Turkey's leading rights group urged the Council of Europe yesterday to put pressure on Ankara to find a solution to a hunger-strike in prisons across the country as the protest claimed its 10th victim in less than a month.
The Human Rights Association (IHD) sent a letter to the Strasbourg-based council, calling for urgent intervention, the group's secretary-general, Mr Selahattin Esmer, said.
France, on the other hand, urged Turkey - a candidate for European Union membership with a troubled record of human rights - to take speedy action to settle the problem. "We would like to see this situation quickly resolved," a Foreign Ministry spokesman, Mr Bernard Valero, said.
The appeal followed the death of Erol Evcil, jailed for membership of an armed far-left group, who became the 10th prisoner to die in the protest, initiated last October against the introduction of new jails with tighter security.
The prisoners argue that the new jails, where cells for three inmates at most replaced dormitories housing up to 60, will facilitate ill-treatment and cause further social alienation.
Between 300 and 400 prisoners are on hunger-strike, with some 120 of them hospitalised and a dozen reported in critical condition.
A meeting yesterday between the Justice Minister, Mr Hikmet Sami Turk, and civic representatives yielded a glimmer of hope that the government could agree on a compromise to prevent further deaths.
The head of the Istanbul Bar, who participated in the meeting, said there was hope of reaching an agreement within a few days, even though a formula had not been outlined yet. "The minister showed a real will to settle the problem. We are hopeful that a solution can be found at the weekend," Mr Yucel Sayman said.
Any possible compromise, however, is unlikely to include a return to the dormitory system, which authorities categorically rule out as incompatible with security.
The secretary-general of the human rights group, IHD, also said that a conciliatory move by the government could be imminent. "We maintain that isolation must end. This a minimum step to open the door for reconciliation," Mr Esmer said.
The prisoners had signalled that they could back down from their demand for the closure of the new jails and agree to end the strike if the conditions of isolation were lifted, he added.
At present some 200 inmates are staying in one-man cells, while more than 1,000 others are in compounds for three people. Turkish law prohibits people who have been convicted on "terrorism" charges from being incarcerated together.
Legal amendments lifting that ban and granting additional rights to inmates have been drafted, but parliament has yet to vote on them.
The chief of police in Ankara, Mr Kemal Iskender, yesterday warned thousands of anti-government demonstrators due to gather in the capital today to avoid violence.
Riot police used water cannon and tear gas to disperse tens of thousands of people who threw rocks and sticks in central Ankara on Wednesday as they called for the government to resign over its handling of Turkey's economic crisis.