Ayşe Düzkan was sentenced to 1 year and 6 months in prison for participating in the campaign “Directorate General of Publication"  which was initiated with the aim of solidarity with Özgür Gündem newspaper, which was closed with the Decree-Law (KHK), and was released from prison on 12 June. Düzkan who was imprisoned for 4 months, told about the prison process.

 

 

Düzkan who stated that the prison director told her that he will transfer to open prison after she serves one third of her sentence, stated that he director wanted to put her in a ward called the 'independent ward'. Düzkan who stated that she did not accept it, said: "Later he wanted to put me in the political ward. But because of the ongoing hunger strikes in the political wards, I didn't want to be a burden to them. I like being alone so I told them that they can put me in solitary confinement. I was not given the TV and the refregirator everyone was given and I had to go to the yard alone."

 

 

Düzkan who stated that she recieved many letters of solidarity, said: "Fridays when the mail arrives are very important. There were letters that filled my eyes with tears. There were many letters coming from the prisons."

 

 

Düzkan who was transfered to open prison after 3 months, stating that oppression is not limited with the political prisoners, said: "Ordinary prisoners who the system did not give anything to except for a life of crime are being exposed to violance on a daily basis like it is the most ordinary thing. I spoke to all of those who were subjected to violence."

 

 

Düzkan who stated that the oppression on press freedom is perpetual, said: "That was why we acted in solidarity with Özgür Gündem. Existing pressure has increased in the recent years. The oppression has now exceeded the opposition press. In Bakirkoy Prison where I stayed, one woman wrote something while sitting at home and sentenced to prison with the charge 'insulting the President'. She is in prison for 2 yeas now. There was a woman, I think in 2015 she liked a tweet of Hakan Şükür. She has four followers in total. They called her for a deposition and sent her to prison. It sounds funny. Freedom of thought and expression in Turkey has never been so good. In terms of press freedom, I can say that it is the worst period, excluding the coup period. ”

 

 

 

Stating that she could hardly get news from the prisoners on hunger strike, Düzkan said: “There was a payphone in front of each ward. We used to come out and use our phone rights on those phones. There were two wards on hunger strike. The phone in front of them was always locked. At least they never opened it for me. When we want to make a call from there they said it was broken and that we can't go there.. We could usually get the inside information about the hunger strikers from outside. But as of March the New Life (Yeni Yaşam) newspaper was not given to us. "Prisons are being written" they said. After March, the newspaper never came. There were people serving time for aggravated life sentence in our wards. There were usually two of them. They were there for murder. They were usually friends who had to kill their husbands. They knew very well what isolation was. They were generally AKP voters. They knew what isolation was. People were not hopeful about the hunger strikes getting results. When it did, they were so excited. We experienced the same exitement with the political wards."