Since December 17, 14 Kurdish activists in Strasbourg have been on an indefinite hunger strike demanding the end of isolation imposed on Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Öcalan. The protest was initiated by DTK Co-chair and HDP MP Leyla Güven who announced starting an indefinite hunger strike on November 7, 2018, during a hearing she attended while she was held in Amed prison. She was released from prison on January 25th, on the 79th day of her fast which she continues at her home in Amed since.

Meanwhile, many people participate in the mass protest. In the prisons in Turkey alone, there are 7,000 PKK and PAJK political prisoners who, like Leyla Güven, are demanding conditions for Ocalan, in which he can freely live and work as the chairman of a legitimate movement, in order to find a solution to the Kurdish question.

More and more people around the world are expressing their solidarity with Leyla Güven and the resistance she has been leading. Tariq Shahzad, former secretary general of the Pakistani Barabri party, has also stated in a message of greeting his unconditional solidarity with the hunger strikers. Shahzad is now a member of the Pakistani International Workers Committee. He emphasized that he stood by the Kurdish people against the oppression of the Erdoğan regime.

His message to Strasbourg was: "Yes! We are in solidarity with you and your struggle and support all your demands, unconditionally. I am Tariq Shahzad, a member of the International Labor Committee of Pakistan and former Secretary General of the Barabri Party. I strongly condemn the repression of the Erdoğan regime against my Kurdish comrades. We are with you in your struggle.”