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By ANF News Agency:
Prisoners’ health rapidly deteriorating
The BDP (Peace and Democracy Party) has called on international public opinion to act as the hunger strike undertaken by political prisoners in Turkey reaches a critical stage.
“The AKP Government’s ongoing pressure such as detentions against Kurds and democratic people have caused a big political crisis”, says the statement. “It is clear”, it adds, “that detention became a political massacre. Kurdish politicians including MPs, mayors and members of city councils, journalists, trade unionists and many other activists from the NGOs have been imprisoned”.
The majority of them have been on hunger strike since 12 September 2012. The hunger strike began in 7 prisons carried out by 63 people. 50 of them were men and 13 women. The number of strikers is rapidly rising. More than 600 prisoners have joined the protest.
The BDP underlines that the strikers have the following demands:
- Education in mother tongue, defense in trials to be carried out in mother tongue
- Respect of Kurdish people’s democratic rights
- Freedom for the leader of the Kurdish People, Mr. Abdullah Öcalan
There are now around 324 prisoners on hunger strike and they are not taking vitamin B1. 283 of them are men and 41 are women. It is urgent to act now, says the BDP, because “the prisoners’ health condition is rapidly deteriorating”.
The AKP government has not made any statement about the hunger strike for 37 days.
The BDP calls on international public opinion to act urgently in order to prevent any worsening of the situation.
20 October 2012
