European media continues to report on the hunger strike by 14 Kurdish politicians and activists demanding an end to the isolation the Turkish state imposes upon Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Ocalan.

Prominent German newspaper Tageszeitung (Taz) published an extensive article on the hunger strikes. Reporter Christian Jakob pointed to the demands and deteriorating health of hunger strikers who have been on an indefinite nonalternating hunger strike since December 17, 2018.

Jakob went to Strasbourg for the article and met with hunger striker KCDK-E Co-chair Yuksel Koc. His article mentioned Koc’s life in the struggle, and his fight against the policies of criminalization of Kurds in Germany in particular. Jakob wrote that he could only see Koc for half an hour due to his deteriorated health, and quoted Koc saying:

“We held protests in all European countries and many cities to end the isolation against Ocalan, we set up information stands. We met with officials from the Council of Europe and political party representatives. In short, we exhausted all democratic methods, but we didn’t achieve any outcome leading to an end to the isolation. So we were forced to launch this protest.

We do not want to die in this protest, on the contrary, we want to prevent deaths. Hunger strikes are not suicides, they are a method of resistance. There are many things Germany could do on this matter. But they support Erdogan through weapons sales, they ban the PKK, they criminalize Kurds. Germany should take on a good role before people start losing their lives in these protests.”

The newspaper also included a comment by Serhat Agiri from the hunger strike committee: “The activists decided for this together, but anybody can stop at any time they wish. This protest is entirely down to their free will.”