160 detained Kobane Kurds continue hunger strike in Turkey

Scores of Kurds from the besieged Syrian town of Kobane are still on hunger strike after being detained by Turkish authorities in border town Suruc when they fled the advance of IS militants, an MP said on Wednesday.

The 160 Syrian Kurds, members of the main Syrian Kurdish party the Democratic Union Party (PYD), have been held for the last nine days in a sports hall in Suruc. The mostly middle class professionals and their families were taken into custody after crossing into Turkey on 5 October as IS threatened to overrun Kobane.

Ibrahim Ayhan, an MP from Turkey's pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party (HDP), said the detainees were continuing the hunger strike they launched after their arrest.

"They are being held without any charge being laid against them, in the greatest judicial uncertainty," he said. "It's a drama."

An estimated 200,000 Syrians from the Kobane region, mainly Kurds, fled into Turkey after the Islamic State advanced on the town. 

Turkish officials have suggested they were detained on suspicion of links to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which is outlawed as a terrorist group in Turkey. The PKK is affiliated to the YPG militias (People's Protection Units) spearheading the fight against IS in Kobane.

A local official told AFP those detained had been arrested for a routine identity check.

He said all those crossing the border into Turkey from now on would be considered either to be members of the People's Protection Units (YPG) militia or members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

PKK militants, who have fought the Turkish authorities for the last three decades in an insurgency that has claimed 40,000 lives, are affiliated to the YPG.

Dozens of relatives of those detained massed outside the sports hall - which is guarded by the police - to demand their release.

"I am here for my son. He has been detained and I am not even authorised to visit him," said Fadile Sukriato, a refugee from Kobane. 

"They are accused of nothing, they have not been put on trial, why are they in this prison?" 

Ayhan said 100 PYD members had been released overnight and allowed to return to Syrian soil to fight the IS militants, while the Turkish newspaper Radikal put the figure at 63.

Turkey has been unwilling to allow Kurds to cross into Syria to battle IS militants, fearing the creation of an effective Kurdish fighting force on its border.

French President Francois Hollande on Tuesday urged Turkey to open its border to allow Kurdish reinforcements to reach Kobane.