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Hunger strikes and death fasts end at Abdullah Öcalan's call

An announcement has been made of the ending of the actions following the release of PKK Leader Abdullah Öcalan's message on the hunger strikes and death fasts.

Hunger strikes and death fasts end at Abdullah Öcalan's call

Following PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan’s call for the action to be ended, detainees have announced the ending of their hunger strikes and death fasts.

A statement made by Deniz Kaya on behalf of the PKK and PAJK detainees read, “In line with leader Apo’s call, we are ending our indefinite and non-rotating hunger strike and fast to the death.”

At the HDP’s Diyarbakır provincial building, in turn, their member of parliament Leyla Güven’s message was announced. Indicating she had ended her hunger strike action as of today, Güven said, “The place this struggle must reach is an honourable peace.”

HUNGER STRIKERS TAKEN TO HOSPITAL

Following their announcements, the hunger strikers in prison were taken to Diyarbakır Gazi Yaşargil Research Hospital, Selahattin Eyyubi state hospital and Dicle University Medical Faculty.

Leyla Güven and the other non-incarcerated figures on hunger strike were for their part admitted for treatment to the Memorial Hospital.

MOTHERS: WE DON’T WANT ANYTHING ELSE EXCEPT PEACE

One of the white muslin headscarf-wearing mothers whose kids are on hunger strike, Cemile Bayram, said in a statement she made to Evrensel, “My kids have been on hunger strike for three months. One is my brother and one my son. They have been plagued by a whole host of health problems. Today their hunger strikes have ended. From now on we want peace. We don’t want anything else.”

Another mother, Mülkiye Güzel, for her part said, “My kid’s been on hunger strike for five months. They’re all my kids. We didn’t believe it would end. I’m very happy to be seeing these days. Let no mother’s heart be on fire and let ours not be on fire, either.”

LAWYERS REPORT ON MEETING AND READ ÖCALAN'S MESSAGE

PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan’s lawyers held a press conference regarding the meeting they had on 22 May with their client on İmralı. Asrın Law Office lawyers Nevroz Uysal, Rezan Sarıca, İbrahim Bilmez and Raziye Turgut, appearing before the cameras at Titanic Downtown Beyoğlu Hotel, conveyed Öcalan’s message on the hunger strike and fast to the death.

Öcalan, who had spoken to his lawyers for the first time following an interval of eight years on 2 May and after the hunger strike actions and had made his views public in seven items along with other inmates on İmralı, this time passed on a message about the ongoing actions at the second meeting on 22 May he had with his lawyers.

İbrahim Bilmez said the main agenda of the meeting they had with Öcalan was the hunger strikes and death fasts.

Then Nevroz Uysal read a text compiled on behalf of the Asrın Law Office. Pointing to the İmralı meeting that had taken place on 22 May, Uysal said Öcalan found the discussion of the seven-item declaration penned at the previous meeting to be positive. She indicated that Öcalan had repeated his view that the present situation could not be spoken of as being a “negotiation process.”

She noted that Öcalan had indicated that Turkey had a basic need for discussion of the matters of “social accord, democratic negotiations and honourable peace” and would do what was incumbent on him for these items to become basic values of Turkish politics.

With it stated that Öcalan’s messages were for all the forces of democracy, political structures across Turkey’s spectrum and the state, it was noted that he had not made any comment about any grouping’s stance, saying, “We will understand in 30-40 days what kind of response will be forthcoming from all groupings.”

Öcalan, who was said to have stated that he reiterated his views on a solution in Syria, reportedly stressed the need for the basic rights of the Kurds and other communities to be given constitutional guarantee and spoke of the need for discussions on this matter to be held in a manner that pave the way for deep, historic results and not to get bogged down in day-to-day, narrow political agendas.

Öcalan's lawyers said, “We clearly saw that Mr Öcalan maintains his position of solving problems on the basis of an honourable peace through the method of democratic negotiations, is hopeful about the future and has confidence in himself. We take this opportunity to avow our faith in the need for democratic public opinion to assume responsibility and monitor the process so there can be a surmounting as a whole of the unlawful position that has prevailed for long years at İmralı prison. It is a moral responsibility as much as it is a legal requirement for both the administrative and judicial authorities to fulfil their responsibilities in securing the attainment of legal rights without the involvement of discussion and discrimination.”

THE FULL TEXT OF ÖCALAN’S MESSAGE

Abdullah Öcalan’s message on the hunger strikes and death fasts was then read out.

Öcalan’s message reads as follows:

“Dear comrades,

Informed by the wide-ranging comments my two lawyers will make, I expect your actions to end, especially the friends who have placed themselves on hunger strike and death fast. I comfortably state that your aim related to me has been achieved and I convey my deepest love and thanks to all of you.

I go out of my way to state my hope that you will accompany me with adequate intensity and resolve from here on.

With unending love and greetings.”

LEYLA GÜVEN'S MESSAGE

The full text of Leyla Güven's message titled “I am ending my hunger strike action and continuing my fight against solitary confinement” reads as follows:

The Middle East, in whose territory Kurdistan is situated, is a complete war zone with all the scorching intensity of a ball of fire. By imposing policies of political and cultural denial and capitulation on the Kurds in this war zone, free life is being impeded. To surmount these obstacles, the Kurdish People’s Leader Mr Abdullah Öcalan's perspective of a democratic nation is by now an accepted truth. As has also been seen in the experience of the Rojava Revolution which continues to rock the world, the thesis of a Democratic Middle East encapsulates all the peoples of this part of the world. The most important actor whose project is for the democratic solution of the Kurdish problem throughout the Middle East is Mr Öcalan.

The solitary confinement personified in Mr Öcalan that is today spreading through the whole of society above all gives rise to shame at being human. Informed by this, I can see that our only chance is a revolutionary stance because only revolutionariness can prevent this shame and stand against the intolerable and usurpation.

I, as an individual of the Kurdish people, have since 1994 engaged in unbroken political activity in various areas. We have continued our struggle despite all the illegalities we have experienced. However, I clearly see at the stage that has been reached that I have been unable to wage correct, effective, foresightful and comprehensive politics.

Cognisant that the solitary confinement affecting Mr Öcalan is solitary confinement applied to a people, I started an indefinite and non-rotating hunger strike of my own free will. I stated that I would continue until solitary confinement was lifted because it is exceptionally important not just for the Kurds, but for all peoples who live in this land for the thoughts of Mr Öcalan, who has never compromised on his efforts for peace despite having been in absolute solitary confinement for the past twenty years, to come outside.

We are now in the seventh month of our hunger strike. Thousands of my friends, not least Nasır Yağız, who are comrades of those incarcerated people who “love life so greatly as to die for it,” stood by this action with great strength and support. Our resistance spread from Strasbourg to all four corners of the world and three of my member of parliament colleagues stepped up this resistance along with me. An action of this kind turned into a year of resistance.

For the duration of this process, we were distressed and troubled, not by hunger and silence, but at the martyrdom of our colleagues who sacrificed their lives and were screams in the silence at the cost of their lives. Zülküf Gezen, Ayten Beçet, Zehra Sağlam, Medya Çınar, Yonca Akici, Siraç Yüksek, Mahsum Pamay, Ümit Acar and Uğur Şakar.

They are the true heroes and owners of this process. I recall each one with respect and indebtedness.

I also wish to give special stress to the death fast resistance that was kept up for 27 days. Our thirty comrades who turned the hunger strike they were already staging into a death fast displayed unshakable resolve against solitary confinement.

We know that Mr Öcalan is the sole recourse for ending the pains being experienced in our land and for an honourable peace. The aim of this hunger resistance was for the lifting of the unlawful and inhuman solitary confinement imposed on Mr Öcalan and for the opening of the way to peace efforts encompassing the Middle East. The solution proposals having the nature of a seven-item declaration that was made public at the meeting held on 2 May was a concrete expression of the contribution Mr Öcalan will make to Turkish democracy. Hence, the lifting of the İmralı solitary confinement system will bring about gains for the Turkish peoples, too, as much as for the Kurds.

Both the white muslin headscarf-wearing mothers who came into the streets in this process, and the Plaza De Mayo mother Nora who came from the other end of the earth, from Argentina, to visit me once more showed that peace will blossom with the sacred resistance of mothers.

At the stage we have reached, resistance has pushed ajar the door for absolute solitary confinement to be smashed. They first let his big brother Mehmet Öcalan meet PKK leader Mr Öcalan, and then on two occasions his lawyers. However, we will continue our active struggle with different methods for solitary confinement to be lifted in full. This obligation is now on the shoulders of those of us who are waging active democratic struggle. If politics cannot produce solutions it creates new problems.

While promising to act with this responsibility and consciousness, today I end the hunger strike action that I started. I wish to note that our hunger strike resistance has attained its goal. However, our resistance against solitary confinement and our struggle for social peace will continue in all arenas. The place this struggle must reach is an honourable peace.

I thank all those who were at my side one by one. I greatly thank everyone who gave their voice to and were a voice of our resistance, who believed in us and who did not lose their hope in this environment of fascism and oppression. I express my eternal gratitude above all to the Peace Mothers, who did not abandon the public space despite all the attacks and obstacles, and all women. We hoped that, “Hope is more valuable than victory” and succeeded.

From a report by Mezopotamya Agency, HDP member Nasır Yağız, who went on hunger strike in Erbil with the same demand, had been in action for 187 days, fourteen people in Strasbourg and İmam Şiş in Wales for 161 days and the detainees in prisons who started on 16 December for 162 days. The hunger strikes spread to all jails on 1 March.

30 DETAINEES WERE ON DEATH FAST

Aslı Doğan and Ardıl Çeşme in Gebze Women’s Closed Prison; Zozan Çiçek, Şükran Aydın and Nesrin Akgül in Bakırköy Women’s Closed Prison; Ahmet Topkaya, Ferhat Turgay, Abdulhalik Kaplan, Enver Dönmez and Ergin Akhan in Diyarbakır D-Type Closed Prison; İhsan Bulut, Özhan Ceyhan, Vedat Özağar, Erol Cengiz and Ahmet Anığı in Van High-Security Closed Prison turned their actions into a death fast on 30 April. The action of the first death fast group was in its 27th day today.

A second fifteen-person group also joined the death fast action from 10 May. Yaşar Cinbaş, Muhammed İnal, Diyadin Akdemir and Engin Kahraman in Kandıra Prison; İbrahim Doğan, Ahmet Emin Eren and Mustafa Taştan in Bolu F-Type Prison; Senar Efe, Burhan Şık, Faysal Atak and Şafii Kayhan in Patnos Prison; Reşat Özdil in Tekirdağ Number 1 Prison; Zeki Bayhan and Yılmaz Yıldız in Tekirdağ Number 2 Prison; and Sait Öztürk in Van High-Security Prison maintained their death fast action that they started on 10 May for seventeen days.

3 MPS WERE ON HUNGER STRIKE OUTSIDE THE HDP BUILDING

The action started by HDP members of parliament Dersim Dağ, Tayip Temel and Murat Sarısaç at their party’s Diyarbakır provincial organization building has continued since 3 March.

Sedat Akın, who went on hunger strike on 7 January at Erzincan T-Type Closed Prison, has continued the action at his home in Batman following his release; as have Gurbet Ektiren the hunger strike he started on 15 January at Bakırköy Prison at his home in Mardin’s Derik sub-province since his release on 8 March, İhsan Sinmiş (56) the hunger strike he started on 1 March at Silivri Prison at his home in İstanbul Küçükçekmece since his release on 11 March, Murat Aksin the action he started in Mardin E-Type Closed Prison at his home in Derik since his release on 25 March, Mahsun Şen the hunger strike he started on 5 January at Mardin E-Type Closed Prison at his home in Derik since his release on 17 April, former HDP Ceylanpınar provincial co-chair Hızni Kılınç the hunger strike he started on 1 March at his home in Ceylanpınar since his release on 13 May, and, arrested and detained after going on hunger strike at the HDP building in Diyarbakır, İsmet Yıldız and Sevican Yaşar have continued their actions at home since their release on 29 March and 2 April respectively, as have Salih Tekin and Bilal Özgezer since their release on 5 April.

THOSE WHO ENDED THEIR LIVES

Uğur Şakar, who set himself alight in front of the court building on 20 February in the German town of Krefeld lost his life on 22 March in the hospital where he was being treated.

So as to protest against solitary confinement, Zülküf Gezen (33) ended his life on 17 March at Tekirdağ Number 2 F-Type Prison, as did Ayten Beçet (24) on 23 March at Gebze Women’s Closed Prison, Zehra Sağlam (23) on 24 March at Oltu T-Type Closed Prison, Medya Çınar (24) on 25 March at Mardin E-Type Closed Prison, Yonca Akici on 9 March at Şakran Women’s Closed Prison, Siraç Yüksek on 2 April at Osmaniye Number 2 T-Type Closed Prison, and Mahsum Pamay on 5 April at Elazığ Number 1 High-Security Prison.

(Translated by Tim Drayton)


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