The Confederation of Public Workers Unions (KESK) Diyarbakýr branches have announced they will begun a hunger strike to draw attention to the hunger strikes in prisons and to protest against the increasing arrests. The Union of General Services Workers from the Confederation of Revolutionary Workers Unions (DÝSK/Genel Ýþ) Diyarbakýr, Urfa, Dersim, Siirt, Batman, Van, Aðrý and Kars branch chairs and executives also stated they started a two-day hunger strike with the same objectives.

"The policies of denial and elimination against the Kurds, which the AKP [Justice and Development Party] is trying to revive do not work any more. We, the workers, have never given up and will never give up," said Saliha Aydeniz on behalf of the KESK. Aydeniz added that the child sexual and physical abuse incidents in the Pozantý Prison was another form of the AKP's oppression.

DÝSK/Genel-Ýþ said the hunger strike aimed to contribute to the peace process in the Kurdish issue, to protest the policies of denial and elimination, to end the isolation of Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan and to show solidarity with the hunger strikers in and outside prisons.

Currently over 400 prisoners, including three Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) deputies, are on an indefinite hunger strike to protest against the isolation regime imposed on Öcalan as well as the military and political operations. The hunger strikes with turns outside prisons also continue. New groups have taken over the protest in Malatya, Batman, Viranþehir, Baþkale, Doðubayazýt and Cizre Town.