MP from Wales urges UK Foreign Secretary to act against isolation

Ilhan Sis is on day 37 of his hunger strike in Newport, Wales. Welsh MP Liz Saville Roberts wrote a letter to Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt calling for action against the isolation.

Ilhan Sis is on day 37 of his hunger strike in Newport, Wales to show support for Leyla Guven and to protest the isolation imposed upon Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Ocalan. Sis launched his indefinite and non-alternate hunger strike simultaneously with the hunger strike in Strasbourg.

Plaid Cymru MP from Wales, Liz Saville Roberts wrote a letter to Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt and called on the British government to pressure Turkey to end the isolation against Ocalan.

The letter with the title “Concern for the welfare of Kurdish hunger strikers" reads as follows:

"We are writing in grave concern about the wellbeing of Kurdish hunger strikers, among whose number are people who have taken no food for nearly three months. They are protesting against the cruel isolation imposed on Abdullah Ocalan, the Kurdish People’s Leader, and the persecution of the Kurdish people in Turkey.

Leyla Given MP of the People’s Democratic Party (HDP), is today on her 75th day of hunger strike, is in a critical condition and, I am told, has now lost her sight. Her protest has inspired hundreds of others to hunger strike, including Ilhan Sis in Newport, South Wales, who has by now been on hunger strike for 36 days.

We urge you to engage in urgent dialogue with Turkish authorities to help remove Abdullah Ocalan from aggravated isolation and bring these hunger strikes to end for a tragedy to be avoided.

We must send a clear message of support to fellow democratically elected representatives who have been arrested and imprisoned for the very act of representing their people.”

Liz Saville Roberts and SNP MP Chris Stephens brought the issue to the agenda of the UK Parliament. They had previously launched a petition geared towards MPs regarding the hunger strikes and the isolation, which started with 4 MPs and has procured signatures from 32 MPs to date.