Turkey Retakes Last Prison
Turkish soldiers bombarded rioting prisoners with tear gas Friday and forced hundreds of inmates to surrender, ending a four-day jail siege that left at least 26 dead.
The riots began earlier this week when 5,000 soldiers stormed 20 prisons across the nation to end a two-month hunger strike by leftist inmates protesting plans to move them from open wards to individual cells that prisoners say make them more vulnerable to abuses from authorities.
About 430 inmates of the Istanbul prison surrendered.
Witnesses outside the jail said at least 18 ambulances had left the Umraniye jail on a snowy hillside outside Istanbul, heading for a city hospital. At least one hearse was also seen.
Security forces were seen on the roof of several prison blocks which stand isolated on a bleak hilltop on the eastern outskirts of Istanbul. They had pulled up tiles and opened up holes in the roof.
Black smoke was seen rising from the complex earlier in the morning, which the interior ministry attributed to prisoners burning belongings.
The Umraniye prisoners, said to be armed with makeshift flamethrowers, had fortified a meeting hall and fought off previous attempts to break in, the Interior Ministry said.
Also Friday, the bodies of three inmates were discovered and three others were killed in clashes, raising the death toll from the prison siege to 24 prisoners and two soldiers, the government said.
Prisoners' support group Ozgur Tayad said the death toll was much higher but gave no figures.
Soldiers had been lobbing tear gas canisters into Umraniye prison for four days but they apparently increased their attack on Friday. Some inmates were reportedly wearing makeshift gas masks.
Hundreds of soldiers surrounded the prison, and during the night, smoke billowed from it as inmates inside set fire to mattresses and blankets, resisting calls to surrender until the government assault Friday.
Many inmates set themselves ablaze and burned to death rather than surrender. At least five of the bodies bore gunshot wounds, an autopsy report revealed.
Turkish prisons are overcrowded and prisoners often live in open wards that house up to 100 people. Left-wing, Kurdish and Islamic groups control many of the wards, and use the cellblocks - many bedecked with wall murals of political figures and flags - to indoctrinate new followers.
A day earlier, inmates promised to fight until "death or victory."
"We hope this meaningless action will be ended before it turns into madness," Justice Minister Hikmet Sami Turk said.
On Thursday, 158 inmates at Canakkale prison surrendered. Prisoners at the 18 other prisons were overwhelmed by soldiers or surrendered on Tuesday.
The government said an amnesty law that went into effect Friday would set free some 35,000 inmates and help authorities divide wards into one- or three-person cells.
The controversial limited amnesty could halve the prison population -- but would free common criminals whie leaving many political prisoners behind bars.
Authorities began releasing hundreds of prisoners Friday. The amnesty does not apply to prisoners who opposed the state, such as Islamic, Kurdish or leftist militants.
Many of the leftist inmates are linked to the Revolutionary People's Liberation Army-Front, a group that aims to establish a Marxist republic in Turkey. The group has claimed responsibility for the assassinations of generals, policemen and government officials and has targeted U.S. military and diplomatic missions.