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.

Turkish authorities reportedly blocked officials and supporters from the People’s Democratic Party (HDP), including Mardin MP Tuma Celik from attending his burial yesterday in Mardin’s Nusyabin district.

Only close family members were allowed to attend the ceremony after security checks with a heavy security presence blocking the entrance to the Yenisehir cemetery.

Mr Yuksek was one of 53 people arrested in May 2016 while a military curfew was in place in Nusyabin in the country’s largely Kurdish south-east.

Those detained have complained of brutal treatment and torture at the hands of the authorities and have been banned from conducting their trials in the Kurmanci Kurdish language.

Zulkuf Gezen, Zehra Saglam , Medya Cinar and Ayten Becet have all taken their lives in Turkish jails over the past few weeks leading to the calls for the suicides to stop.

As many as 5,000 have joined the hunger strikes in Turkish prisons demanding an end to Mr Ocalan’s isolation and for him to be allowed to meet with his family and legal team.