The indefinite and irreversible hunger strike, that pro-Kurdish political prisoners at İzmir Aliağa Şakran Prison launched on February 15, 2016 for an end to the isolation of outlawed PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan and the human rights violations in prisons, has been on its 48th day on Monday
It is reported that the health of the prisoners on hunger strike especially in İzmir’s Aliağa Şakran Prison has been deteriorating further every passing day. The prisoners joining the hunger strike are not given the B1 vitamin they need by the prison administration. The prisoners on hunger strike are reported to have suffered heavy weight loss as they have already entered the medically critical stage.
The management of Şakran Prison has threatened the prisoners on strike with torturing them ‘in ways that Esat Oktay’, who was the administrator of notorious Diyarbakır Prison during the 1980 military coup, did not hire.
In the meantime, the hunger strikes in Sincan, Menemen, and Van have entered their 39th, 27th and 25th day, respectively, while the hunger strike started on March 15 in all prisons also continues.
Meanwhile, a recent report by Turkish-Armenian weekly newspaper Agos said at least 76 people in Turkish prisons have been on indefinite hunger strike in protest of their imprisonment as well as poor conditions behind bars.
The prisoners who went on hunger strike include three MPs from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP): Ayhan Bilgen, Meral Danış Beştaş and Nihat Akdoğan. The three parliamentarians are reported to have started the strike only because officials remained indifferent to those who had earlier staged their own strikes.
Agos said 17 of the imprisoned strikers are female. All of those on the strike were reportedly arrested over their alleged links to the outlawed pro-Kurdish organizations.
Hunger strikers continue in prisons in the provinces of İzmir, Ankara, Tekirdağ, Mersin, Bolu, Hatay and Van.
April 3, 2017