UPDATE .Leyla Hospitalised Refusing Treatment/ International Action plea for Hunger Strikers

UPDATE  UPDATE  UPDATE …..Leyla Guven is transferred to hospital, refuses treatment  ANHA

The health situation of parliamentarian Leyla Guven deteriorated and she was transferred to the hospital as she is continuing hunger strike on the 98th day. Leyla Guven refused any medical intervention to treat her.

13 Feb 2019, Wed – 15:45

The co-chair of the Democratic Society Congress and Parliamentarian Leyla Guven continues her hunger strike for the 98th day in a row.  Due to the deterioration of her health status, Leyla Guven was transferred to the hospital, and information was reported that Leyla Guven refused treatment.   ANHA

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note.. this ‘TheFreeOnline’ blog is now banned in Turkey with Dozens more pro Rojava and anti Fascist sites

Right now over 300 people, mostly Kurdish prisoners in Turkey , are on indefinite hunger strike, and many of them are reaching the stage of permanent health damage and death.

They are striking not to protest their obvious innocence or the shocking conditions, but for the right of their leader, Ocalan, to have contact with the outside world.

Ocalan in the past has declared long ceasefires with the Turkish State rejecting terrorism and separatism  in favour of ‘municipal anarchist’ communal ideas and feminist emancipation which have swept through the 15 million Kurdish population.

note.. this ‘TheFreeOnline’ blog is now banned in Turkey with Dozens more pro Rojava and anti Fascist sites

That seems a strange thing to die for, but Ocalan in the past has declared ceasefires with the Turkish State which have lasted years

see also 300 on Hunger Strike – How Ocalan Transformed the PKK into Anti-Terrorists

So when the hunger strikers demand Ocalan be allowed to speak they are demanding the first step in a new peace process, and the end of the ongoing anti Kurdish pogrom in Turkey and the north of Syria.

But because the PKK is branded as terrorist by the US they get little international support.

Turkey is the real terrorist, with documented massacres or mass killings of Kurds in 1930, 1978, 1987, 2009, 2011, and 2016

The Turkish state has impunity though it is the real terrorist, with documented mass killings of Kurds in 1930, 1978, 1987, 2009, 2011, and 2016……

Letters from Leyla Güven to the women of the world

Dear women,

Even though our geographies are divided by thousands of kilometers, I’m glad you heard my voice. Even though we are from very different corners of the world, as women, we always feel. As Hypatia says, “none of us resemble each other, but the things that unite us are greater than those that separate us.” We are all sisters. What unites us the most is our struggle for freedom, our resistance against all kinds of fascism, against the dictatorship and the patriarchal mentality.

Women who resist and fight always become symbols: Clara Zetkin, Rosa Luxemburg, the Mirabal sisters, Sakine Cansiz, Leyla Qasim and many other women become symbols through their struggle. As women, we are half of the world’s population. However, we are all oppressed. When we begin to fight for our rights, we are labeled as terrorists.

All the women of the world must give fascism enough, enough to the dictatorship!

The murder of women through domestic violence, female genital mutilation, child marriages, women sentenced to death in Iranian prisons – Zenenep Celalyan is one of them – Kurdish women, who were banned from mother tongue, the Arabs who fled the war. All point to femicide. As women who are prepared to die, we can stop this femicide through the connection of our struggles. While we are determined to fight.

Dear sisters,

I am a Kurdish woman. My awareness of the injustices committed against women developed thanks to Mr. Abdullah Öcalan. It is through the importance of the struggle that Mr. Öcalan placed on the freedom and camaraderie of women, that millions of women have developed a strong willpower.

Women have experienced an awakening. And I am one of these women. I learned to be at peace with my gender, to fight against the patriarchal mentality, and I learned to be a feminist. When I heard from Mr. Öcalan that a society will only be free when women are free, for many years I have carried out a struggle for the freedom of women and I will continue to do so.

Mr. Öcalan, to whom I owe my own awakening, has been locked in an isolated cell for the past 20 years. In order to demand the removal of Mr. Öcalan’s isolation, something that millions of Kurds see as their political will, I have started a hunger strike. Mr. Öcalan is an important actor in the efforts to create peace in the Middle East and in the world. As a prisoner, going against national and international laws, you are denied all your rights and freedoms.

To request recognition of these rights, we, as Kurdish politicians of the People’s Democratic Party (HDP) and the Democratic Society Council (DTK), are calling for an end to their isolation. We say that this is a crime against human rights. However, to silence us, the fascism of the AKP (Justice and Development Party) and MHP (Nationalist Movement Party) imprisoned us.

They specifically addressed women. More than half of the imprisoned parliamentarians are women. The same goes for the mayors of cities, who were taken to prison. The mentality that does not accept the quota of women in politics has implemented a policy of 60-70% of women in prison.

I’ve been in prison for about a year. A prisoner has no more than her own body. So, I started this hunger strike. Now, together with me, in the prisons of the whole country we are already 230 friends, political prisoners, who have started an indefinite and irreversible hunger strike. Hannah Arendt has a beautiful quote: “Freedom means action. Because freedom can only be achieved through action.

The action drives the movement that resonates among the people. ” The demands of my action are legitimate and of law. If our demands are not met, hundreds of people can lose their lives. If this happens in the 21st century, it will not only be the shame for Turkey, but that of all mankind.

So that the world does not face such shame, the women of the world must do what they can. And without losing more time. We will continue resisting. Resistance will help us win. Our belief in this is infinite. In this sense, I call them all to resist.

Long live the solidarity of the peoples and of women.

Leyla Güven