PKK Leader Ocalan Calls for End to Hunger Strike

Abdullah Ocalan, founder of the far-left Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) – deemed a terrorist organization by Turkey – has called on supporters to end a hunger strike aimed at easing his prison conditions. The hunger strike was launched some 200 days ago, and since then, thousands of Turkish inmates and even lawmakers have joined in. The PKK began rebel attacks against the Turkish establishment in the mid-1980s in a bid for statehood, although the insurgency was largely crushed, with tens of thousands of people being killed in the process. Since then, it has been seeking only autonomy. Ocalan largely led the party from abroad and was captured in Kenya in 1999 by Turkish undercover agents before being returned for trial and imprisonment. He has been incarcerated at an island prison in virtual isolation, with little access to visitors, whether family or lawyers. In fact, his attorneys were allowed to meet with him earlier this month for the first time in several years, and they publicized his request for an end to the hunger strike during a news conference in Istanbul.