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Angela Yvonne Davis, an academic and rights defender from the US, and an iconic figure of the political prisoners' movement, has penned a letter demanding the release of Leyla Güven, a Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) MP who has been on a hunger strike for the last 70 days.
Davis, who was part of a hunger strike in 1970 to protest prison conditions when she herself was in prison, said, "We should now follow the example and leadership of Ms. Güven in protesting the isolation of Mr. Öcalan" in the open letter she sent to the New York Times.
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Here is the full text of the letter:
"She is offering her life in protest"
"Leyla Güven, a deputy of the Peoples' Democratic Party in Turkey, has been on an indefinite hunger strike for the last two months.
"Having dedicated her political efforts over the years to the struggle against the Turkish state's illegal military invasions and occupations of Kurdish regions and against Turkey's continuing human rights abuses, she now offers her life in protest of the isolation of Abdullah Öcalan, leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, and other Kurdish political prisoners.
"Ms. Güven is a major inspiration to people throughout the world who believe in peace, justice and liberation. I join all those who support her and stand in condemnation of the repressive conditions of Mr. Öcalan's imprisonment.
"Like Ms. Güven, thousands of leaders and representatives of the Peoples' Democratic Party and the Democratic Regions Party are behind bars. The largest umbrella women's movement of Turkey, the Free Women's Congress, founded in Kurdistan, was forcibly dissolved and many of its activists have been imprisoned. And those who have spoken out against the indiscriminate killing of thousands of Kurdish people by the Turkish Army since breakdown of the peace process in 2015 have been criminalized in multiple ways.
"We should now follow the example and leadership of Ms. Güven in protesting the isolation of Mr. Öcalan, who is recognized as the chief negotiator representing the Kurds in the peace talks with Turkey, and who has declared that the fight for women's equality is central to the revolutionary process. As other imprisoned political figures have been released upon election to Parliament, so, too, should Ms. Güven be freed.
"Those of us here in the United States who have protested the expansion of the prison-industrial complex have been emboldened over the years by the courageous actions of Kurdish political prisoners — especially by the women who have resisted American-type prisons in Turkey."
Angela Y. Davis
Oakland, Calif.
About Angela Y. DavisAngela Yvonne Davis is a human rights defender, academic, and author who became an iconic figure for the political prisoners' movement in 1970s. She was the candidate for Vice President from the Communist Party USA on the elections in 1980 and 1984. Because of her membership at the Communist Party USA, Davis faced numerous charges and repression from the US government, which was in a cold war with the USSR at the time. Davis also supported the African Americans' struggle for freedom. In 1970, she was listed on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitive list. She was arrested in February 1971. Mass demonstrations held across the country for her release. 16 months later, she was released. She was a professor in the History of Consciousness and Feminist Studies Departments at the University of California, Santa Cruz and Rutgers University from 1991 to 2008. |
(PT/VK)
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