Ministry: Discharged teacher has no affiliation with the ‘organization’

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Discharged from public service by a Statutory Decree on October 29, 2016 following the July 15 coup attempt, primary school teacher Engin Karataş's application to the State of Emergency Commission was previously rejected on the grounds of his one-person protests at Bodrum Square in Muğla, where he was expressing his demand for reinstatement.

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Engin Karataş filed a lawsuit against this decision.

The Ankara 22nd Administrative Court, in a written correspondence with the Ministry of National Education, requested the documents pertaining to the allegation that Karataş was "affiliated with the [outlawed] Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C)".

In the document dated July 27, 2021 and sent to the court by the Inspection Board of the Ministry of Education, it has been indicated that the Board has only the State of Emergency Commission's decision and that it has no other report, minute or document as to the allegation.

Having written to the Ministry of National Education, the State of Emergency Commission previously argued that the personnel file of Engin Karataş contained information as to his links with the organization.

Karataş has responded, "The Ministry has said that there is no document or investigation. So, the Commission says that there is a document and the Ministry says there isn't. If there is no document, why does the Commission say so? If there is, why does the Ministry say so?"

'You want your job back, you can be dismissed'

Teacher Engin Karataş has stated the following about the issue:

"My profession as a teacher, which I had been practicing for 20 years, was seized in 2016. I call it a seizure because I was stripped of my profession by a statutory decree one night without a judicial or administrative investigation, without taking my defense or citing any reasons.

"I asked the reason for this in an official petition. They said that they could not give information. For nearly three years, I wanted my job back with different methods at the square in front of my school.

"Dozens of investigations and court cases have been brought against me for this reason on charges of 'violating the Law on Meetings and Demonstrations, violating the Law on Misdemeanor, propagandizing for a terrorist organization and degrading the state.'

"The Commission dismissed my case without almost undertaking any examination. They checked the National Judiciary Informatics System (UYAP) and they attributed an affiliation by thinking, 'Wow, there are so many court cases against him.' But they did not consider that these court cases were filed because I wanted my job back.

"When I asked the Commission, 'Why do you approve my dismissal', it said, 'Your dismissal because you want your job back is all right'."

Karataş's application to the State of Emergency Commission was rejected because of his protests of "I want my job back" in the last 2 years.

'I started carrying a banner with my knees shaking'

Karataş explained how he started his protests in following words:

"After that, I started following Nuriye Gülmen and Acun Karadağ on Facebook and got impressed by them. I started to carry a banner in silence with my knees shaking at Bodrum Municipality Square in front of my school.

"When the police detained me for the first time and wanted to put me in the cage behind the police car, I told them that I did not want to go in there and said that I would sit on the back seat. I said, 'It is where the criminals sit. I am not a criminal.' When I did not want to go in there, police officers pushed me into it. I have got used to it after that. Now, I go in there myself." (AS/SD)