Kurdish Inmates in Turkey End Hunger Strike

A human rights group said Sunday that hundreds of Kurdish prisoners in dozens of Turkish jails have ended a hunger strike they started to demand more rights for Kurds and improved jail conditions for Kurdish rebel leader, Abdullah Ocalan.

Ozturk Turkdogan, who heads the Turkish Human Rights Association, told The Associated Press that some 700 inmates ended their strike on Sunday, heeding a call by Ocalan for the protest to stop.

The prisoners have been refusing food but drinking tea and sugared and salted water. Seventy of them had started the strike on Sept. 12.

The prisoners wanted Ocalan to be moved from a prison island off Istanbul and placed under house arrest. He has been in solitary confinement for about a year and half.

They were also pressing for education in the Kurdish language and the right to use Kurdish to defend themselves in court.