For 96 days, Kurdish activist Nasır Yağız has been on an indefinite hunger strike in Hewlêr against the isolation of PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan. Despite his poor state of health, he resolutely continues his action.
Nasır Yağız is a member of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) and lives in exile in the southern Kurdistan city of Hewlêr (Erbil). 96 days ago he went on an indefinite hunger strike to protest the isolation of Abdullah Öcalan.
As doctor Durê Mihemed Uren tells, he has now lost 14 kilograms of weight: "The blood circulation is slowed down. He suffers from visual limitations, nausea and extreme headaches. Still, he rejects any medical treatment.
The background of the hunger strike
Nasır Yağız is just one of hundreds of Kurdish hunger strikers. The protest movement was initiated on 7 November 2018 by HDP deputy Leyla Güven. More than 300 prisoners are now on hunger strike in Turkish prisons. In Strasbourg, on December 17, 14 people joined the action. Activists have also gone on hunger strike in Toronto, Newport, Kassel, Nuremberg, Duisburg and other cities.
PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan has been in solitary confinement on the Turkish prison island of Imralı for twenty years. His lawyers have no access to him since 2011. Since the termination of the PKK's peace negotiations with the Turkish government in 2015, Ocalan has been isolated from the public. His brother Mehmet Öcalan was able to visit him very shortly for the first time in January after two and a half years on the prison island of Imrali. The hunger strikers then stated that their demand was not met. The goal of the hunger strike is to ensure regular contact with Öcalan, who is considered a key figure in a solution to the Kurdish question.
