The hunger strike Leyla Guven started demanding an end to the isolation is on day 121 today. As of March 1 thousands of prisoners are on hunger strikes, and the protest is spreading outside prisons as well. HDP MP Dersim Dag and a group accompanying her had launched a hunger strike, and now HDP MPs Tayyip Temel and Murat Sarisac joined them along with another group.

“HUNGER STRIKES SPREAD”

Tayyip Temel spoke in the Vedat Aydin Conference Hall before the hunger strike started and said:

“The hunger strike our HDP MP and DTK Co-chair Leyla Guven started on November 8 demanding an end to the isolation imposed upon Mr. Abdullah Ocalan is on day 121. The hunger strike Nasir Yagiz started in Hewler on November 21 is on day 108. The first group of prisoners have been on a hunger strike for 83 days, and the hunger strike launched on December 17 in Strasbourg is on day 82. Sebahat Tuncel and Selma Irmak’s hunger strike is on day 52.

There are a total of 335 prisoners who started hunger strikes on various dates since December 16, 2018. On March 1, scores of political prisoners joined the indefinite non-alternating hunger strikes.

Sedat Akin in Batman was released from prison during his hunger strike, and has continued in his home for 62 days.

Imam Sis in Newport, Wales is on day 82. Yusuf Iba in Toronto, Canada is on day 55. Mele Mustafa in Germany is on day 55, Mustafa Tuzak from Duisburg, Germany is on day 54. Fadile Tok in Mexmur is on day 48. In the Hague, Hasbi Cakici is on day 47 and Huseyin Yildiz is on day 46. Siyar Xelil in Nuremberg, Germany is on day 42. Omer Bagdur and Cemal Kobane in Kassel are on day 38, and Sivan Agaoglu and Sultan Yigit in Vienna continue their hunger strike on day 35.

PROTEST IN DIYARBAKIR CONTINUE

Our Diyarbakir MP Dersim Dag started an indefinite nonalternating hunger strike together with Bilal Ozgezer, Ismet Yildiz, Salih Canseven, Salih Tekin and Sevican Yasar on March 3. All hunger strikers except Dersim Dag were detained by the police, and returned to the HDP Diyarbakir offices after being released yesterday evening to continue their hunger strike there.

“ISOLATION IS IMPOSED UPON ALL”

The hunger strikes have spread throughout the world, and people have laid their bodies down for the most fundamental rights as the political power stays silent. The AKP government is committing a great crime, trampling their own Constitution against Mr. Ocalan. The isolation imposed upon Mr. Ocalan, whose ideas are of the utmost importance regarding developments in the Middle East, is not just isolation of one person. The isolation is imposed upon the Kurdish people and all our peoples in the person of Mr. Ocalan. The isolation imposed upon Ocalan is imposed upon peace and human rights. The political power acting like the three monkeys is unacceptable.

“SILENCE BRINGS DEATH”

When analyzing the AKP-MHP government’s fascistic policies for their own perpetuity, the silence of the democratic community about the hunger strikes which have reached the critical stage is unacceptable. Silence means every day is too late for those who have laid their bodies down for the most fundamental right. A political prisoner’s right to communication and lawyers’ visits are among the most fundamental human rights, and are violated by the AKP government. Everybody must speak up for these rights to be recognized and the isolation to end.

Silence brings death, silence brings tyranny. We trust in the conscience of not the state but the public. Leyla Guven’s and other hunger strikers’ main demand is that Mr. Ocalan be allowed to meet with his family and lawyers. This demand will also contribute to social peace in Turkey. We are calling on President Erdogan, who speaks of ‘perpetuity’ in election rallies all the time, and the government officials: The one putting Turkey’s perpetuity and peace at risk is the AKP/MHP block, implementing an aggravated isolation against Mr. Ocalan, who defends peace from behind bars for the perpetuity of the peoples of the Middle East and Turkey. It is the isolation and war policies that risk Turkey’s perpetuity.

We know from recent history that silence is complicity in negative outcomes, injustices, deaths and destruction. As such, this spiral of silence must end at once so the isolation imposed upon Mr. Ocalan is ended, and we must lend our voices to the hunger strikers. If we don’t today, tomorrow it will be too late. We continue our hunger strike protest.

“RESISTANCE CAN STOP DEATHS”

All the evil against Turkey starts with the Imrali isolation. Today thousands of people are in resistance to end it. These protests are a warning, a message. The resistance by Kemal and Hayri in 1982 has the same meaning as the resistance by Leyla and Nasir. We are calling on or conscientious people, everybody should put forth whatever they are able to. We can only stop deaths through resistance.”