Ten days passed since PKK and PAJK prisoners went on an indefinite hunger strike to protest against the isolation imposed on Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan. Dicle News Agency (DÝHA) Editor Tayip Temel, who has been jailed in the scope of so-called KCK (Kurdish Communities Union) operation, is also taking part in the strike which was started in six jails (now seven) on 12 September, the anniversary of the Turkish military coup in 1980.

In a recent letter to DÝHA, Temel announced that he will not agree to any medical intervention during the strike which he joins in Diyarbakýr D Type Prison.

Temel underlined the extent of the war in Turkey, widening because of the deadlock policies and said that social peace could only be possible through the removal of the severe isolation on Kurdish people’s leader Abdullah Öcalan.

Temel said in his letter that; “The policies of war and blood have almost turned the country into a blood bath as more and more people are losing their life in clashes and the increase of arrests and military operations are deepening the deadlock every day. In the face of all these practices and policies, as a Kurdish journalist under arrest, I have started an indefinite and non-alternate hunger strike to demand the liberation of Mr. Öcalan and removal of all pressures and bans on my mother tongue Kurdish.”