Hunger Strike Deaths Reach 38
Two additional hunger strikers starved to death, bringing to 38 the number of deaths in a protest by leftist militants against Turkey’s new high-security prisons.
Zeynep Arikan, 33, died in a house in an Istanbul suburb where about 10 other militants are also fasting, the prisoner support group Ozgur Tayad said. Ali Riza Demir, 27, another hunger striker, died hours later. Both had consumed only sugared or salted water for months.
They were members of the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front, a banned Marxist group, and were recently released from prison because of deteriorating health.
More to Read
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.