The Kurds claim that the situation in Turkey is rapidly deteriorating , with Kurdish activists being tortured, jailed and killed at a higher rate than ever and racist attacks against Kurds areon the increase. Turkey is also attempting to ban the Democratic Society Party (Demokratik Toplum Partisi – DTP), which formed a parliamentary group of 21 deputies after the 2007 elections and represents an attempt to solve the Kurdish problem in a peaceful and democratic way. The final court deliberations began yesterday but a decision is unlikely this week. The European Union has criticised the attempted ban as a violation of Kurdish rights and it could damage Turkey's chances of EU membership, as well as certainly increase instability within Turkey.

The Parliament Square hunger strikers are demanding an end to what claim is a deliberated attempt by the Turkish authorities to kill their leader, Abdullah Ocalan, imprisoned in the high security prison island of Imrali since his illegal seizure in Kenya in 1999.

In 2005, Turkey was found by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to have violated the European Convention of Human Rights in sentencing Ocalan to death without a fair trial and failing to allow him to properly appeal his arrest. Turkey had abolished the death penalty in 2002 to help their bid for EU membership.

In 2009, after the Council of Europe's Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (EPT) visited Ocalan in prison they complained about his treatment. On their recommendation (and that of the ECHR) the Turkish justice ministry built a new prison, where he was moved to a new cell on 17th Nov 2009. The Kurds say this new cell is a 'death pit', "meticulously and purposely designed to accelerate the death of the leader of the Kurdish people's Freedom Movement" in a way that can be attributed to 'natural causes'.

Ocalan commented: "My new cell is half the size of my old cell and consists of six square meters. The air conditioning here is also much worse. In order to be able to inhale and exhale air, I must stand by the window and open it. The window here is in the roof so I have no view on the outside world. The only thing I can behold is the sky. When I have to open the window in order to get oxygen, the sun burns me greatly. Even though the heat from the sun is so unpleasant, that I feel like I will get a heat stroke, I am forced to stay by the open window in order to get oxygen. I have very severe breathing problems here."

Ocalan's lawyer has released a statement condemning the move:
 http://unitedstatesofkurdistan16.blogspot.com/2009/12/ocalans-lawyer-to-press-and-public.html
and there have been widespread demonstrations against it in Turkey and all over Europe, some of them involving three day hunger strikes and sit-ins outside Parliaments. But in London the hunger strike continues and the statement by the hunger strikers said "We will be outside the UK Parliament for the foreseeable future."

 http://unitedstatesofkurdistan16.blogspot.com/2009/12/join-kurdish-hunger-strike-outside-uk.html