The hunger strike launched by the co-chair of the DTK, Leyla Guven, to protest the isolation of the Kurdish people’s leader, Abdullah Ocalan, continues on day 87. Guven was released from the prison on January 25, since when she continues the hunger strike at home.

Bedia Gökyüz, Perihan Akbulut ve Güler Buğdağ from the Peace Mothers Initiative spoke about the isolation of Ocalan and the hunger strike campaign.

‘The Turkish state tries to undermine the hunger strikes’

Bedia Gökyüz, a member of the Peace Mothers Initiative for six years, said that she had witnessed many hunger strikes during this period of time, and continued: “The [Turkish] state all the time acts as if it was awarding us. This has been their trick since the previous hunger strike campaigns. Leyla Guven was freed because the state wanted to undermine the hunger strike campaign. Our children are not deceived by this behavior, why was Leyla Guven arrested and why was she freed? Her mother passed away yet she was not allowed by the court to participate in the funeral. The health condition of activists on hunger strike is deteriorating. The hunger strikes are launched against the isolation of Ocalan. If the isolation is ended, the hunger strikes will stop. The state should not try to convince our people with cheap actions. The hunger strikers are risking their lives for a solution. Despite all the words, there is no sign of peace. The United Nations and the Committee for Prevention of Torture (CPT do not have a solution either. Then why do these organizations exist at all? They told us: “This issue is beyond us.” If the CPT is working for human rights, why are Ocalan and the prisoners on hunger strike excluded?”

‘Guven’s demands are our demands’

Another Mother of Peace, Perihan Akbulut said: “We demand peace in order to stop deaths. The isolation of Ocalan goes against all human principles. Peace means solution, but isolation means death. The demands of Leyla Guven are our demands. Leyla says, ‘This is my body, you can arrest me, yet I am a woman and my body belongs to me.’ She demands exactly what Kurds all around Kurdistan demand. We must gather together and unite to support her and other hunger strikers.”

‘Isolation is war’

Güler Buğday, another member of the Peace Mothers Initiative, stated that the isolation of Ocalan could never be justified in any ethics or religion. Bugday urged the Kurds to unite and said: “Everyone knows well that isolating the leader of a people equals to the isolation of that community as a whole. It also means isolation against women whose reality as slaves in society was revealed and confronted by Ocalan. Leyla Guven is one of such free Kurdish women. The Turkish state sees all these achievements by the Kurdish people and impose an isolation. Leyla Guven has no interests in the hunger strike. Isolation is the tear of mothers. Wherever there is a conflict today, it is women and children that are aggrieved in the first place. The key to peace is in Imrali.”