The Kurdish hunger strikers in Strasbourg responded harshly to the Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) who dismissed the objections to the isolation against Kurdish People's Leader Abdullah Ocalan saying they “don't have authority” and rejected the request for a meeting by the hunger strikers and their families, as well as the Shengal Diaspora Assembly.

KCDK-E Co-chair Yuksel Koc and journalist Gulistan Ike, two of the 14 hunger strikers in Strasbourg, issued messages in Turkish and Kurdish and called on all Kurdish people to increase their protests.

“WE STARTED THIS PROTEST BECAUSE THE CPT DIDN'T DO ITS JOB”

Yuksel Koc said 3 separate requests were made for a meeting in the name of the 14 hunger strikers in Strasbourg, their families and the Shengal Diaspora Assembly and added that all 3 appeals were rejected.

Koc said the CPT’s response referred to previous meetings with him and hunger striker Mustafa Sarikaya and added: “What they tell us that they don't have authorization to visit Ocalan now. Which means, the CPT is directly complicit in this isolation, they are among those who planned it. Koc condemned the CPT.

Koc pointed out that the CPT is failing to fulfill the duty defined in their bylaws and said: “I told them before in previous meetings: If the CPT would fulfill the duties listed in their own legal procedures, we wouldn't have to hold these protests in the first place. We started these because the CPT and the CoE were not stepping up.

“UNLAWFUL AND IMMORAL”

Koc said the CPT will have as much responsibility as the Turkish state if any hunger striker loses their life and added: “As such, the CPT’s response is unlawful, unfair and immoral. It has once again become very clear that, and we already knew this, the CPT, which refused to play its role even in the face of death, is in direct complicity in this.”

“THEIR STANCE CLEARLY SHOWS THEY ARE PARTNERS IN THE ISOLATION”

Yuksel Koc pointed out that Leyla Guven’s hunger strike is on day 105 and Nasir Yagiz’s hunger strike is on day 92, and that prisoners have been on hunger strike for 67 days. Koc continued: “What this means is that they are very clearly partners in these policies, the isolation.”

CALLING ON THE PEOPLE TO EXPOSE THE “IMMORAL CPT” EVERYWHERE

Yuksel Koc called on the Kurdish people and said the resistance should be increased more than ever before. Koc said: “We must increase the resistance more than ever. We must expose the international institutions who are complicit in the isolation, and the immorality of the CPT everywhere. We must break their silence with our protests and turn these into sanctions. Everybody must up their actions for this. We have made or voice heard in the international arena with our actions to date. Now, we must develop our protests so the CPT and Council of Europe take action.”

Koc said they will be launching a social media campaign from noon tomorrow against the immoral stance of the CPT, and that the families of hunger strikers will be protesting in front of the CPT.