Thread by @StefSimanowitz

Her name is #EbruTimtik

She was a lawyer

18 months ago she was jailed on absurd charges

239 days ago she began a hunger strike demanding a fair trial

Ystdy, on day 238, she died

I didn't know her, but for my friends who did, I'm so sorry

We will not let her death be in vain

Writing to her sister recently, Barkın Timtik - also a lawyer & also in prison - wrote to #EbruTimtik.

"It as an intellectual responsibility to help expose this illegality", she said.

On this dark day, Barkın, we hope that Ebru's death reminds the world of that responsibility.

In July 2019, a forensic medical report found that #EbruTimtik, then 210 days into her death fast, "cannot remain in prison". The report was also about Ebru's fellow hunger-striking lawyer #AytaçÜnsal.

The court in #Turkey rejected the report's findings.

https://twitter.com/MilenaBuyum/status/1288780624594178048

Just incredibly sad

For Ebru’s family & friends

For Turkey & for this fragile planet that needs people of principle & courage like Ebru, now, more than ever

Funeral of #EbruTimtik at the Gazi Cemevi, Istanbul. (Footage via @etkinhaberetha) #BREAKING

“She gave her life for justice.” (Aytaç Ünsal. Aytaç is also a lawyer on death strike)

The police have used tear gas & rubber bullets against the crowd in front of the Forensic Medicine Institution from where #EbruTimrik’s body was taken to the funeral.
m.bianet.org/5/97/229864-eb…

My TL is being filled with people saying: “There are no lawyers/journalists/human rights activists in jail in #Turkey, only terrorists!”

This was Erdogan's senior advisor, @Gulnuray taking about a country that is the world's biggest jailer of journalists.

A few nights ago, I stumbled upon these musicians (@ilanalorraine & @daledavisbass) jamming in a park

“You’ve got what it takes so just be brave

You can be a saviour to yourself”

I’d like to dedicate this song to #EbruTimtik & all those trying to make the world a better place.

I say "courageous", but activists seldom use that word to describe themselves.

“You call us courageous, but we are only doing what we have to do. We have no more choice in doing what we do than the sun has choice to rise each day. Perhaps that’s what courage is." Emerson Warner

If a man be wronged,
And starve upon another's threshold till he die
The People, for all time to come,
Will raise a heavy cry against that threshold.
(W.B. Yeats)

I visited @AminatouHaidar during her 2009 hunger strike.

I wrote this piece with @brianeno. theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

The hunger strike has been used for thousands of years.

Its eloquence lies in its ability to reconfigure the dynamic between the powerless & the powerful. By starving themselves the hunger striker makes public the very private act of dying. #EbruTimtik thefreelibrary.com/The+body+polit…