KURDISH hunger striker Sirac Yuksek became the fifth person to commit suicide in a Turkish prison in protest against the continued isolation of Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan.
Mr Yuksek’s suicide came despite calls from the PKK, People’s Democratic Party (HDP), Human Rights Association and other organisations for suicides to stop and Ocalan supporters focus on the ongoing hunger strike campaign initiated by HDP MP for Hakkari Leyla Guven in November 2018.
Details are yet to emerge, but it is understood that Mr Yuksek took his life in the T Type Prison in Osmaniye on Tuesday with his body transferred to Adana Council of Forensic Medicine for an autopsy before his burial.
VIJAY PRASHAD details how US support for Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa allowed him to break the resistance of the autonomous Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF)
As Palestine Action prisoners go weeks without food, alleging dangerous neglect and detention without trial, campaigners warn that a near-total media blackout is hiding a crisis that could turn fatal – and fuel a growing wave of public anger. ELIZABETH SHORT reports


