Leyla Güven: It is a Struggle That Has to Be Waged by Us All

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Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Hakkari MP and Democratic Society Congress (DTK) Co-Chair Leyla Güven has made a statement after her release from prison and said, "Thanks to our efforts and endeavor."

While she was arrested in Diyarbakır Type E Prison, Leyla Güven went on a hunger strike on November 7, 2018, demanding that the isolation on Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) imprisoned leader Abdullah Öcalan be lifted.

Being released from prison on January 25, 2019, Leyla Güven has been continuing her hunger strike at her house.

"As people talked and it spread to everywhere..."

Güven has sent the following message through the HDP:

"It was really difficult for me to get out of the dungeon of Amed [Diyarbakır]. The place where I started the struggle... It was as if the soul of July 14 [when inmates of Diyarbakır Prison went on a hunger strike after the military coup on September 12, 1980] became a part of these walls. When I started this resistance, I did indeed feel this spirit. I lived the experiences and words of the friends who lived in this period over again.

"I have been continuing this protest for 81 days. I was really doing well in prison. But, since yesterday (January 26) I have been feeling as if I was cut off from this spirit. I am trying to save myself from this feeling. Nothing about the outside world, be that its air or water, feels natural to me. It is as if the inside was more natural; as I have said, it is really a strange psychology.

"The other mainstay of this struggle was the works undertaken outside. Those works were a source of moral support for us. As you gave a voice to it, people talked about it and as it spread to everywhere...

"A Germany-based newspaper sent me questions for an interview and asked, 'Did your party really protect and support you?', to which I answered, 'Thanks to my party, my voice could come to you, to Germany.' Thanks to our efforts and endeavor. It is a struggle that has to be waged by us all.

"Isolation is a crime against humanity. We tried to lift it, to break it on different occasions but we could not manage it. If this despotic, fascist state wants a price from us, I can readily pay this price as a Kurdish woman. I took the first step for that but all dungeons are overflowing now.

"I wish you could have seen the spirit, motivation and fervor in dungeons... Dungeons will destroy the isolation with this fervor. Everyone can rest assured that..."

What happened?

Leyla Güven, the Co-Chair of the Democratic Society Congress (DTK), who was elected as the Hakkari MP of the HDP on June 24, was taken into custody in a raid conducted to her house on January 22, 2018.

Güven, who was arrested due to her statements regarding the Afrin operation, has been facing charges due to the statements for press and events that she attended and the statements that she made.

After being held in custody for nine days, she was arrested by the Diyarbakır 9th Heavy Penal Court on January 31, 2018.

A verdict of release was issued for her upon the application submitted to the court shortly after she was elected an MP. However, upon the objection of the Prosecutor's Office, the court again ruled that her arrest shall continue.

Going on a hunger strike in Diyarbakır Prison, she has been on a hunger strike for 82 days as of today. (AS/SD)