The indefinite non-alternating hunger strikes launched under the lead of DTK Co-chair Leyla Guven aiming to break the aggravated isolation imposed upon the Kurdish Peoples’ Leader and spread throughout prisons and various cities continue in Strasbourg, the most significant hunger strike in Europe, on day 101.

Visitors from various circles continue to pour in. Member of the European Parliament Arne Gericke also visited the 14 hunger strikers, including KCDK-E Co-chair Yuksel Koc, politician Mustafa Sarikaya, former HDP MP Dilek Ocalan and journalist Gulistan Ciya Ike.

Gericke, from the German political party Bundnis C (Alliance C – Christians for Germany), met with KCDK-E Co-chair Yuksel Koc and said he supports the demands of the hunger strikers. Gericke said the Turkish state must end the aggravated isolation imposed upon Ocalan in Imrali must end at once.

“WE SUPPORT THE KURDS’ STRUGGLE”

Gericke said there are close to 50 million Kurds in the Middle East, fighting for their rights: “The leader of this people has been in prison for 20 years. Ocalan is not a terrorist, the terrorist is Erdogan who imprisons the opposition, oppresses the Kurdish people and denies them their rights.”

Gericke said the European Parliament is monitoring the hunger strikes closely and added: “We are trying to do everything we can to have the hunger strikers’ demands met.” Alliance C also issued a written statement after the visit and drew attention to the hunger strikers’ demands.

The Alliance C statement called on the Federal German government and governments of the European Union member states to urge the Turkish state to stop the attacks against Kurds and the isolation imposed upon Ocalan, stressing that they “support the struggle of Kurds, who play an active role in the construction of a multicultural and multiethnic system in the Middle East.”