Human Rights Association (IHD) Prisons Commission spokesperson and Hunger Strikes Monitoring Commission member Mehmet Acettin reminded that the state has taken no step regarding the demand of the prisoners to end isolation. He added that the demand is more likely to be met with an increased support of the public opinion than with the government.

The indefinite-alternating hunger strike launched by PKK and PAJK prisoners in Turkish prisons on November 27, demanding the end of isolation imposed upon Kurdish people's leader Abdullah Öcalan, continues on its 170th day. Following the hunger strike process, Mehmet Acettin, spokesperson of the IHD Istanbul Branch Prisons Commission, spoke to ANF.

Acettin reminded that the applications made by the lawyers of the Asrın Law Office to meet with their client, Abdullah Öcalan, are filed every week, and added that a positive response to these applications would ease the tension. However, he said, the government took no steps in this direction.

Acettin said: “The state generally does not care much about the hunger strikes unless they are long-lasting and deaths occur. So essentially, the public opinion should speak out for the prisoners and claim their demand. At the moment, however, there is silence. It is not easy to break this silence. The reason for this silence is the state's security policy and the method of punishment the state uses against the slightest criticism. You know, even an ordinary tweet is under threat of punishment. People inevitably get scared. Families and institutions need to insist on making their voice heard to create a public opinion on this issue."

Pointing out that the demands of the prisoners on hunger strike are clear and legitimate, Acettin emphasized that the government violated the legal rules. He added that a personalized aggravated isolation system is implemented in Imrali and said that this special system, legitimized by new laws, has gradually spread to all prisons. Acettin underlined that “the right to buy books and magazines in prisons was usurped, family and lawyer visits were either restricted or prevented arbitrarily. They are trying to make the unlawfulness going on in Imrali, the norm in all prisons.”

Acettin said that isolation itself is a big problem and the problem cannot be solved with hunger strikes and announced that they are currently focusing on hunger strikes, but that they will carry out a work based on the isolation itself in the upcoming period. Underlining the need to create social unity against the isolation practices spreading everywhere, Acettin added: “We took the first step towards this. In the next days, we will announce a hunger strike monitoring coordination in Istanbul. Later, we will carry out a work towards isolation in general."