Opposition gives support to convicted mothers’ demand

ANKARA – Doğan News Agency

Mülkiye Demir Kılıç, mother of twin babies, and Arzu Ceylan Oral, mother of a six-month-old baby, were present with their babies during the press conference. AA Photo

Two of Turkey’s opposition parties Aug. 13 gave support to two mothers who demanded the cancellation or delay of their sentences to prevent their children from being jailed with them.

Republican People’s Party (CHP) Istanbul deputy Melda Onur and Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Diyarbakır Deputy Nursel Aydoğan held a press conference with the two mothers at Parliament yesterday.

Mülkiye Demir Kılıç, mother of twin babies, and Arzu Ceylan Oral, mother of a six-month-old baby, were present with their babies during the press conference.

Onur recalled that 285 babies are in prison along with their mothers across Turkey.

“We call on the justice minister to stop [these sentences from being executed]. Oral will be imprisoned on Aug. 18 with her baby. Zeynep [her daughter] will be imprisoned with her mother. Her mother’s crime is attending a press meeting. Mülkiye’s crime is selling books. You are talking about a ‘new Turkey.’ If these babies are imprisoned, I do not want such a new Turkey,” said Onur.

Kılıç was convicted to two years and a month in prison on charges of “aiding a terrorist organization.” Oral was convicted in 2008 for her alleged affiliation to the Marxist Leninist Communist Party (MLKP), an outlawed leftist group. She applied to the Turkish Constitutional Court for the postponement of her six-year prison sentence to avoid being jailed with her six-month-old baby.