The Peace Mothers Initiative of Van has announced that they will launch a hunger strike to protest against Diyarbakır 5th and 6th High Criminal Courts for their rejection of five BDP deputies last week.

A press conference was organised by the Peace Mothers after the rejection of requests for the release of BDP MPs following the Constitutional Court's decision regarding the release of CHP MP Mustafa Balbay. Peace Mothers spokesperson Rukiye Aslan said that the judiciary had once again demonstrated it was discriminatory when dealing with the Kurds.

Aslan added that it was a scandal that the deputies elected by the votes of the people had not yet been released, adding: "We shall raise our voices in protest at this everywhere. With the process launched by Kurdish people's leader Mr Abdullah Öcalan an atmosphere of optimism began, but this has been destroyed by the AKP government. Despite the steps taken by the Kurdish side the government has not only taken not one step, but it has also disregarded its own laws and refused to release the Kurdish MPs. This has deeply saddened us peace mothers. If the government maintains this stance and the MPs are not released, we shall soon be launching a hunger strike."