PKK and PAJK prisoners to launch a hunger strike

PKK and PAJK prisoners announced that they will launch a hunger strike with 5 day-long rotations to demand an end to the isolation of Kurdish People's Leader Abdullah Öcalan, the human rights violations at prisons, and the destruction of villages.

On behalf of the political prisoners of PAJK (Kurdistan Women's Liberation Party) and PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party) across Turkey and North Kurdistan, Deniz Kaya made a statement and announced that they will launch a hunger strike with 5 day-long rotations between March 15 and April 15 in order to demand an end to the isolation of Kurdish People's Leader Abdullah Öcalan, the human rights violations at prisons, and the destruction of villages.

Kaya emphasized that the AKP was ruling over the country through its state of emergency regime and said the following:

"The AKP is trying to intimidate the opposition through its emergency decrees, arrests, detentions, and normalization of torture. Parliamentarians, mayors, academics and journalists are arrested, villages are burnt, houses are destroyed, people are displaced and massacred. The first place where the state of emergency coup regime was implemented was the İmralı High Security Prison. An unprecedented system of isolation and torture is taking place there. The isolation of Kurdish People's Leader Abdullah Öcalan is being expanded over to all prisons. Our Leader and the comrades that are in the same jail with him are unable to meet with their families or lawyer, and are even prohibited from writing a letter.

The people put in prison have no life guarantees. Every day, our friends that are exiled from one prison to another are searched naked and tortured. Our belongings are seized during the raids on our cells and the letters we write in Kurdish are not sent as they are labelled 'unknown language.' Cameras are placed in our cells in a way that violates our living spaces, and we are forced to stand up during the roll-calls and wear name badges just like during the September 12 coup. The fascist AKP-MHP bloc seeks to consolidate their dictatorship by making Erdoğan president through a referendum. As the PKK and PAJK prisoners, we state that we will continue to reject this fascist and racist system and put up resistance. We call upon all social groups to say 'NO' during the referendum enforced by the AKP-MHP alliance and to enhance the resistance at all fronts.

Accordingly, we the PKK and PAJK prisoners will launch a hunger strike with groups of 3-5 people and 5 day-long rotations between March 15 and April 15 to demand an end to the isolation of Kurdish People's Leader Abdullah Öcalan, creation of conditions needed for a free negotiation, an end to the human rights violations, exiles, torture, raids, and degrading strip searches at prisons, and the blockade, forced evacuation ad destruction of villages in the name of security. We announce to the public that our protests will increase if our demands are not met."

Lastly, Kaya called upon the public to offer their support and to enhance the struggle.