McAliskey calls for Dail to remove Turkish envoy

A motion should be moved in the Dail to have the Turkish ambassador removed from Ireland, a rally in Dublin was told at the weekend.

Ms Bernadette McAliskey, republican campaigner and former MP, was addressing an estimated 700 people who marched on Saturday to highlight the plight of political prisoners and hunger-strikers in Turkey.

Some 1,200 have taken part in the hunger-strike in Turkey since it began in October, and 43 have died so far. They are protesting at the new F-type prisons first introduced in 1996.

The latest death was in a private home in Istanbul on Saturday morning. Ms Gulay Kavak (29) was one of about 40 people fasting outside prison in solidarity with those inside.

Ms McAliskey told the meeting outside the GPO: "The two political parties represented here today [Sinn Fein and the Green Party] have members in the Dail. They must be harangued to propose a motion in the Dail that the Turkish ambassador be removed from this country."

The Turkish hunger-strikers and their supporters say the Ftype prisons, which replace the old dormitory-style accommodation and house political prisoners in cells for between one and three people, increase the risk of brutality.

Although condemned by Amnesty International, the Turkish government says they meet UN and EU minimum standards.

Mr Sinam Erson, a representative of the Turkish prisoners' solidarity group in England, Tayad, has been on hunger strike in London for 25 days. He is fasting in solidarity with his brother, who is on hunger-strike in Kiriklar F-type prison in the Turkish city of Izmir.

He said the issues were not just about the prisons but freedom of thought. The majority of those on hunger-strike have radical left-wing views. Communism is illegal in Turkey.

Ms Deirdre de Burca of the Green Party called on people to boycott Turkey as a holiday destination.

Although the majority of banners and placards represented republican parties such as Sinn Fein and the Irish Republican Socialist Party, a number of people carried pictures of some of those who have died on the Turkish hunger-strike.