HUNGER strikes as a form of resistance to Turkish state oppression have become a focus again as prisoners use the action to press their demands, including the right to a fair trial.

In the past few weeks three people have succumbed as the government of authoritarian President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is accused of a reckless disregard for human life.

The case of Grup Yorum bass player Ibrahim Gokcek drew international condemnation following his death after nearly one year on hunger strike. Police attacked his funeral, stealing his body and taking it on a 12-hour journey from Istanbul to the central Anatolian city of Kayseri.

There his grave was attacked by fascists from the Grey Wolves who pledged to dig up and burn his dead body – a chilling threat backed by Erdogan’s governing coalition partners the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP).

Prior to Mr Gokcek’s death, Grup Yorum singer Helin Bolek died after 288 days without food, while Musrafa Kocak also perished in April after a hunger strike for the right to a fair trial. All three were accused of membership of the banned Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party/Front (DHKP/C) — a Marxist-Leninist organisation deemed a terrorist group by the Turkish state.