Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) Beyoğlu district organization and Association for Solidarity with the Families of Prisoners (TUAD) held a press conference at the main Galatasaray Square on Saturday to call attention to the situation of ill prisoners in Turkish jails.

Reading the press statement, BDP Beyoğlu district organization co-chair Songül Oktar remarked that the AKP government has arrested thousands of Kurds in political operations so far. “The aggravated isolation in F type prisons have caused critical health problems for hundreds of prisoners. Turkish jails have become a death pit today, especially for political prisoners”, she underlined.

Oktar pointed out that ill prisoners are being sent to death because of the obligation of treatment in handcuffs, bureaucratic barriers, the lack of service at medical rooms and the ideological prejudice and attitude of doctors at prisons.

Oktar reminded that there are currently 413 ill prisoners in Turkish jails, with 100 among them in need of urgent treatment, according to the reports of human rights organizations.

Putting emphasis on prisoners' right to life, Oktar said that the situation of ill inmates could not be questioned in any kind of political bargain.

Oktar ended the statement by demanding the urgent release of all ill prisoners in order to help to answer the Kurdish people's demand for peace and a democratic solution to the Kurdish question.