In several prisons in Turkey, political prisoners are resisting their inhumane treatment through hunger strikes. It has now been announced that five prisoners in the T-type prison in Elazığ went on an indefinite hunger strike on 22 December.

The hunger strikers are Mahir Kapan, Celil Dağtekin, Nevzat Akbulak, Ömer Özkan and Özgür Taş. They told their families that their action was a protest against the unbearable conditions in the prison. Communication with each other is restricted, visits are arbitrarily prevented, books and letters are not handed out, there is no adequate health care, and the prison management tries to enforce military roll call.

The warden threatened the hunger strikers, saying: "Elazığ is not like any other place. You are not political prisoners, you are terrorists". The relatives say that the prisoners are put under psychological pressure and are also denied refrigerators and televisions.

Hunger strikes continue in other prisons as well. In the Ereğli maximum security prison in Konya in central Anatolia, dozens of political prisoners went on an indefinite hunger strike on 4 October in a ten-day rotation. Since 16 November, the rotation has been suspended, with those involved refusing to eat continuously and indefinitely in protest against their prison conditions.