As part of the global campaign demanding freedom for Kurdish Leader Abdullah Öcalan and a political solution to the Kurdish question, the alternating hunger strike launched by PKK and PAJK prisoners in Turkish prisons continues on its 61st day.
Members of the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party) and PAJK (Party of Free Women in Kurdistan) imprisoned in Turkey went on hunger strike on 27 November in support of the international campaign "Freedom for Öcalan, A Political Solution to the Kurdish Question". According to the prisoners' representative, Deniz Kaya, the hunger strike is carried out in alternating groups from 27 November to 15 February, the anniversary of the international conspiracy against Kurdish People's Leader Abdullah Öcalan. Sick and elderly prisoners as well as prisoners with less than two years remaining on their sentence are not included in the action.
Deniz Kaya announced that the prisoners will also publicise the campaign's demands by writing letters to foreign representations, human rights institutions, the media, political parties and non-governmental organisations, and will regularly ask the Turkish Ministry of Justice about Abdullah Öcalan's isolation on the prison island of Imrali. In addition, they will remind the Council of Europe's Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) of its neglected responsibility. The ongoing court proceedings will be used to denounce the isolation in public spaces and raise awareness about it, said Deniz Kaya, and called on the prisoners to act collectively and to refrain from individual forms of action.
