Two more deputies from the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) announced on Friday that they had started a hunger strike demanding an end to the “isolation” of imprisoned leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) Abdullah Öcalan.
Deputies Tayip Temel and Murat Sarısaç joined Dersim Dağ, who went on a hunger strike on March 3, and Leyla Güven, who has refused food for 121 days and is in a deteriorating state of health.
Two former jailed deputies from the HDP, Sebahat Tuncel and Selma Irmak, have also gone without food for 53 days in support of Güven.
The deputies are protesting Öcalan’s inability to speak with his lawyers, referring to it as his “isolation.” HDP deputies criticize the silence in society in the face of hunger strikes that have been increasing among Kurdish politicians across the country.