HUNGER strikes are continuing in Turkish prisons as government assurances that the ban on Abdullah Ocalan meeting with his lawyers has been lifted were branded inadequate.

Hopes were raised last week after Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul announced to reporters in Ankara: “The ruling that prevents meetings has been lifted and the opportunity to meet with him has been allowed.”

However lawyers for the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) leader warned that the situation remains the same as they have not been able to see Mr Ocalan since the initial one hour visit to Imrali island on May 2.

“We are expecting them to adhere to the rules and accept our applications,” his lawyer Ibrahim Bilmez said.

Ending the isolation of the PKK leader is the central demand of an estimated 7,000 hunger strikers who are largely in Turkish prisons, with those on the outside joining the action in solidarity.

In a letter translated exclusively for the Star by journalists from the Mesopotamia News Agency, Ahmet Topkaya, who has been on a death fast for 21 days in the notorious Diyarbakir Prison, explained the isolation of Mr Ocalan is “everybody’s problem.”

Mr Topkaya said the letter was written so that everyone could understand why 30 of the hunger strikers had started a “death fast,” prepared to sacrifice their lives for the freedom of others.

“Isolation is not just the problem of our mothers who get beaten and insulted at the prison gates [during protests for peace]. It is the problem of all those who define themselves socialists, democrats and leftists.

“Isolation undermines the will of millions of people and nullifies them. The continuation of the isolation means the annihilation of common democratic values.

“Remaining unresponsive to the isolation means to legitimise the massacres and oppression that have taken place throughout the history of the [Turkish] republic.

“You can't live in peace with tyranny. Those who remain silent in the face of tyranny are accomplices,” he said.

Mr Topkaya said they have “unfinished business” with those who attacked the “peace mothers” and they will be held to account by Kurdish youth.

“Resistance will determine the final result,” he said. “We will fulfil our duty with historical responsibility.

“Today those who do not fulfil their historic responsibilities will be held to account by history. Choosing a life of honour rather than living in shame is the essence of being human.

“It is the oath of the Kurds to demolish fascism.”