JINHA

AMED – After a delegation visited peace activist and advanced cancer patient Aysel Doğan, Aysel called from her hospital bed in Ankara yesterday for a campaign for all sick prisoners in Turkey's jails, not just her.

Aysel Doğan is a longtime activist for peace in Kurdistan. After being forced into exile by the Turkish state for being active in her home province of Dersim, Aysel returned to the country on the call of jailed PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan to be part of a peace delegation. She was arrested and has been imprisoned for several years. Several weeks ago, Aysel learned that she has late-stage ovarian cancer. A campaign has been struggling for her release.

Ayla Akat, Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) MP for Batman province; Aygül Bidal, co-mayor for the İpekyolu area of the city of Van; and members of the coordinating body of the Congress of Free Women (KJA) headed to the Zekai Tahir Burak Teaching and Research Hospital in Ankara, where Aysel is undergoing chemotherapy treatment.

The longtime envoy for peace stressed in the visit that everyone who is free should be active in the election campaign, the rebuilding of Kobanê and support for women coming from Shengal. The delegation said her morale was high.

Delegation members noted that Aysel was angry that the government had not taken steps regarding sick prisoners, adding that a campaign needed to be waged for all sick prisoners, not just herself. There are more than 500 sick prisoners in Turkey, many of them in critical condition. Ayla Akat, speaking upon her return from the hospital, made a statement promising to struggle for the right of all sick prisoners to be released.

(nt/zd/fk/cm)