Sinn Féin’s spokesperson on Foreign Affairs, Seán Crowe TD, raised the ongoing hunger strike of Leyla Güven, an imprisoned MP for the pro-Kurdish HDP party in Turkey, in the Dáil. Leyla Güven has been on hunger strike in a Turkish prison against her unjust detention since 8 November and she is now in a critical condition.

Deputy Seán Crowe said:

“Leyla Güven is a democratically elected MP that was imprisoned by the Turkish regime. She faces over 31 years in prison for simply being critical of the Turkish regime, after she rightly condemned the Turkish invasion of Afrin and other human rights abuses on social media.

“She has been on hunger strike since 8 November to protest her unjust detention and the illegal isolation and solitary confinement of the imprisoned Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan.

“Leyla Güven is now in a critical condition and international action is needed to save her life. She has been joined by over 160 Kurdish political prisoners who are now on hunger strike in Turkish jails.

“Today I called on the Irish Government to urgently raise Leyla’s case with the Turkish Government and join the international solidarity to save her life.

“Leyla Güven, Abdullah Öcalan, and all Kurdish political prisoners need to be released immediately. The only long term solution to the Kurdish issue is peaceful and democratic dialogue, not isolation and imprisonment.”

ENDS