The indefinite, rotating hunger strike launched by political prisoners in Turkey – to protest against the prison isolation conditions of Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan as well as the violations of prisoners’ rights more generally – has reached its 138th day.
The 28th group of strikers is currently participating in the action, which was launched on 27 November last year in Turkey’s prisons.
Elsewhere, another hunger strike was launched on 18 December in Makhmour Refugee Camp in Iraqi Kurdistan, and has now reached its 117th day. A hunger strike that was launched in the Lavrio Camp in Greece is now on its 100th day.
Selami Keleş, an epileptic political prisoner who is in the Düzce T-type Closed Prison in northwestern Turkey, has shared information on the harsh treatment of prisoners during his weekly phone call.
“We continue our hunger strike and demand that the isolation imposed on leader Apo be lifted. The prison administration does not supply us with the necessary vitamins which all hunger striking prisoners need,” Keleş said.
Keleş also noted that the petititions collected by the prisoners to be sent to the Ministry of Justice and delivered to the prison administration were used as grounds for “disciplinary penalties”.
“The prison administration filed an investigation against us based on our petitions and we have been penalised with solitary confinement based on these investigations,” Keleş said.