The indefinite and rotating hunger strike launched by the prisoners demanding the isolation on PKK Leader Abdullah Öcalan to be lifted and for the violations of rights to come to an end continues on its 32nd day. A former hunger striker Bekir Sıtkı who went on a hunger strikes many times in the 21 years he has been in jail, stayed on hunger strike for 273 days during the hunger strikes in 1999. He developed many illnesses due to the death fast and he was released in 2002 due to Wenicke Korsakoff disease.

 

Speaking to our agency regarding the current hunger strikes, Keçeci called for support for the hunger strikers.

 

VERY HUMANE DEMANDS

 

Keçeci told that the constitutional rights of prisoners have always been violated in prisons throughout the history and therefore the prisoners had to hunger strike to demand their rights. Keçeci said: "Prisoners go on hunger strike to defend the dignity of being a human against undignified practices in prisons. The action always starts as an indefinite hunger strike with minimum demands. The hunger strike continues until these demands are met."

 

Explaining that they have gone on a hunger strike back in September 12 coup with some demands and they had to turn it into a death fast when their demands weren't met, Keçeci said: "Our rights to visits were banned because we rejected to wear prison uniforms for 3 years. We went on a hunger strike to get our right back. The hunger strike turned to a death fast after that. 10 of our friends died in 1984 during the death fast action. Death fast is an easy act of will but very hard in practice."

 

'DEATH FASTS ARE NOT EASY'

 

"You feel you're dying with every passing minute. Your cells die. You can't take a step, you can't hear, you can't stand up, you can't sleep because your body aches all over. You suffer a great deal of physical pain. No one does it for nothing. You must know that if someone in prison choses this sort of action, has no other way" said Keçeci.

 

'ISOLATION MUST BE LIFTED PERMANENTLY'

 

Speaking about the current hunger strike in prisons, Keçeci said: "The isolation starts from İmralı, but there is isolation in every prison. We are against a national leader being isolated, we are against the isolation in prisons and we must be. This policy of isolating people must be lifted at once. The sick prisoners must be released. The women with children in prisons must be released. Prisoners must be visited by their families and attorneys. It is not possible to remain insensitive to the demands of the prisoners. As a person who has been through this, there is no way I can remain unresponsive to the hunger strikes."

 

'WE HAVE TO BE THE VOICE OF THE PRISONERS'

 

Stating that he believes a joint attitude from the Kurdish and Turkish cities would yield results, Keçeci said: "The prisoners hunger striking alone can not get results without support from the outside. We have to be the voice of the prisoners. They are banning everything using the pandemic as a pretext, then we should use the social media. We have to submit petitions to the Ministry of Justice and Interior. We have to explain the demands of the prisoners to ECtHR and human's rights organizations. We have to show them that these demands are not only the demands of the prisoners, but ours too. We have to be in solidarity with the prisoners."

  

 

MA / Ömer Akın