Political prisoners in Turkey are on hunger strike for 33 days now. The resistance is supported worldwide within Kurdish society and solidarity groups. They are all united in demanding an end to Abdullah Öcalan's aggravated solitary confinement on Turkey's Imrali prison island and the additional personal restrictions and human rights violations political prisoners have faced since the Covid-19 pandemic began. They take only water, tea, sugar, salt and vitamin B1, if they have access, and carry out the hunger strike in groups for five days at a time. Two weeks ago, however, the prisoners had warned that they would move to a non-alternating hunger strike if their demands were not met.

Against this background, the hunger strike is accompanied by daily protests. In Cologne on Monday, several members of the Democratic Society Center of the Kurdish community together with activists of the Viyan Women's Council gathered on the station forecourt for a vigil.

The demands "Freedom for Abdullah Öcalan" and "Take a stand, break the silence, solidarity with the hunger-striking prisoners in Turkey" were written on banners. A statement from the Kurdish umbrella organization KON-MED was played over loudspeakers, drawing attention to the repression and degrading treatment in Turkish prisons.