The indefinite non-alternating hunger strikes led by Leyla Guven and joined by 7.000 prisoners against the aggravated isolation against Ocalan and the local elections were discussed in the meeting.

The HDP delegation restated to Thorbjørn Jagland their demand for the instatement of a dialogue with Turkish President Erdogan and intervention for a solution to the issue.

HDP ASKS JAGLAND TO USE OPPORTUNITIES FOR DIALOGUE

The HDP committee stressed that the hunger strikes have reached critical levels and asked Jagland to use the opportunities for a dialogue for the solution of the issue.

HDP Representative for the CoE Fayik Yagizay said Thorbjørn Jagland had previously met with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and sent a message to Erdogan for the solution to the issue. Yagizay said they want Jagland to reestablish a dialogue.

THE REASON FOR THE HUNGER STRIKES WILL GO AWAY WHEN ISOLATION ENDS

Yagizay said Jagland asked if lawyer visits, which are among the demands posed by the hunger strikers, would bring a solution and that the HDP Committee said the basic demand of the hunger strikers is that Ocalan has regular meetings with his family and lawyers. Yagizay added that if there is a normalization of family and lawyer visits, and regular visits are ensured, the reason for the indefinite non-alternating hunger strikes will have gone away.

TRICKS OVER RECOUNTS, MANDATES AND STATUTORY DECREES DISCUSSED

Fayik Yagizay said they also spoke about the local elections in the meeting and discussed the situation in municipalities where recounts continue, like Istanbul, and the actions taken against HDP’s mayors elect after the elections. The HDP committee also shared with the EP Secretary General that the candidates who won their districts are not given their mandates and that several AKP candidates who lost the elections were given mandates anyway because the HDP candidates had been removed from their posts with the State of Emergency Statutory Decrees (KHK) after the failed coup attempt of 2016.

PACE “WILL CONTINUE EFFORTS”

The hunger strikes against the isolation and the local elections were also discussed in the meeting with Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) President Liliane Maury Pasquier. President Pasquier said she responded to a letter imprisoned former HDP Co-chair Selahattin Demirtas sent from prison, and added that she wrote a letter to the chair of Turkey’s committee in the PACE and that her efforts for a solution to the issue will continue.

DELEGATION HAD ALSO MET WITH THE CPT

HDP MP Feleknas Uca and Fayik Yagizay had met with CPT officials the day before about the hunger strikes and the isolation where CPT officials said they are in contact with the Turkish officials at the highest level and that they “are working towards a long term solution”