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Unmoved by government's overtures, Kurds continue hunger strike in Turkey

Keen to draw the Kurds to its side ahead of a key election do-over, Ankara allowed jailed Kurdistan Workers Party leader Abdullah Ocalan to see his lawyers in early May, but thousands of inmates still refuse to end their hunger strike.
Sabiha Temizkan, daughter of pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) lawmaker Leyla Guven, who has been on a hunger strike for more than four months, adjusts her mother's pillow at their home in Diyarbakir, Turkey, March 20, 2019. Picture taken March 20, 2019. REUTERS/Umit Bektas - RC1E573D6D20
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A mass hunger strike in Turkey has entered a critical stage. Despite a recent gesture by Ankara, the strikers, mostly Kurdish inmates, have refused to end the protest launched to denounce the isolation of Abdullah Ocalan, the jailed leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

Thousands of prisoners have joined the hunger strike since early November, when the first striker — Leyla Guven, a lawmaker for the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democracy Party (HDP) — began the protest while in prison. Guven has continued her hunger strike at home since her conditional release in late January. Three other lawmakers are among about 60 people who have joined the hunger strike outside prison, while the overwhelming majority — estimated between 3,000 and 5,000 people — are behind bars, including 15 inmates who announced their protest would continue to their deaths if necessary at the end of April.

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