On 16 March 2019, political prisoner Zülküf Gezen took his own life in the Tekirdağ detention centre in western Turkey in protest against the isolation of Abdullah Öcalan. He was remembered today at his grave in the Yeniköy cemetery in Amed (Diyarbakir).

His mother Havva Gezen, numerous HDP politicians and members of the solidarity organisation for prisoners MEYA-DER, women's movement TJA and the Peace Mothers took part in the commemoration.

HDP MP Leyla Güven, who is also co-chair of the civil society organisation DTK and who initiated the hunger strike against the isolation of Öcalan, reminded in a speech of the other prisoners who had taken their own lives after Zülküf Gezen. The isolation was broken by the struggle of Zülküf Gezen, Medya Çınar, Ayten Beçet, Zehra Sağlam, Yonca Akici, Siraç Yüksek and Mahsum Pamay, said the Kurdish politician and added: "The isolation was unacceptable and was directed against all peoples, women and young people in the person of Abdullah Öcalan.”

Havva Gezen also spoke at her son's grave and demanded an end to Öcalan's isolation: "The Kurds who have no consciousness and are blind in the face of this cruelty should finally open their eyes. Zülküf has left, but no more young people should die. No other mother should have to experience this suffering. It is enough, we must finally unite. We must become aware of our own strength."

Background

Democratic Society Congress (DTK) Co-chair and Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Hakkari MP Leyla Güven went on an indefinite hunger strike on 8 November 2018 while she was jailed in Amed (Diyarbakır) Prison. Following her release from prison on January 25, Güven continued her fast at her home in Amed.

Güven’s protest, which demanded the end of the isolation regime executed against Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Öcalan in Imralı Island Prison, was then joined by more than 7 thousand political prisoners in Turkey and North Kurdistan, as well as dozens of activists in Kurdistan, Europe and beyond.

The massive hunger strike protest was brought to an end on May 26 following a call Öcalan sent through his lawyers who were allowed access to Imralı after years of isolation imposed on the Kurdish leader.

During the course of the hunger strike actions, eight people, seven of them being political prisoners in Turkey, ended their life to protest the isolation. The names of these political prisoners are; Zülküf Gezen, Ayten Beçet, Zehra Sağlam, Medya Çınar, Yonca Akici, Siraç Yüksek and Mahsum Pamay. On the other hand, Uğur Şakar set himself on fire in Krefeld, Germany on February 20 to protest the isolation, and lost his life on March 22 in the hospital he was being treated in.

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