JINHA

ISTANBUL – Members of the People’s Houses have launched an indefinite-reversible hunger strike against government pressures on the Gazi Neighborhod.

An indefinite-reversible hunger strike against arrests and detentions has been launched in the Gazi Neighborhood of Istanbul’s Sultangazi district led by Halk Cephesi (Popular Front). A banner reads, “We are on indefinite-reversible hunger strike against police pressures, detentions and arrest” during the press statement issued. Gürkan Yalçınkaya made a statement on the hunger strike and said, “The ruling power occupied ‘Hasan Gedik Centre for Struggle and Liberation against Drugs’ where our young people, who fell into the swamp of drugs, are treated by using the practices of the State of Emergency as an excuse.”

Gürkan also said the taxi stand belongs to taxi drivers, who worked day-and-night for earning a living for their families, was destroyed and continued: “They pillaged gardens; parks and other places built led by revolutionaries. The places where children, young and elderly people sit in peace don’t exist anymore. As honorable shopkeepers and workers of this neighborhood, we have launched an indefinite-reversible hunger strike and we will continue the hunger strike until we retake our center, labor and killer police officers leave our neighborhood.

After the statement, four people have launched an indefinite-reversible hunger strike.

Who is Hasan Gedik?

A march was organized to protest the presence of drug gangs in the Gülsuyu Neighborhood of Istanbul’s Maltepe district on September 30, 2013. A member of drug gangs opened fire on the protesters and killed 21-year-old Hasan Ferit Gedik.

(ga/mg/gd)