Özlem Söyler, one of the prisoners on hunger strike in Gebze Women's Prison for 98 days said in a letter: “We hear everyone is concerned for us. Naturally, this gives us morale and strength, but just being worried is not enough. It does not help to move the process forward.”

Özlem Söyler was born in 1985 in Ümraniye, Istanbul. Her father is from Erzurum, her mother from Trabzon.

Söyler joined the struggle for freedom of Kurdistan in 2002. In 2012, she was arrested in Amed and sentenced to 17 years and 10 months of imprisonment. She is kept in Gebze Women's Closed Prison.

On her 85th day of hunger strike she wrote a letter in which she said: “The political electric air outside has its repercussion here inside. It’s hard even to talk among us as an ‘objectionable’ sentence could lead to a disciplinary punishment. The truth is that the situation is a contradiction: we are fighting against isolation and yet an even heavier isolation is imposed on us. We are not asking anything for ourselves, we are fasting to demand the end of isolation.”

Living under threat of death

The letter continued: “I have to say that I am spiritually, morally, more determined than the first day. Like us, people who have put their hearts to freedom have a sense of where and how they should live. Let me be clear: instead of living under the threat of death imposed on us, we are knowingly and deliberately going towards death. This is a matter of honor. Our honor, our honorary resistance, will be successful on behalf of peoples.”

We expect you to raise your voice

Özlem Söyler added: “As both a Kurdish and Black Sea woman, I am happy to have taken part in such an epic, such a historic process. Peoples and our people should be with us further raising they voice and reclaim this victory. This is what we expect from our loved ones, our families, our friends, from the people of Turkey and the Kurdish people.”

Worrying is not enough

The letter continued: “We hear that everyone is concerned about us. Of course, this gives us morale and power. However, we have to say that worrying and being concerned is not enough to move this process further. Look at Leyla [Güven] and act accordingly.

Today is the 85th day of our action. I didn't mention our health condition. I have consciously avoided to mention our health condition because it is linked to developments. Let us meet in a free country, where we can freely talk, with hope and resistance…”