Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent discussions the Government has had with the Turkish Government on the (a) Kurds, (b) UK citizens and (c) members of the Turkish Parliament on hunger strike to protest the isolation of Abdullah Ocalan.

The Government most recently raised the issue of the ongoing hunger strikes protesting the conditions of Abdullah Ocalan's imprisonment with Turkish authorities on 13 May. While robustly condemning the ongoing violence perpetrated by the PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party), we encourage Turkey to implement the recommendations of the report on Mr Ocalan's imprisonment produced by the Council of Europe Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. In this regard we welcome the fact that Mr Ocalan was granted access to two lawyers on 2 May.

We also note the comments made by those lawyers in a subsequent press conference, that Mr Ocalan advised against his supporters continuing these hunger strikers to the point that it threatens their health . We continue to urge Turkey to uphold the human rights of detainees, including access to medical treatment where necessary.