise awareness. If you're gay, then you will given a pink paper, which says you're gay and not a proper man, and that you are sick. One man that they helped refused to take the pink paper, and got six months in prison for it. At the end, he got a different piece of paper that told him he was mentally unwell. These papers mean that is impossible for you to get a state job, such as a nurse or teacher. There is a lot of pressure on young men to join the army, and family have ceremonies, like weddings, for when the young men go off to do their service. Those who are from oppressed cultures, like Kurdish, Armenian and Allavi, are usually sent straight to the front, as the state wants them to die. It has become more difficult for DAF to organise conscientious objectors as Erdoğan (the fascist president of Turkey) changed the law on military service to one month if you pay £30,000 Turkish Lira (about £5,000), which is a lot of money for people, or you can do only eight months if you graduate from university. Despite the expense of this, it seems like many have taken it, and there are only around 200,000 objectors each year now.

DAF also do a lot of prison support. From the 60s to the 80s, the left were big in Turkey. A lot of people were unionised and the syndicalist unions were strong. Because of this, a coup happened, and one of the first things the coup wanted to do was to separate the political prisoners from the normal prisoners. As you can expect, there was a lot of protest about this inside and outside the prisons, as they were good places to organise people. Prisoners went on hunger strike, took over the prisons and threatened to kills the guards. The state responded by knocking down the walls and ceilings of the prisons, and throwing in chemical weapons; many were killed or lost limbs in the attacks. The two types of prisons were installed, and that system remains today. I was assured that, despite losing the ability to organise prisoners, it makes it not so bad to go to prison, as you end up in ones which you're politically aligned to. So, as an anarchist you go to anarchist prison, a great way to meet each other and develop anarchist theory and write articles. It is still a prison though, and since Erdoğan got into power (and the coup against him, and following state of emergency), the prisons have become overcrowded, and prisoners' rights seem to have been neglected. Prison rooms built for three people now house 15. Letters never get to prisoners, and visitors are denied. DAF try and support those prisoners who protest these conditions. Recently a Kurdish anarchist comrade went on death strike due to being kept in an overcrowded cell, in the wrong prison (he wasn’t in an anarchist one), and not being allowed to see his family. Due to the publicity given to him by DAF and his death strike, his demands were met and he is now with comrades and allowed to see people. Umat told DAF of a trans-woman prisoner who is being kept in a male prison and they are helping her try to get re-located into a women’s prison. The comrade that told me all of this can no longer go into the prison to visit people, as he is worried that he will get grabbed and sent into the military.

I learnt a little bit about the other groups within DAF, the high school group who fight against exams, the women’s group who fight for so many things as patriarchy is worse there than in the UK. It seems very common for women to get beaten by fathers and by husbands. No-one will rent to you if you're an unmarried couple, or if you're sharing a house with friends. They also have an ecology group; a subject very close to their hearts. And they have a kids' group; they do workshops for kids, including one on how to make films! Their newspaper collective, which publishes every month, spends a week writing and editing, and then another week going to different places to hand them out. They also have several others I didn’t have much time to find out about. Each group it seems has their own magazine and website. I later found out that DAF came together in 2009, forming out of several of these groups. Each group meets weekly, and once a week they have a 9am to 11pm meeting where everyone in DAF comes along, and discusses ideas and plans for the week and upcoming events. They have several talks a month, including talks by internationals like the one I did. They have even invited famous scholars like Dennis Fox, a critical psychologist who I myself have been influenced by.

On my last day, I got a tour of Gezi park and other places of interest to an anarchist. I saw the main streets with their tall buildings, built by Amenians who were then killed or deported by the Turkish state. I also saw the square where the Saturday Mothers used to protest, where now a new building stands, and the rest is cut up by a road, or fenced off with a armoured vehicles filled with armed police inside. They showed me the Ottoman Bank, which was occupied and bombed by Armenian anarchists in 1986. Then there is Gezi park, where massive protests of up to one million people took place, due to Erdoğan wanting to build on it; thought it was saved, it is now cornered off at one end by armoured vehicles. That end, I was told, is where a lot of the main clashes happened with the police. I was shown the cafés which doubled as medical stations; all the doctors and nurses that helped the protesters there lost their jobs, following the 15 day protests. I was shown the patch of grass which was dug up so people could plant pepper and tomato seeds; though none of them took, as it wasn’t long enough! The site where the cultural building used to stand, formerly occupied by the protesters has since been knocked down, due its history of having banners hung from it. And finally, my guide showed me the new big mosque being built on Taksim Square, intended mostly as a bit of a fuck you to the protesters!

To be honest I am rather amazed by DAF. They are very well-organised, and have done so many great and inspiring actions. I feel that they have something that we lack in anarchism in the UK; they are co-ordinated and have political cohesion. I feel that the economy that they have, where everything is shared and being able to be together, enables them to have long discussions and respond quickly to things that happen. This may be out of necessity, as things in the Middle East (their words) are a lot more difficult for them than they are here in the western world. Seeing what they are achieving makes me want to replicate what they do, and makes me adamant that we must be more organised. If we were as organised as them, and with the amount of anarchists we have here, I feel that we would have a very strong movement. ■

Devrimci Anarşist Faaliyet - Revolutionary Anarchist Action -DAF

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In July 2015, 33 revolutionaries who set out to rebuild Kobanê, a city that was destroyed and plundered by ISIS gangs, were massacred by the murderous State and ISIS. In order to commemorate the massacred revolutionaries and to keep their struggles alive, commemorations were made for the 4th anniversary of the Suruç Massacre in Istanbul and Ankara upon the call of the Youth Organizations including Anarchist Youth.

At the very hour of the massacre 4 years ago, commemorations took place at the graves of our comrades, who were massacred by the murderous State and ISIS gangs. The 33 Martyrs were remembered and it was promised that unfinished dreams would be completed and that we would call the responsible to account for what was done to them.

All the revolutionaries and the families of those who lost their lives in Suruç Massacre were gathered at 18.00 in Kadıköy, Halitağa Street for the sit-in protest to commemorate 33 revolutionaries. It was shouted that the people who were massacred by murderous State and ISIS gangs, still live in the struggle. Throughout the sit-in, the families of those living on that day and the families of our murdered comrades gave speeches.

The ongoing injustice, oppression and violence since the massacre continued in Istanbul and Ankara against those gathered to commemorate them.

Following the sit-in in Istanbul, as the march towards Süreyya Opera House, the meeting point for the memorial event in Mehmet Ayvalıtaş Park, the murderous police (of the murderous State) began their unceasing attacks. Similarly, in Ankara, on the call of Youth Organizations, including Anarchist Karala, those who came together for the action on Sakarya Street were subjected to police attacks. 8 revolutionary were detained. With the ongoing gatherings in the Kızılay after the attack, it was once again shown that it would not step back against the killer State. The revolutionaries who did not leave the streets showed that the struggle for Justice for Suruç could not be ended with theseattacks.

KADIKOY IS BARRICADED

Those who forced the revolutionaries to step back after being subjected to their attacks, detention and intimidation policies once again saw that Kadikoy was the barricade of the revolutionaries. 33 comrades, our friends, were fighting in the streets of Kadikoy. The violent police tried tosuppress the anger of the revolutionaries was inturn responded by narrowing the streets of Kadıköy with barricades to stymie the determined police attacks, Kadikoy was once again shown to be a field of resistance and struggle.

Continuing their unceasing attacks , the police detained 20 revolutionaries, including 3 of our comrades from Anarchist Youth. From the Kalkedon to Bahariye Street, barricades were built on all the streets of Kadıköy.
The fight of the 33 anarchist and socialist revolutionaries massacred in Suruç is our fight. The journey of martyrs cannot be ended with bombs, attacks, detentions and intimidation.

Their fight is ours.
Our fight will continue! ■

Devrimci Anarşist Faaliyet
DAF (Revolutionist Anarchist Action )

(Translation edited by Organise!)

Original Link hosted on anarsistfaaliyet.org

This infographic was created by the Shoal Collective who you can find on twitter via @shoalcollective. They are a cooperative of independent writers and researchers, writing for social justice and a world beyond capitalism. This graphic was created the highlight thesheer scale to which the British arms industry is involved with supplying Erdoğan's fascistic regime in Turkey with the arms which are used to suppress Turkish citizens and attack Kurdish communities and the Internationalists fighting alongside them in Rojava.