KCDK-E begins sit-in action in support of hunger strikers in prison
The KCDK-E has launched a call for activists in Europe to join the sit-in action to begin on 11 January in Berlin to support the hunger strike carried out in prisons.
The KCDK-E (Kurdish Democratic Society Congress – Europe) Co-Presidential Council appealed to activists throughout Europe to support the hunger strike carried out in prisons demanding the end of isolation of Abdullah Öcalan as well as the end of the violations of prisoners’ rights.
The call reminds that “there are Kurdish political prisoners, including MPs and other elected representatives of the People’s Democratic Party (HDP) and journalists, in 120 jails in Turkey and northern Kurdistan. Many of them have been on a hunger strike for over a month to protest the anti-democratic practices applied by the AKP-MHP fascist regime that deprive them of their human rights, the Imrali isolation system (referring to the solitary confinement of Abdullah Öcalan on Imrali Island) as well as the genocide against the Kurdish people.”
The statement adds: “This humanitarian resistance, which continues under very difficult conditions in prisons, has grown and found support everywhere. The political prisoners who continue this resistance in prisons call on all institutions, politicians, intellectuals, artists, and others who support democracy and freedom to take responsibility for fighting fascism.”
The KCDK-E considers “our urgent duty to explain the demands of political prisoners to the international community, the Council of Europe, the Council of Europe Anti-torture Committee (CPT), to Amnesty International and other human rights organizations. We must give voice to the resistance of the political prisoners and gain public support for them through different activities and actions everywhere we are in order to escalate the struggle against isolation.”
Sit-in action in Berlin on 11 January
As a first step, the KCDK-E announced that they “will start the 5-day alternating sit-in action. This will start with a press conference in Berlin on 11 January.
Alternating sit-in action will be held for 5 days. Institutional representatives, politicians and intellectuals will be in the first two groups.”
The KCDK-E called “on Kurdish and Turkish representatives to participate in the sit-in to support the actions of the political prisoners. This action will take place daily from 11 January at Alexanderplatz / Weltuhr- Berlin between 1 and 3 pm.”
