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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…

Sou­tien à Ley­la Güven en grève de la faim  Cliquez pour lire

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