Prisoners End Hunger Strike Following Ocalan’s Call

The Armenian Weekly correspondent Gulisor Akkum’s camera was confiscated during the protests in Diyarbakir on Nov 17. When the police returned the camera, all photographs were erased. The photo in this report is from an earlier protest.

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (A.W.)—After 67 days, the hunger strike that was launched by 63 Kurdish political prisoners and had eventually expanded to include 10,000 prisoners came to an end on Nov. 17, following a statement from jailed Kurdish leader Abdhullah Ocalan.

Empty streets in Diyarbakir (Photo by Gulisor Akkum, The Armenian Weekly)

Ocalan’s brother conveyed the leader’s message after visiting him in the Imrali prison. Ocalan had said that the hunger strike “has achieved its goal,” and should end “without any hesitation.”

Until the very last day of the hunger strike, protests continued in the Kurdish-populated areas as well as major cities in Turkey. Heeding the call of the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), the days leading up to the end of the hunger strike withnessed strikes and demonstrations across the Kurdish regions.

In Diyarbakir, as tens of thousands of Kurds in Diyarbakir prepared to gather at a park in the city to start a two-day hunger strike on Nov. 17, hundreds of armored vehicles sealed off the area and prevented the protesters from entering it.

Police resorted to tear gas and water cannons, and fired shots in the air, to keep the demonstrators at bay. Close to a hundred protesters were arrested.

The tension between the police and protesters continued until the early evening, when the statement by Ocalan gradually calmed the situation.

Gulisor Akkum

Gulisor Akkum

Gulisor Akkum is a journalist based in Diyarbakir. She received her sociology degree in 2003 from Dicle University. She has written articles for the Armenian Weekly since 2009, and is the Weekly's correspondent in Diyarbakir since October 2012.

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