LONDON, — On Sunday, 11th November, more than 2,000 Kurds marched five miles across North London in solidarity with the Kurdish hunger strikes in Turkish prisons, which have reached their 62nd day. The hunger strikes are reaching a critical stage, and some hunger strikers may be near death.
The 680 hunger strikers include elected representatives who have been jailed under the repressive policies of Turkish Prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. They are demanding Kurdish language rights, and the end of the isolation in jail of Abdullah Ocalan, leader of the Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK), to help to negotiate a political settlement to the Kurdish Question. Other Kurds have joined the strike by refusing food in solidarity, including MPs belonging to the pro-Kurdish BDP (peace and democracy) party.
The fifteen to twenty million Kurds in Turkey have faced decades of oppression. Turkey is a key ally of the USA and Britain, and Turkey’s policies towards the Kurds have only been sustained with tacit US and British support.
In 2009, the Turkish government began talks with the PKK at Oslo in Norway, but then abruptly broke off the talks. Since July, the pressure on Turkey’s government has racked up, as Syrian Kurds have established an autonomous zone along Turkey’s southern borders, and Erdoğan’s military interventions in Syria are aimed at least partly to control the Kurds.
The mood of the march in London was very militant. Many of the demonstrators wore the Kurdish national colours, and they repeatedly sat down in the road. The march began at Edmonton Green, ending with a rally near Harringay Green Lanes.
Mehmet Aksoy from the Kurdish Federation in London says, “We want freedom for Ocalan, for there to be meaningful negotiations. And we want an end to the ban on using Kurdish in the law courts and in schools.
“We want the cries of the hunger strikers to be heard. We call on the international community to pressure Turkey into meeting our demands as the only way to bring a just and honourable peace.”
For more information contact :
Peace in Kurdistan Campaign on 020 7586 5892
Kurdish Federation UK at [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
Mehmet Aksoy on 0795 048 2605
