DIYARBAKIR, Turkey — Kurdish Human rights groups have urged Turkish authorities to release more than 500 Kurdish political prisoners with deteriorating health conditions.

Rudaw’s correspondent in Diyarbakir says 162 political prisoners suffer from terminal diseases, which includes cancer and diabetes.

Mashalla Dakak says, “Human rights organisations have pressurised Ankara to release these inmates in the past three years”, but appeals have been rejected.

Turkey says it will address the situation of political prisoners as part of the ongoing-peace process between Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the government. The Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK), an urban arm of PKK says the inmates should be released on humanitarian grounds.

Turkey’s exceptionally punitive anti-terror legislation has led to the imprisonment of thousands of Kurds on various terrorism charges. The Turkish government considers KCK as an unlawful militant group, although those arrested in association with KCK have been mostly politicians, lawyers, NGO workers and activists.

Crucial talks have taken place between PKK and the government over the past two years, which is expected to end three decades of Kurdish armed struggle for self-rule in Turkey.

Selahattin Demirtas, a leading Kurdish parliamentarian in Turkey told reporters on Friday that he expected the “final negotiations” to begin within the next 10 days.

Rudaw