07/11/2012 (Agence Europe) - Call for more sensitivity regarding detention conditions of Kurdish prisoners. The leader of the S&D Group at the European Parliament, Hannes Swoboda, has called on Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to show more sensitivity and flexibility regarding the 654 Kurdish prisoners who have been on hunger strike for 57 days now. Swoboda sounded a note of caution, saying: “The Turkish authorities' indifference to this ongoing suffering seems inhumane to us and to European opinion in general - and could create problems for EU-Turkish relations”. He added: “We believe that recognition of the justified Kurdish demands by the Turkish authorities could be constructive in the efforts to calm the situation”, saying this could “also help open democratic dialogue to end the violence, isolate the terrorists of the PKK and find political solutions to the Kurdish problem”. On Saturday 3 November, Erdogan announced he will not give way to blackmail by the prisoners who are seeking better conditions of detention for the imprisoned PKK chief, Abdullah Ocalan. (CG/transl.jl)