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Sinn Fein calls on world to step up support for Kurdish hunger strikers in Turkish prisons

SINN FEIN called on the international community to step up efforts in support of thousands of Kurdish hunger strikers in Turkish prisons today backing demands for the resumption of peace talks.

Michelle Gildernew, Sinn Fein MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone told the Star the Kurdish and Irish people shared common ground in terms of their struggle for freedom.

“What the hunger strikers are doing is trying to liberate the Kurdish people from an oppressive regime – we’ve been through that, we know what it’s like,” she said.

“We faced the brutality of a British government who tried to break our struggle through the prisoners. They thought they were the weakest link.”

But she explained both governments underestimated the “courage and resilience” of the hunger strikers.

Ms Gildernew was visiting hunger strikers at the Kurdish Community Centre in north London today and offered Sinn Fein’s total support for their aims – an end to the isolation of Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan.

She described the treatment of Mr Ocalan as “brutal and inhuman.”

Ms Gildernew backed Mr Ocalan’s call for peace negotiations to resolve Turkey’s so-called Kurdish question explaining: “We have asked the Irish government to mediate in that process.”

“They [the Turkish government] need to find a way to get around the table and find a way of dealing with this.

“We are calling on the Turkish government to do the right thing and to learn from our conflict, to learn that 10 men died in Ireland in 1981 … the Turkish government have to listen to those of us who are demanding that they recognise the wishes of the Kurdish people.

“Abdullah Ocalan, like Bobby Sands, is a writer and a poet and a visionary. We need to ensure the Kurdish leadership is given the opportunity to negotiate their future and to ensure their people have the right to equality, self-determination and the right to human dignity which they are currently being denied.”

The meeting came a day after Prime Minister Theresa May agreed the hunger strike campaign was “a big issue.”

Ms May was responding to a question from Plaid Cymru MP Liz Saville Roberts, who said the issue was “a matter of urgency” with Newport hunger striker Imam Sis reported to be “close to death” on his 143rd day of indefinite hunger strike.

“We will continue to encourage the Turkish state to uphold the human rights of hunger strike detainees including access to medical treatment,” the PM said.

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