JINHA

NEWS CENTER – 15 years after the Turkish state launched a brutal operation to break a prison hunger strike across Turkey's prisons, killing 12, massacre survivor HacerArıkan has finally received compensation.

In 2000, political prisoners across Turkey launched a hunger strike against new maximum-security high-isolation prisons. On December 19, 2000, the Turkish state launched what it called "Operation Return to Life," deploying 10,000 soldiers to 48 prisons across Turkey to crush the hunger strike. Soldiers barricaded prisoners' barracks and deployed chemical weapons and firebombs into the barracks, killing 12. HacerArıkan, a prisoner in Bayrampaşa Prisonin Istanbul, survived the operation with severe burns that nearly killed her and would disfigure her for life.

After a long and arduous trial in which Hacer sought justice for what happened to her that day, judges finally ruled on behalf of reparations for Hacer. According to a ruling of the Council of State, authorities were in grave violation of their duties in their refusal to protect prisoners using passive resistance. Hacer will receive reparations in the amount of 120,000 lira ($44,500).

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