Silvia Baraldini, Italian former political prisoner who spent some 20 years in US jails for her ideas and commitment beside Afroamerican people, has written to HDP Hakkari MP Leyla Guven who is on the 77th day of hunger strike against the isolation regime imposed upon Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Öcalan.

Baraldini lives in Italy and has given an important contribution in getting people to know about Kurdish women and their central role in the resistance in prisons. She has also been presenting in many venues the Italian edition of Sakine Cansiz’ autobiography.

Leyla Guven is now resisting in continuity with the struggle of political prisoners of which Sakine Cansiz herself was part.

Silvia Baraldini’s letter to Leyla Güven is as follows:

“Dear Comrade Leyla Güven,

I write this letter to express my solidarity with the uncompromising stand you have taken in defense of Abdullah Öcalan's human rights, in particular the demand that his total isolation on Imrali Island, where he has been held since 1999 by the Turkish government, end immediately. Having personally spent a number of years in US federal prisons, and some of those in isolation, I fully understand the necessity to break the silence around Ocalan's condition, and I would add, around the conditions of the many comrades, like yourself, who are being illegally detained by the Erdogan regime in prisons like the one in Diyarbakir.

The indefinite hunger strike that you started on November 7th has prompted and pushed people, like myself, to take a stand. I can only hope that the swell of international outrage against the repressive actions undertaken by the Turkish government will contribute to creating the conditions to free all political prisoners.”