GülşenKoçuk-ŞehribanAslan/JINHA

AGIRÎ – Cancer patient and Kurdish political prisoner AynurEpliis in serious condition, says her family.

The Human Rights Association (İHD) maintains a list of sick prisoners in serious danger of death, a list currently 249 names long.402 more are struggling with various forms of illness inside the prison. Turkey is notorious for refusing to release prisoners for medical treatment, especially for political prisoners and Kurdish prisoners.

Kurds across the country are waiting anxiously for the Turkish government to take some step forward in the Kurdish peace and resolution process, but none more anxiously than sick prisoners and their families.

"If there's something called a peace process, if there's going to be a step forward, that step needs to be the release of sick prisoners," saidGülizarEpli, Aynur's sister.

Advocates for sick prisoners say that political prisoners like Aynur, imprisoned for being a PKK member, are now being subjected to a bureaucratically justified form of torture.

Aynur has been imprisoned for the last 21 years. She has suffered from intestinal cancer since 2007. A year after her cancer diagnosis, she had surgery to have half of her intestines removed. When she was diagnosed with a brain cyst soon after, prison administrators had her transferred to a prison thousands of kilometers away from the family, in Izmir. She now also suffers from thyroid and uterus problems.

Prison doctors recommended that she be transferred to a prison in Ankara where she could receive surgery, but administrators refused. The Epli family eventually, through financial help from allies and the work of a team of lawyers, got her flown to Ankara for treatment, but there is no treatment available at the prison she has been transferred to in Izmir, making her recovery difficult.

The family says that given prison food conditions, Aynur is not receiving the special diet necessary due to her intestinal cancer. Her illness has advanced, with complications including a partial stroke and bleeding in her nose.

"They're giving out reports saying she's 'recovered' for someone who has this many disorders," Gülizar said. "They're coming up for every hold-up they can find to stop her from being released."

The family says the more they have applied for Aynur to receive treatment, the more they have found prison administrators taking threatening measures—like the transfer to Izmir.

Aynur's mother, NeziheEpli, says her daughter and other political prisoners joined the PKK due to their Kurdish identities and the state's denial of their right to their mother tongue. Now, they are slowly dying inside.

"My only wish is for all sick prisoners to be released," says NeziheEpli. "Are they going to be released after they die? If they won't send them to a doctor or give her treatment, they need to let our children go."

(fk/cm)