FRENCH Communists condemned Turkey’s “dictatorial regime” today, demanding the release of all political prisoners in a statement of solidarity with the Kurdish women’s movement’s hunger strike. 

The French Communist Party (PCF) called on France and the European Union to end its complicity with authoritarian Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as it gave full support for former Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) MP Leyla Guven who is on hunger strike after being jailed for opposing Ankara’s invasion and occupation of Afrin, in northern Syria.

Her lawyer Cemile Turhalli Balsak reported that Ms Guven is at a “critical threshold” with severe vertigo, weight loss and difficulty speaking after more than 30 days without food.

Kurdish activists and supporters have started solidarity hunger strikes across Europe to highlight the treatment of Ms Guven, who is demanding an end the the detention and isolation of Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan, who has been held on Imrali island since 1999.

The statement accused the neoliberal policies of Mr Erdogan’s government of plunging the country into an unprecedented economic crisis and polarising Turkish society.

“It is fuelling the deadly war against the Kurds, persecuting the Alevis, while an intrusive and paternalistic Sunni conservatism is attacking freedoms and especially women,” the statement added.

The PCF said the EU delisting the PKK as a terrorist organisation along with the release of Mr Ocalan would be a major step towards peace in Turkey and the region. It condemned Turkey’s “expansionist and criminal policy” in Syria as it supports jihadist groups to try to break the Kurdish enclave of Rojava.

“The French Communist Party calls for mobilisation and solidarity to say stop Erdogan,” the PCF said. “France and the European Union must end their guilty complicity with Erdogan. They must act for the release of all political prisoners and unequivocally condemn this dictatorial regime.”