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The prison hunger strike in Turkey continues with its demands to end the harsh prison isolation conditions of Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan, who has been in solitary confinement since 1999. The other demand has been to end rights violations taking place in the prisons.
HDP members from Diyarbakır gathered in various parts of the city to stage peaceful public protests and read out an HDP press statement addressing the current situation and the demands of the hunger strikers. Police intervened in these protests in Bağlar, Yenişehir, Kayapınar and Sur districts, MA reports.
HDP Yenişehir district building was blockaded by hundreds of police and even party members were not allowed to leave the building. The police also removed journalists by force, who had gathered in front of the HDP building to cover the HDP press statement.
The press statement that was due to be read in front of the Human Rights Monument in Koşuyolu Park in Bağlar district was also banned. Protestors held a sit-in protest to demonstrate against the arbitrary police ban: they chanted slogans in support of the the hunger strikers.
The protestors who met at the Ahmet Arif Monument in Sur district were also not allowed to read their press statement. A protest was also held in Kayapınar district, but the police imposed a 10-person restriction for the press statement to be read there.
