Message from Zozan Çiçek on death fast in Bakırköy jail

The hunger strike resistance led by DTK co-chair and HDP Hakkari MP Leyla Güven demanding the end of isolation was joined by seven thousand political prisoners.

Zozan Çiçek is one of the 15 prisoners on death fast since 30 April demanding the end of isolation against Öcalan.

Çiçek said they owe this resistance to the martyrs of freedom.

On 6 May lawyers from Asrin Legal Office held a press conference to confirm that they had been granted a visit with Kurdish People's Leader Abdullah Öcalan on 2 May. The visit came after eight years since the previous one and lasted one hour. 

The hunger strike resistance led by DTK co-chair and HDP Hakkari MP Leyla Güven demanding the end of isolation was joined by seven thousand political prisoners.

Since 30 April, 15 PKK and PAJK prisoners have turned their hunger strike into death fast. One of these 15 prisoners is Zozan Çiçek. She is in Bakırköy Women's Closed Prison and sent a message to ANF via her lawyer, Ayşe Acinikli.

Our demand is reasonable

The message sent by Çiçek is as follows:

“The hunger strikes started with the slogan ‘Let's break isolation, let's destroy fascism and liberate Kurdistan’. More than 20 years of isolation on Imralı Island are a crime against humanity and have no legal dimension, but on the contrary Turkey is committing a crime by violating its own law. Although the fascist AKP government has not taken any steps, it continues to play deaf. We are committed to continue our action until breaking isolation. For this we are on death fast. They know very well that no matter how much they want to ignore our resistance, peace, democracy and a solution are only possible in this land with President Apo. 

We will not stop this action until we see our legitimate demand satisfied. Just as in the prison of Diyarbakir in ’82, Kemal, Hayri, Akif, Ali took over the flag of resistance, thus we today, as their successors, will liberate our leadership with this action. Regardless of the cost, we have the responsibility to enlarge the resistance over and over and to reach freedom. To achieve this we call on our people to join the resistance. 

Today, once again, the mothers are holding actions. The action of these mothers should be claimed even more, everyone should make sure the streets are turned into serhildan [uprising] areas. Everyone who calls himself a democrat, a socialist, must act. 

Most importantly, everyone who has a conscience should listen to the voice of the prisons. Kurdish youth should know more about history, should demonstrate more. We can't get results until we reach a full serhildan. Inaction brings death. As Kemal says, fascism is most afraid of sound and light. 

We must defeat fascism today with our voice, with our actions. We must be determined and believe. That's our promise to our martyrs of freedom. And victory will come.”

The 15 prisoners on death fast are: 

Nesrin Akgül, Şükran Aydın, Zozan Çiçek in Bakırköy Women's Closed Prison,

Ardıl Çeşme, Aslı Doğan in Gebze Women's Closed Prison,

Ahmet Anığı, Özhan Ceyhan, Vedat Özağar, İhsan Bulut, Erol Çelik in Van High Security Prison,

Engin Akhan, Enver Durmaz, Ahmet Topkaya, A. Haluk Kaplan, Ferhat Turgay in Diyarbakır D Type Prison.