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Leyla Güven a deputy of the People’s Democratic Party (HDP), jailed in Diyarbakir, is on hunger strike since November 8 2018, to bring international public attention to the total isolation regime imposed on Kurdish leader Öcalan.
In several Turkish jails, close to 240 political prisoners, as well as Kurds in the diaspora have joined the hunger strike, with Leyla’s health now being in an extremely critical condition.
We are happy to relay this call to solidarity.
You can also support Leyla Güven and all the strikers by signing this petition and reading this letter she wrote from jail, a letter that was read by deputy Dersim Dağ, on January 19, at an assembly in Amed (Diyarbakır).
UPDATE — January 25, 2019:
Leyla Güven has been released.
There are still 9 HDP MPs, 58 HDP mayors, and thousands of HDP voters and activists unjustly jailed in Turkey.
BREAK DOWN THE WALLS!
LET’S ACT AS THE VOICE FOR THOSE RESISTING IN JAILS!
Leyla Güven, deputy of the People’s Democratic Party for the province of Hakkari, Co-President of the DTK Congress of Democratic Societies and a member of the European Council’s Congress of local and regional powers (CPLRE) has been on hunger strike since November 8 in her jail in Diyarbakir Turkey in order to bring the internatioal public’s attention to the isolation regime imposed on Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan, a regime applied to all political prisoners in Turkey. The reasons for Leyla Güven’s hunger strike are clear: carceral isolation is unacceptable ethically, humanely and politically.
Such total isolation constitutes a violation of the United Nations’ Convention against torture which Turkey ratified in 1988. Moreoever, it is contrary to the European Convention on Human Rights (CEDH) ratified by Turkey in 1954.
Under cover of the state of emergency, more than 20 000 political prisoners, including the HDP’s co-presidents, elected members, 16 deputies, 93 mayors, representatives of associative organizations, exiled journalists, feminists and activists, along with approximately 2800 children (between the ages of 0 and 6 years and 12 to17) are incarcerated, often without trial or following sham “trials”. The HDP has announced that 226 political prisoners are currently on hunger strike in Turkish prisons. The dictatorial system has been imposed on all political prisoners detained in Turkey as well as on the entire civil society, and violence by the Turkish State increases daily.
All the women’s associations, women’s shelters, the JINHA women’s press agency and the women’s coops have been closed down. Currently, more than 9,000 women are in jail, some 3,502 of whom suffer from serious health problems. 57 detainees were assassinated in crimes that were re-classified as suicides.
According to the HCDH report from March 20 2018, conditions of detention in Turkish prisons include “deprivations and torture”.
The report by the NGO Human Right Watch mentions numerous cases of torture and ill treatment inflicted on political prisoners.
This international violation of human rights does not spare minors who are subjected to the same arbitrary detention system, and torture. The rate of children’s deaths that can be imputed to State forces has increased considerably; stories of children assassinated in jail have been gathered through the agency of family interviews.
The judicial system attempts to legitimize all incidents of violence and of sexual abuse on children over the age of 12. The crimes are de-qualified, the violences deconsidered by claiming consent on the part of the victims.
Leyla Güven represents the voice of resistance and, through her determination, she breaks down jail walls, becoming an important figure in the fight of all political prisoners against repression and arbitrary isolation.
We must break the isolation at Imrali prison and denounce the fascist system applied to political detainees. Breaking this system is indispensable in order to ensure the development of freedom and democracy in Turkey, to put an end to the massacres of the Erdogan regime in Kurdistan, to promote freedom and equality between peoples.
We demand of the United Nations, the European institutions, the European Court of Human Rights, the CPT Committee for the prevention of torture that they:
- demand from Turkey its application of the European Convention on Human Rights
- gurantee and evaluate the respect of fundamental rights of the political prisoners, notably in Imrali prison
- put in place an international independent delegation for an observation mission and visit to the political prisoners.
We call on all organizations, civil and political personalities, women in particular, to lend their support to this fight for freedom, equality and democracy.
The first signatories:
Femmes Solidaires – Marche Mondiale des Femmes – Coordination pour le Lobby Européen des Femmes (CLEF) – Réseau Féministe “Ruptures” – Ligue des Femmes Iraniennes pour la Démocratie-LFID – Annie SUGIER- Présidente de la Ligue du Droit International des Femmes (LDIF) – Anne ZELENSKY- Présidente de la Ligue du Droit des Femmes – Le Collectif National pour les Droits des Femmes (CNDF) – Union des Femmes Socialistes (SKB) – Inclusief en Democratisch Comité-Gent / Belgique – Féministes pour une Autre Europe (FAE/Italie) – Femme en Noir, Genève – Laurence Cohen- Sénatrice du Val de Marne et vice présidente de la délégation aux droits des femmes – Danielle Simonnet ‑Coordinatrice du Parti de Gauche – Hélène BIDARD-Adjointe à la Maire de Paris en charge de l’Egalité Femmes-Hommes – Christine POUPIN et Olivier BESANCENOT-porte parole du Nouveau Parti Anticapitaliste (NPA) – Jean François PELLISSIER co-porte parole nationale “ENSEMBLE” – Jean-Marc TAGLIAFERRI-Membre du conseil staturaire d’EELV – Marie Noel LIENEMANN-sénatrice de Paris – Marie Pierre Vieu députée européenne PCF/GUE – Caroline FIAT-députée nationale de la France Insoumise – Laurence LYONNAIS, Ensemble Insoumis, candidate aux élections européennes – Clémentine AUTAIN-Députée de la France Insoumise – Manon Mathilde PANOT députée nationale France Insoumise – Corinne Morel Darleux, Conseillère régionale Auvergne Rhône Alpes – Nathalie Dinner- Vice-présidente du Conseil départemental du Val-de-Marne, Maire adjointe et Présidente de l’OPH de Villeneuve Saint-Georges – Halima MENHOUDJI- Adjointe au Maire en charge de la Coopération décentralisée, de la solidarité internationale de l’Europe et des populations migrantes – Fabienne LEFEBVRE- Membre du Comité exécutif du PCF, Conseillère municipale et territoriale de Vitry-sur-Seine – Le Mouvement Jeunes Communistes de France (MJCF) – L’Association initiatives Dionysiennes – Gilles HOUDOIN-Conseiller régional de Normandie – Rose-Marie Lagrave, sociologue, directrice d’études à l’EHESS – Florence Cerbaï, conseillère régionale Auvergne Rhône Alpes, EELV/rassemblement citoyen écologiste et solidaire (RCES) – Raphaëlle Primet Conseillère de Paris , Parti communiste français – Catherine PIAT- La présidente de l’association Résister Aujourd’hui – Laurence Pache ex conseillère régionale du Limousin – Janie Arnéguy Conseillère Municipale Nîmes – Laura Greaume militante de l’association de solidarité France-Kurdistan – Emmanuelle ESCAL, auteure-compositrice-interprète – Jaet BIEHL écrivaine – Johanna Bouchardeau- féministe – Rudy Chaulet-écrivain (Institut des Sciences et Techniques de l’Antiquité) – Pierre Lieutaghi écrivain – Marie Ducaté Artiste – Isabelle ATTARD-ex députée écologiste – Caroline Sakine Brac de la Perrière- historienne et psychologue de formation – Marguerite ROLLINDE-militante des droits humains…
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