The vigil launched at the Alexanderplatz Square in German capital Berlin in solidarity with the hunger-striking political prisoners in Turkey was taken over by a new group on Monday. The action group consists of members of KOMAW, a Europe-wide institution of the relatives of people who died or went missing in the liberation struggle, the migrant umbrella organizations AvEG-Kon and ATIF, the cultural movement TEV-ÇAND and the Kurdish youth movements TCŞ and TEKO-JIN. Former HDP deputy Nursel Aydoğan, former mayor of Ağrı, Hüseyin Yılmaz, and the ex-chairman of the DBP in Viranşehir, Hoşnaf Ata, as well as representatives of the PYD and KKP are also taking part in the action.

The vigil bears the motto "Break isolation, smash fascism" and should be understood as an act of solidarity and responsibility, explained the co-chair of the nationwide umbrella organization KON-MED, Tahir Köçer, at the beginning of the action. The protest initiated on November 27 by imprisoned PKK and PAJK members for the lifting of Abdullah Öcalan's isolation and rights violations in prisons has rapidly developed into a resistance movement in which thousands of prisoners in more than a hundred detention centers have participated so far.

Nursel Aydoğan pointed out in a speech that the regime had turned the cells in the completely overcrowded prisons in Turkey into "grave fields" and that the whole country resembled a single "cemetery". The politician recalled the "death fast" in prisons in 2012, which lasted 68 days and paved the way for negotiations between the Kurdish movement and the Turkish government. Addressing her remarks to Ankara, Aydoğan urged the Turkish state not to underestimate "the courage and determination" of political prisoners. "Because their past is an indicator of the future," she said.

A representative of KOMAW, Cumali Şaylemez, father of the Kurdish youth activist Leyla Şaylemez who was murdered in Paris in 2013, is also participating in the solidarity vigil this week. Şaylemez gave a salute to the prisoners in Turkey who -he said- defended "humanity and democracy with their heads held high."

The permanent vigil in Berlin had been called last week by the Kurdish European umbrella organization KCDK-E. Each week the action is taken over by a different group.