Kurds end hunger strike in Turkish prison

Most of the 120 Kurdish inmates in a Turkish prison have ended a weeks-old hunger strike to demand a man considered a terrorist be removed from isolation. Bekir Kaya, mayor of the predominantly Kurdish town of Van, is reported among the prisoners who ended their strike at the prison in Van, Today's Zaman reported Wednesday. Gulcin Isbert, a member of the Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party, said the strikers are seeking "health, security and freedom" for Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan, and for the right to be educated and defended in court in their own language, CNN reported. Ocalan is the founder of the Kurdistan Workers Party that Turkey, the United States and the European Union have labeled a terrorist organization. He has spent more than 10 years in prison on a Turkish island in the Marmara Sea. At least 680 Kurdish inmates imprisoned around Turkey are involved in the hunger strike, which has gone on for nearly 50 days. Stores did not open and students stayed away from school Tuesday in several cities in the largely Kurdish southeast region of Turkey in response to a call by pro-Kurdish activists to support the hunger strike. Demonstrators in Istanbul Tuesday were met with water cannon and tear gas by Turkish riot police, the second time in two days security forces had used force against unsanctioned gatherings.