TURKISH and Kurdish community activists protested outside Parliament today to raise awareness of an ongoing hunger strike over Abdullah Ocalan being in “barbaric” conditions.

Thousands of people in Turkey are believed to have joined the hunger strike, which was initiated by the Kurdish opposition MP Leyla Guven, who has been on hunger strike for 162 days.

The protesters are demanding that Turkish authorities allow Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) founder Mr Ocalan regular visits from his relatives and his legal team.

They are also demanding that president Recep Tayyip Erdogan end repression of Kurdish politicians and left-wingers in Turkey.

Mr Ocalan has been imprisoned in isolation since 1999. 

He has not spoken to his legal team since 2011.

Apart from a brief visit by his brother Mehmet in January, he has not seen his family in half a decade.

In London, three activists – Nahide Zengin, Mehmet Sait Yilmaz and Ali Poyraz – have entered into the 36th day of an indefinite hunger strike.

In Newport, Kurdish activist Imam Sis has been on hunger strike for more than 120 days, which they claim is the longest in British history. 

Ibrahim Avcil from the Gik-Der community centre told the Star: “The issue of the Kurdish people is an issue of democracy.

“Thousands of people are rising up to demand that the barbaric prison conditions placed on Ocalan must be lifted.

“It is against the constitution of the Turkish state.

“Erdogan must be told this loud and clear and we must fight to make sure that he lifts these repressive conditions on Turkish and Kurdish civil society.”