1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 Nâzım Hikmet, seeing that no result was going to be received from all these efforts, went on a hunger strike on 8 April 1950. It was known that he had heart and liver disease. On the second day of the hunger strike, he was brought to Istanbul by order from Ankara, and was first placed in the infirmary of the Sultanahmet Prison and then sent to the Cerrahpaşa Hospital. When his decision for the hunger strike could not be prevented, attorney Mehmet Ali Sebük directly went to Ankara and after the first interviews with authorities, he sent a telegram to Nâzım Hikmet indicating that he was trying to have him released and that he had met with the Deputy Prime minister Nihat Erim twice and the Minister of Justice Fuat Sirmen twice and discussed the details of the matter three times with Sakıp Güran, the General Director of Prisons, and that the next day he was going to meet with the President of Republic Ismet Inönü, so that Nâzım had to postpone the hunger strike. Thus, accepting the lawyer's offer, Nâzım Hikmet postponed the hunger strike, on the morning of 10 April 1950. Mehmet Ali Sebük, who proved clearly in his serial writings in the "Vatan'"newspaper, that there was a legal error, just like all other authorities, made a constructive negotiation with the President of Republic, İsmet İnönü. For the time, nothing seemed to be left but wait for the reversal of an error. When Nâzım Hikmet postponed the hunger strike, he underwent medical examination. It was determined that he was in good health. Thus he was sent first to the Sultanahmet Prison to gather his belongings and then to the Üsküdar Paşakapısı Prison. However, the report which was given by Cerrahpaşa Hospital was not sufficiently clear. At any rate it bore no indication that he could be released on account of his health condition. After waiting for ten days, Mehmet Ali Sebük wrote up another petition and inquired unequivocally whether Nâzım Hikmet would be released or not. Why was one waiting? He sent the medical reports issued by the Istanbul Public Prosecutor, the prison doctor, the doctors of the Bursa Hospital and the Cerrahpaşa Hospital, to the Council of Forensic Medicine, with the claim that they were inconsistent. The response of the Council of Forensic Medicine was: "It has been deemed necessary to treat him according to the result that would be received after he continued theraphy at the hospital for three months." But they were not even complying with the report. Days were going by and Nâzım Hikmet was waiting at the Üsküdar Paşakapısı Prison. There was nothing to be done. Nâzım Hikmet began a hunger strike again on the morning of 2 May 1950. His trustee, lawyer Irfan Emin Kösemihaloğlu, wrote a petition which explained the situation, and talked with the Minister of Justice in Ankara. This time the poet had decided to continue the hunger strike unto freedom or death. He was not eating anything, he was drinking four or five glasses of water and was smoking many cigarettes. In the first three mornings he took exercise in the prison courtyard, and he read books and newspapers during the day. After the fourth day, he was thoroughly exhausted and was reluctant to leave his bed as well as to talk to anybody. An ambulance took him to the Council of Forensic Medicine on 9 May 1950. After he was examined for three hours, the doctors decided to convey him to full medical facility. They wanted to place him in a single room at Cerrahpaşa Hospital. But Nâzım Hikmet replied that he was not a guinea pig and he was on a hunger strike to obtain his rights and insisted that he would continue the strike in the prison. The hospital authorities recorded this statement and had him sign it. He was taken to the Üsküdar Pashakapısı Prison again. VAt this time, the meetings and demonstrations continued, declarations were distributed, signatures were collected and other efforts were launched again both at home and abroad. A two-page newspaper named "Nâzım Hikmet" was issued and letters were continuously being written to the authorities. Nâzım Hikmet had lost eight kilograms by the twelfth day of his hunger strike; he was ailing direly. He was taken to the surgical clinic of Cerrahpaşa Hospital and given IV. After that, he was put to bed in a single room in the tubercular ward. On the sixteenth day, the doctors said that he was surviving with the help of medical intervention alone. This situation changed the direction of the applications. His friends and admirers began to send letters and telegraphs to Nâzım Hikmet. - Top - Next ->   1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9