Turkey: Kurdish prisoners on Hunger strike: Day 44
Today – 29.10.2012 – is the 44th day of the hunger strike launched by PKK and PAJK prisoners in Turkish jails. The health condition for many is entering a difficult and dangerous phase.
Demonstrations are taking place in Turkey and Europe to support the demands of the hunger strikers and to put pressure on governments to act on Turkey so that the protest could stop.
The prisoners are asking to arrange conditions of health-security and freedom for Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan.
Secondly, the prisoners demand the recognition of Kurdish as a language to be used in education as well as in the public sphere. Thirdly and in conjuction with the second demand, they have underlined that they will speak Kurdish in courts and the judges must accept their defence in Kurdish.
ANF / LONDON
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Saturday Mothers: Government should take urgent steps concerning the hunger strike
Gathering at the 396th week of justice-seeking demonstration at Galatasaray Square in Istanbul, Saturday Mothers called on the government to take urgent steps concerning the indispensable democratic demands of hundreds of young people on hunger strike and to abandon policies that leave mothers without their children.
Reading the press statement of the 396th week, Maside Ocak said the followings referring to peace wishes of the President and Prime Minister on the occasion of the Eid Al-Adha; “Which peace are you talking about as the maintainers of the policies that hide the fates of our children and protect their murderers? Which peace are you talking about in the country of mothers who don’t have a grave of their children? Which state of law are you talking about in the face of the fact that hundreds of prisoners are resorting to death for their most fundamental rights?”
Saturday Mothers asked the burial places of 70 years-old ?emsettin Yurtseven from whom no news has been received since his detention in Hakkari’s Yüksekova district seventten years ago, 13 years-old Münir Sar?ta?, 18 years-old Mikdat Özeken and Hüseyin Toraman who has been missing for the last 21 years.
Speaking after, Han?m Tosun, wife of Fehmi Tosun who disappeared in 1995, remarked that the government has given no answer to the families of disappeared people who have been asking the fate of their children for many years. Tosun reminded of the Peace Mothers on hunger strike in front of Bak?rköy Prison and added the followings; “Government authorities have neither heard our voice nor taken a step so far. How many more people need to die before they find a solution to the Kurdish problem? Yet, they are talking about conscience without seeing prisoners who have been staging a hunger strike for 46 days to demand a humane life and humanity. They should take a step before this strike ends without any deaths.”
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Early day motion 628: KURDISH HUNGER STRIKES
Date tabled: 24.10.2012
Primary sponsor: Corbyn, Jeremy
Sponsors: Bottomley, Peter
Caton, Martin
McDonnell, John
Meale, Alan
Russell, Bob
That this House notes that on 25 October 2012 the Kurdish hunger strike in Turkey reached its 43rd day; further notes that 63 Kurdish political prisoners have been on hunger strike for the whole of this time and have now been joined by several hundred more; observes that the demands of the strikers include the release of Abdula Ocalan in order to negotiate a political settlement of the Kurdish question in Turkey and that Kurdish language rights in the public sphere be recognised; further notes that a letter has been sent to the Prime Minister on behalf of the Kurdish Federation of the UK asking the Government to do everything in its power to apply political pressure on the Turkish government to solve the Kurdish question; further notes that the Turkish Minister of Justice is reported to have met some of the hunger strikers and hopes that this significant move is a step towards meeting the fundamental rights of Kurdish people by the Turkish government; and calls on the Government to do all it can to support the rights of Kurdish people in Turkey.
