Turkey’s main opposition CHP visits hunger striking educators in jail

ANKARA

A delegation from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) has visited two educators, who were arrested after being on hunger strike for over 75 days in protest at being dismissed from their jobs through state of emergency decrees, in a jail in Ankara. 

An Ankara court on May 23 ordered the arrest of Nuriye Gülmen and Semih Özakça, whom Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu accused of being members of the outlawed Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party - Front (DHKP-C).

CHP’s deputy leader Veli Ağbaba, group deputy chair Özgür Özel, Ankara lawmaker Necati Yılmaz and Muğla lawmaker Nurettin Demir visited Özakça and Gülmen, who have both denied Soylu’s “terror” accusations, daily Cumhuriyet reported on May 28.

“They declared me a member of the DHKP-C terror group. If I’m a member, then how did I become a civil servant, how did I manage to continue my civil service all those years?” Gülmen said, adding that she will file a complaint against the minister. 

Özakça said only a limited number of books were permitted in jail and they were not allowed any newspapers. 

“This is worse than being hungry. We became terrorists when we started the hunger strike,” Özakça told the CHP delegation.