Peregraf- Renwar Najm
A jailed Kurdish lawmaker who has been on a hunger strike for 69 days, despite her critical health condition, is not ready to end her strike.
Leyla Guven, who is both the co-chair of the Democratic Society Congress, an umbrella organization for Kurdish groups, and a deputy for the pro-Kurdish Peoples Democratic Party (HDP), has been imprisoned, pending trial in Diyarbakır, south-east Turkey after being arrested in January 2018 for criticizing Turkeys military operation against Kurdish militias in northwest Syria.
Guven began her indefinite and non-alternate hunger strike on November 7, 2018 asking to end the isolation imposed upon Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) Leader Abdullah Ocalan.
Although Turkish authorities allowed his brother to meet with Ocalan in Imrali on Saturday, however Guven and hundreds of others are not ready to end their strike as they seek Ocalans meeting with his lawyers.
No one from his lawyers has met with Ocalan since July 27, 2011, even though they have asked for meeting more than 800 times, every single time they have been refused to see PKKs leader.
Layla Guven in prison
Hunger strike is one of the main protest approaches by Kurds in Northern Kurdistan; back in 1982 in the same prison in which Leyla Guven is jailed in, a group of five PKK leaders went on an indefinite hunger strike, four of them died due to starvation, the last one held a negotiation with the Turkish officials, and got them to fulfill all the Kurdish prisoners demands.
Leyla Guven is one of nine from the HDP who are currently held behind bars in Turkey, including the partys former co-chair, Selahattin Demirtas. The party is particularly vulnerable to prosecution due to perceived links tying it to PKK, an outlawed group that has fought Turkish security forces for Kurdish self-rule since the 1984.
Demirtas, who has been behind Turkish bars Since November 2016, from his prison cell wrote an article about Guvens hunger strike, stating that she is “unlawfully held in the Diyarbakir Prison despite her election to the parliament, has laid her body on the line for an extremely legitimate and rightful demand.”
“Ms. Guvens stance is above all dignified and respectable. To defend and protect our friends right to live, our duty is to stand as strong and resolute as possible behind her demand and ensure that she achieves results as soon as possible,” wrote Demirtas.
After Lelyla Guvens strike, hundreds of HDP members from other parts of Kurdistan and different countries of Europe went on hunger strike as a support of Guven and her wishes.
The hunger strike launched by HDP Southern Kurdistan Representation in Erbil is now on its 55th day, the hunger strike action is taken over by more than 30 groups of activists. Also HDP member Nasır Yagiz, who continued an indefinite hunger strike, has also reached day 55 of his action.
In Sulaymaniyah, members of the Mesopotamian Workers' Association have been on hunger strike for 32 days.
HDP Southern Kurdistan Representation in Erbil is now on its 55th day of hunger strike
HDPs Southern Kurdistan Representation co-chair, Muzeyen Gunes, said that the meeting between Ocalan and his brother was an important event in this process, and added: “We will continue our action until isolation is lifted and Ocalan is allowed to meet with his lawyers.”
Moreover, a total of 226 prisoners in North Kurdistan and Turkey are on hunger strikes to protest the isolation imposed upon Abdullah Ocalan and to demand his isolation to be lifted.
It is not the first time in which Turkish authorities impose isolation upon Ocalan leader, back in 2012, for a long time no one from his family and lawyers could reach him, protesting this, a big wave of strike started in Turkey and other countries, finally Turkey has opened the door of meetings for Ocalan, and he asked all his supporters to end the strike, to which they responded positively.
On January 10, HDP Legal and Human Rights Commission Spokesperson and Central Executive Committee member, Batman MP Ayse Acar Basaran, issued a written statement on Leyla Guven's resistance.
Leyla Guven before her hunger strike
“Our Hakkari MP Leyla Guven's health has reached a point where the indefinite and non-alternate hunger strike she has been on since November 8 can pose a vital risk to her health," said Basaran and continued:
“Leyla Guven has lost 15 kilos and cannot tend to her needs alone. She can't walk on her own. She has trouble speaking, she is highly sensitive to light and sound and her mind gets foggy. The prison administrations, as well as government circles are aware of Leyla Guven's situation.”