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Prominent Kurdish politicians join
prisoner hunger strike in Turkey
10.11.2012
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Osman Baydemir (C), one of Turkey's most popular
Kurdish politicians and the mayor of Diyarbakir,
said in a statement on Saturday that he had stopped
eating. Five Kurdish members of the Turkish
parliament, named as Sirri Sureyya Onder, co-chair
of the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) Gultan
Kisanak (R), Aysel Tugluk (2nd left), Adil Kurt,
Sabahat Tuncer, were also on hunger strike, he said.
Photo: DIHA/AA/ANF
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Mayor Osman Baydemir joins
hunger strike
November 10, 2012
DIYARBAKIR, Turkey's Kurdish
region,— Six of Turkey's leading Kurdish
politicians, mayors from the the Peace and Democracy
Party (BDP) have gathered in front of Bağlar
municipality in Diyarbakir on Saturday. They called
on the government and public opinion to act quickly
as the hunger strike by Kurdish political prisoners
has entered day 60th.
Osman Baydemir, mayor of Diyarbakir in the Kurdish
region in southeastern Turkey, said in a statement
on Saturday that he had stopped eating. Five Kurdish
members of the Turkish parliament, named as Sirri
Sureyya Onder, co-chair of the Peace and Democracy
Party (BDP) Gultan Kisanak, Aysel Tugluk, Adil Kurt,
Sabahat Tuncer, were also on hunger strike, he said.
The mayors' statement was read by Diyarbakır Mayor
Osman Baydemir who also announced he will join the
hunger strike on behalf of all BDP mayors. Baydemir
said that the Kurdish people are standing at a
crossroad as no answer has been given to the call of
Kurdish political prisoners on fast.
Baydemir pointed out that the demands of hunger
strikers are not separted from the demand for
Kurdish people’s freedom and a peaceful solution to
the Kurdish problem.
Diyarbakır Mayor Baydemir noted that “The Kurdish
people are being oppressed by the so-called KCK
(Kurdistan Communities Union) operations which aimed
at eliminating Kurdish legal politics and which has
led to the arrest of nine thousand people since
2009”.
Some 700 Kurdish inmates in dozens of prisons are
refusing solid food. They want Prime Minister Tayyip
Erdogan's government to allow the leader of the
banned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), Abdullah
Ocalan, imprisoned on an island south of Istanbul,
to have access to lawyers after 15 months of no
contact.
The militants appear to have achieved the aim of
being able to speak in their own language in court
after the government said it would send a bill to
parliament on the matter. Most of the inmates are
either convicted PKK members or accused of links to
the group.
The hunger strikers are consuming sugared water and
vitamins that will prolong their lives and the
protest by weeks, but Turkey's main medical
association has warned fatalities are possible from
around 60 days without food.
EU Commissioner for Enlargement Stefan Fule raised
concerns about reports that the health of the
prisoners was deteriorating in talks with Turkish
Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu in Brussels on
Wednesday.
Erdogan's government has boosted Kurdish cultural
and language rights since taking power a decade ago,
but Kurdish politicians are seeking greater
concessions, including steps towards autonomy for
the Kurdish region in south-eastern Turkey.
Since it was established in 1984, the PKK has been fighting the Turkish state,
which still denies the constitutional existence of Kurds, to establish a Kurdish
state in the south east of the country. By 2012, more than 45,000 people have since been
killed.
But now its aim is the creation an autonomous region
and more cultural rights for ethnic Kurds who
constitute the greatest minority in Turkey. A
large Turkey's Kurdish community, numbering to 23 million,
openly sympathise with PKK rebels.
The PKK wants constitutional recognition for the Kurds, regional
self-governance and Kurdish-language education in schools.
PKK's demands included releasing PKK detainees, lifting the ban on education in
Kurdish, paving the way for an autonomous democrat Kurdish system within Turkey,
reducing pressure on the detained PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan, stopping military action
against the Kurdish party and recomposing the Turkish constitution.
The rebels have scaled back their demands for more
political autonomy for the Kurds.
Turkey refuses to recognize its Kurdish population
as a distinct minority. It has allowed some cultural
rights such as limited broadcasts in the Kurdish
language and private Kurdish language courses with
the prodding of the European Union, but Kurdish
politicians say the measures fall short of their
expectations.
The PKK is considered as 'terrorist' organization by
Ankara, U.S. Also the PKK continues to be on the
blacklist list in EU despite court ruling which
overturned
a decision
to place the Kurdish rebel group PKK and its
political wing on the European Union's terror list.
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