Turkey's imprisoned pro-Kurdish leader begins hunger strike

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) – The jailed co-leader of Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Selahattin Demirtas plans to go on a hunger strike on Friday to protest the treatment of inmates and violations of rights in Turkish prisons.

The HDP co-leader expressed his concerns in a letter from the Supermax prison in the city of Edirne where he is being held, west of Istanbul.

Demirtas said the prison warden was engaging in “inhumane and unlawful” practices toward other inmates, most of them Kurdish political prisoners.

The letter shared by the HDP website, and co-signed by another jailed lawmaker Abdullah Zeydan, called on the public to raise awareness about ongoing hunger strikes and rights violations in prisons.

A late 2016 United Nations (UN) report documented commonly occurring torture and other forms of ill-treatment across prisons in Turkey.

Scores of prisoners in at least seven prisons have been on a hunger strike for days, ranging from 12 to 44, with demands from the authorities to halt rights violations.

The inmates also call on the government to lift a policy of isolation on the jailed leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) Abdullah Ocalan.

Ocalan has not met his lawyers since 2011 or a member of his family since September 2016.

Police arrested Demirtas, HDP’s other co-leader Figen Yuksekdag, and 11 lawmakers during house raids in several cities in November 2016.

Prosecutors in Diyarbakir have sought a 142-year jail term for the 43-year old politician whose call for autonomy was once branded as “treason” by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Demirtas’ detention led to widespread expressions of “concern” from European countries and the US.

Turkey’s leaders accuse HDP officials of collaborating with the PKK that has been leading a guerrilla war against Turkish troops for larger Kurdish rights.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany