TURKEY’S authoritarian regime was accused of trying to “break all women struggling” today, as an opposition politician warned of oppressive measures being used in the largely Kurdish city of Diyarbakir.

People’s Democratic Party (HDP) co-chair for Diyarbakir’s Sur district Sevim Coskun was one of 14 women who joined the hunger strikes in protest at the continued isolation of Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan.

Turkish security services detained the women during raids on the party offices in Yenisehir on March 20, with 11 of them sentenced to be placed under house arrest and forced to wear electronic tags.

Ms Coskun claimed that this was the first time such measures had been used against women in Diyarbakir, warning that it was an attempt to break those who were at the forefront of the struggle.

“We were detained for five days,” she said yesterday. “We were then forced to use electronic handcuffs by the court and sent to house arrest. The state is trying to break women, not just HDP women but all women struggling.”

At least 5,000 are now believed to have joined the hunger strikes initiated by HDP MP Leyla Guven on November 8 last year.

Ms Guven faces a lengthy jail term on trumped-up terrorism charges after she was initially arrested in January 2018 for opposing Turkey’s illegal invasion and occupation of Afrin in northern Syria.

Ms Coskun said despite the efforts of the Turkish authorities, women would continue the struggle.

“We will never step back from the cause of our people against the repression of the state,” she said. “Leyla Guven is right and we stand by her. Isolation is a crime against humanity.

“It is necessary to end the isolation imposed on Mr Ocalan. I call on everyone to support and give a voice to Leyla Guven and the prisoners.”