Kurdish Amsterdammers on hunger strike over Turkish aggression

Members of the United Kurdish Society in Amsterdam started a hunger strike on Wednesday, hoping that this action will raise awareness of the Kurdish persecution in southeast Turkey. "After the last election things have become very bad for the Kurds in Turkey", one striker said to AT5. "The president is really started a war against his own citizens. Please, open your eyes and ears. The people must support us. I sleep very badly, my family is there. My body is here, but in my thoughts I'm over there. We now go on a hunger strike until Saturday, then we'll do something else. But we just want our voices to be heard." Turkey does not recognize the Kurdish pursuit for an independent state, according to the Parool. A new offensive was launched on the population in 2015 and since then hundreds of Kurdish fighters were killed, dozens of leaders in Kurdish areas were imprisoned and thousands of civilians fled. The strikers can not believe that the European Union is negotiating with Turkey over accession, while the country is violating human rights on such a large scale. They feel that the international world is leaving the Kurds to their fate.