19/04/2012 (Agence Europe) - MEPs' support for Kurds. MEPs from the United Left (GUE/NGL), Jurgen Klute from Germany, Soren Sondergaard from Denmark and Marie-Christine Vergiat from France, have drawn attention to the hunger strike begun 50 days ago (on 1 March) by 15 Kurds in Strasbourg. The hunger strikers are part of a movement launched in the middle of last February by 400 political prisoners in Turkey and are calling for the release of Abdullah Ocalan, the former leader of the separatist PKK party, a prisoner in Turkey since 1999 and in solitary confinement for the past eight months. Klute, the leader of the parliamentary group “Friends of the Kurds”, referred to human rights violations committed by Turkey and said that the demands of the hunger strikers were justified. He also called for the hunger strike to end because recognition by the Parliament of the situation could already be considered as a success, he concluded. (MD/transl.fl)