THE Welsh Assembly’s International Relations Minister Eluned Morgan has written to Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt demanding he urgently speaks up for Kurdish rights.

The move comes as Welsh Kurd Imam Sis has spent over four months on hunger strike in Newport and could die at any moment.

Mr Sis is one of thousands of Kurds on hunger strike around the world who are calling for an end to the isolation of jailed Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan.

Ms Morgan, a Welsh Labour AM, said the hunger striker’s deteriorating health was “a matter of considerable distress” in Wales.

Ms Morgan added there was “reason to believe that an intervention by UK government could bring his hunger strike to end and save his life.”

In March, the Welsh Assembly passed a motion calling on the Welsh government to raise Mr Ocalan’s case with the European Council’s torture prevention committee.

In her letter, Ms Morgan asked the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to take over this initiative from the Welsh government. 

Her demands were echoed by Plaid Cymru’s shadow international affairs minister Delyth Jewell AM.

Ms Jewell said: “The responsibility now falls on the UK government and Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt MP to intervene.

“Fundamental human rights obligations must be upheld in Turkey as the first step towards the ultimate goal that we all want to see – a peaceful, political solution to the Kurdish question in Turkey.”

The British government regards Mr Ocalan’s Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) as a terrorist organisation, although British special forces have fought alongside PKK affiliates in Syria who played a leading role in defeating Isis.