Wall-to-wall coverage of COVID-19 means that we might be tempted to forget those stories that have not gone away, such as the continuing war in Syria. But there are also other less well-known struggles out there that even in the midst of the pandemic, Rising East will try to cover.
Helin Bölek, 28-year-old member of the radical Grup Yorum – founded in Turkey in 1884 – has died in Istanbul on the 288th day of her hunger strike.
Grup Yorum is a large and loose collective of musicians devoted to various radical causes including an end to capitalism and the overthrow of the authoritarian Turkish government.
Together with two other members of the collective – İbrahim Gökçek and Mustafa Kocak – Bölek was protesting against Turkish persecution of the group and its activities. The hunger strikers have five demands: that group members currently in prison are released; that arrest warrants on other members are lifted; that the rewards offered for their capture are also withdrawn; that the group is no longer banned from performing in Turkey; and that the authorities stop raiding the İdil Cultural Centre that the group runs in Istanbul.
After her death members of the collective posted the following message on Twitter: “On a death fast for 288 days, Grup Yorum member Helin Bölek has become a martyr. We are calling on everyone to come to the resistance house to lay claim to our martyr.”
The “resistance house” referred to in the post is the property where Helin died and where İbrahim Gökçek is still on hunger strike.
The band is known all over the word but particularly in Turkey for its brand of revolutionary songs against capitalist oppression and imperialism. They have released twenty-three albums with songs sung in many different languages including Kurdish, Zazaki, Turkish, Armenian, Spanish and Arabic.
Although the group claim to have no affiliations, the Turkish authorities associate it with the DHKP-C (an abbreviation of the Turkish for Revolutionary People’s Liberation Front) – which is classified as a terrorist organisation by countries that include the EU and America.
Supporters of the group in London, who include members of the Freemuse organisation devoted to artistic freedom, have set up a petition demanding that Turkey end their human rights violations immediately.
They are also encouraging people to write to the Turkish embassy directly at the following address: embassy.london@mfa.gov.tr.
