Peoples Democratic Party MP, Leyla G眉ven ended her 200-day hunger strike on May 26, after the Turkish government finally allowed imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah 脰calan to meet with his lawyers.
Abdullah 脰calan
British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn met with Kurdish solidarity activists on March 30, according to the campaign website .
Leyla Guven, a member of Turkey鈥檚 parliament for the left-wing, Kurdish-led People鈥檚 Democratic party (HDP), launched an indefinite hunger strike on November 7 from Amed Prison, where she was held jailed by Turkey鈥檚 regime. Her demand is for an end to the isolation of jailed Kurdistan Workers鈥 Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan.
Jailed by Turkey since 1999, Ocalan is the recognised leader of the Kurdish liberation movement. Since 2011, his lawyers have been unable to met with him.
On January 20, Turkey launched an invasion of Afrin, one of the three cantons that make up the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria (also known as Rojava), the site of a profound, Kurdish-led social revolution based on multi-ethnic participatory democracy and women鈥檚 liberation.
The invasion has killed dozens of civilians in an area that has welcomed hundreds of thousands of refugees from Syria鈥檚 conflict. Turkey鈥檚 actions would be impossible without at least passive acceptance from several great powers active in Syria. Cihad Hammy looks at the motivations for various major players.
Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) finally liberated Raqqa, in northern Syria, from ISIS occupation on October 17, after a battle of 135 days. In 2014, ISIS declared Raqqa its capital, which makes its defeat a decisive event.
The SDF is a multi-ethnic and multi-religious armed force made up of dozens of militias that is committed to the political project of 鈥渄emocratic confederalism鈥, the participatory democratic project associated with the Kurdish-led Rojava Revolution.
The Kurdish people are an oppressed nationality without a state, whose homeland is currently divided between five countries in the Middle East. Despite this, the left-wing Kurdish movement in Syria鈥檚 north is not fighting for a separate nation state. Rather, it is seeking to unite all ethnic groups and religions to fight for an autonomous, participatory democracy as part of a profound social movement that puts women鈥檚 liberation at its heart.
A large minority in Turkey, at about 20% of the population, the Kurdish people have long faced systemic discrimination by the Turkish state. This has included massacres and violent repression of their culture, with even the Kurdish language banned until recently.
Such oppression led to the Kurdistan Workers鈥 Party (PKK) launching an armed struggle for national liberation in 1984. In recent years, the PKK 鈥 whose leader Abdullah 脰calan remains in solitary confinement in a Turkish jail 鈥 has declared its commitment to a peaceful solution to the conflict.
British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn told a meeting in London on September 15 that the Kurdish people鈥檚 right to self-determination needed to be recognised, said the next day. The meeting was organised by the British Kurdish People鈥檚 Assembly.
Hunger strikers begin their fast for 脰calan in Diyarbak谋r on September 5.
A hunger strike was launched in Turkey鈥檚 Kurdish capital Diyarbak谋r on September 5 by politicians and activists demanding a meeting with jailed Kurdistan Workers鈥 Party (PKK) leader Abdullah 脰calan.
Flag of PKK with image of Abdullah Ocalan.
Millions of Kurds view Abdullah 脰calan as their political representative. His freedom is directly linked to a democratic and peaceful solution to the war in Turkey.
Kurdish women staged a sit-in in Strasbourg against the silence of European institutions over Turkey's crime
A coalition of pro-Kurdish European groups held a five day sit-in in front of European institutions in Strasbourg in eastern France, starting on February 23, to protest Europe's silence on the Turkish government's ongoing massacre of Kurds. The action targeted the European Court of Human Rights.
Turkish police repress protests against Erdogan's renewed war.
The outcome of Turkey鈥檚 June 7 parliamentary elections promised so much.
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