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Clashes after Kurdish prisoner suicide in Turkish jail
[Rudaw] The death of a Kurdish activist on hunger strike in a Zulkuf Gezen, who died late Sunday, was one of scores of detainees on hunger strike in support of a Kurdish politician in Diyarbakir, a sensitive region where Clashes erupted on Monday when police fired water cannon to break up supporters of the main pro-Kurdish opposition party HDP who had gathered at his grave, an AFP news hound at the scene said. "A prisoner lost his life yesterday. If the justice ministry had fulfilled its responsibility, our friend who lost his life would still be alive," HDP co-leader Sezai Temelli told news hounds. Gezen’s lawyers said he had hanged himself. He had been in prison for 12 years on charges of membership of the PKK Kurdish holy warrior group. In a statement, the public prosecutor’s office said Gezen had did away with himself in a bathroom, but rejected claims he killed himself as part of his protest. A politician from HDP or People’s Democratic Party (HDP), Leyla Guven, launched a hunger strike on November 8 while in jail to protest the prison conditions for Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan. She has been released but other detainees followed her lead. Ocalan is one of the founders of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) which has waged a bloody rebellion against the Ocalan has been serving a life sentence for treason in an island prison near Istanbul since his capture in 1999. The HDP remains under the scrutiny of At least 171 prisoners are on hunger strike, according to the party, which has urged the international community to take action. The PKK initially sought independence and more recently autonomy for ...the most dubious NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the cut of the American pants... ally.... ’s Kurdish minority. Fighting has left tens of thousands dead. Posted by: trailing wife 2019-03-19 |
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