Turkish opposition singer Helin Bolek passed away on Friday after entering a hunger strike that lasted for 288 days entitled “The Empty Bowel" battle, as she was on hunger strike to force the government to change its policies.
According to a tweet posted on the official account of Grup Yorum band, Bolek passed away on Friday, after she went on a hunger strike that lasted for nearly 10 months, as published by the Associated Press.
Yorum is known for its protest songs, and it is a collective folk music band whose members change periodically.
The 28-year old singer had died on Friday at a home in Istanbul where she had been staging the hunger strike in an attempt to pressure the government into reversing its position on the band and its members, according to the London-based newspaper of the Guardian.
It’s noteworthy that the group has been prohibited from performing in Turkey since 2016, and authorities have jailed some of its members.
The Turkish government claimed that the band has links to the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party, which Turkey has designated a terrorist organization.
Bolek and fellow band member Ibrahim Gokcek went on a hunger strike to force the government to lift the ban on the band and release its detained members.
A Turkish newspaper said the two were forcibly taken to hospital on March 11, but were discharged a week later after refusing treatment.
The hunger strikers in Turkey usually refuse to eat, but consume liquids to prolong their protests.
The Ankara-based Human Rights Association, or IHD, said that a delegation of human rights activists met Turkey’s deputy interior minister last month to seek a solution that would end the hunger strike. The government refused to assess the demands until the protest was called off, the Guardian report revealed.
“The struggle to prevent hunger strikes from not resulting in death has unfortunately failed,” tweeted popular Turkish singer and songwriter Zulfu Livaneli.
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