Istanbul ( CNN ) -- Turkey 's government announced Friday that at least 682 inmates were participating in a hunger strike in at least 67 prisons across the country , but it insisted that no protesters were in critical condition . The statement by Turkey 's Justice Ministry directly contradicted reports issued by members of two opposition parties . Read more : Police , protesters clash at Republic Day march . Dr. Aytug Atici , a medical doctor and a lawmaker from the secularist Republican People 's Party , told CNN that prisoners he met during a tour of detention facilities were starting to lose basic brain functions and were showing symptoms of starvation . `` None of the people who have been on strike for 50 days , at the time when we spoke to them ( Wednesday ) , could stand , '' Atici said in a phone interview with CNN . `` They have begun to bleed anally and nasally . They are in critical condition . '' Read more : Turkish government asks Kurdish prisoners to end hunger strike . The Justice Ministry said that government doctors were checking the health of hunger strikers daily and that they were being regularly fed rations of salt , honey , lemon , sugar and vitamins . The maximum weight loss of protesters at one prison , the ministry reported , was 8 kilograms ( about 18 pounds ) , though it said that it was impossible to determine weight loss with some detainees because they `` refused to be weighed . '' The hunger strike began more than a month ago , and has since spread throughout Turkey 's penal system . Most , if not all , of the protesters are ethnic Kurds . Their demands , according to officials from the Peace and Democracy Party -- Turkey 's largest and best-organized Kurdish nationalist party -- are twofold : permission to use the Kurdish language in education and in courtrooms , and an end to the solitary confinement and eventual liberation of Abdullah Ocalan . Read more : Kurdish rebels kidnap a lawmaker in Turkey . Ocalan is the jailed founder of the Kurdistan Workers ' Party , or PKK . The movement has been fighting a guerrilla war against the Turkish state for 30 years . Turkey , the U.S. and the EU officially label the PKK a terrorist organization . The hunger strike comes against a backdrop of steadily worsening PKK violence . According to a report published last September by the nonprofit conflict mediation organization International Crisis Group , the violence has killed more than 700 people in a 14-month period . Turkey 's prime minister has shown little sympathy for the hunger strikers . `` There is no hunger strike or anything . It 's a show , '' Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a statement before journalists during a visit to Berlin on Wednesday . He went on to suggest that the PKK had ordered the protesters to starve themselves . Read more : Prison fires prompt scrutiny of Turkey 's jails . `` The political party or terrorist group members who told them to die are eating lamb kebabs among themselves , '' he said . Atici , the opposition lawmaker who toured prisons this week , said Erdogan 's remarks appeared to have stiffened the protesters ' resolve . `` They were furious at the prime minister 's remarks ... they felt as if they were being mocked , '' he said . `` Like their demands or not , they have put their bodies on the line . '' Read more : Turkey releases 4 jailed journalists pending trial 's end . The prison hunger strike is a phenomenon that harkens back to turbulent past decades of Turkish modern history . It was a protest measure used by leftists and communists in the 1990s and at the turn of the century that left scores of people dead . `` When we think about hunger strikes , we always think about people getting killed , '' said Mehmet Ali Birand , a veteran journalist and anchor on Turkish television . `` I remember at that time in 1996 and 2000 , public opinion was very much against the government 's handling of the situation , '' he added . `` But this time ... public opinion is not buying it ... they are not looking favorably at the hunger strikers . '' On Friday , Turkey 's semiofficial Anatolian Agency reported another fatality in the long-simmering PKK conflict , which has claimed more than 30,000 lives over the last three decades . The news agency said that at least one soldier was killed and six wounded during a suspected PKK attack on a post in southeastern Turkey on Friday .
Turkey : There are at least 682 hunger strikes in at least 67 prisons across Turkey . Opposition says some prisoners are in critical condition , but government disputes that . Strikers call for use of alternate prisons in prisons and schools , seek training for activist . Turkey 's prime minister has shown little sympathy for the hunger strikers .