Political life and prisons in Turkey: A research on the operations 'back to life'

Political crime is a nonconcurrent concept that is entirely dependent on time, venue and conjuncture. In this sense, the sanctions applied to political criminals have been circumstantial and accordingly, incarceration techniques in Turkey varied. Military coup administrations, during which the number of political criminals peaked, have been the turning points of incarceration practices of political prisoners. Isolation started in ward type prisons ended up with incarceration in F type prisons. Transition to F type prisons had repercussions both in prisons and in public, which resulted in protests and death fasts against isolation. Finally the Operations 'Back to Life' conducted on 19 December 2000 have been the last phase of the transition to F type prisons. This study aims to clarify the operations conducted on prisons, hunger strikes, death fasts, and other resistance in prisons, as well as the ones against isolation in the process of the Operations 'Back to Life'.