Advertisement with 104 Signatures: Reinstate Them to Their Jobs

Click to read the article in Turkish/Kurdish

104 figures among whom are journalists, authors, writers, artists, right defenders and seven bar presidents placed an advertisement on the newspapers demanding that educators Nuriye Gülmen and Semih Özakça, who have been on hunger strike, be reinstated to their jobs.

The advertisement published on newspapers including Cumhuriyet, BirGün, Evrensel and Hürriyet started with the sentence: “Nuriye Gülmen and Semih Özakça struggle for both their jobs and lives”

The advertisement read:

“They need to go back to their work to cling on to life. We demand that State of Emergency Commission reinstate Gülmen and Özakça to their jobs. Time is running out each passing day. Nuriye Gülmen and Semih Özakça must go back to their work”.

Gülmen and Özakça’s hunger strike is on its 281st day today (December 14).

The signatories

Şenay Gürler, Cem Mansur, Defne Halman, Ataol Behramoğlu, Edip Akbayram, Atilla Dorsay, Onur Ünlü, Osman Şahin, Ali Özgentürk, Ahmet Ümit, Fatma Girik, Pınar Kür, Emrah Kolukısa, Halil Ergün, Engin Ayça, Gürsen Tuncer, Deniz Türkali, Meltem Cumbul, Arif Sağ, Tolga Sağ, Ezel Akay, Burhan Sönmez, Can Dündar, Elif Şafak, Ercan Kesal, Jaklin Çelik, Necmiye Alpay, Ömer Türkeş, Özcan Alper, Yavuz Ekinci, Zeynep Oral, Zülfü Livaneli, Hasan Cemal, Murat Belge, Hale Soygazi, Füsun Demirel, Ufuk Uras, Hilal Saral, Zeynep Tanbay, Erk Acarer, Macit Koper, Temel Demirer, Sibel Özbudun, Barış Atay, Levent Üzümcü, Orhan Aydın, Barbaros Şansal, Erdal Bayrakoğlu, Pınar Aydınlar, Ferhat Tunç, Hüseyin Turan, İlkay Akkaya, Tuncay Akgün, Tarık Tolunay, Tufan Taştan, İrfan Değirmenci, Şebnem Korur Fidancı, Metin Bakkalcı, Hilmi Yarayıcı, Melda Onur, Sırrı Süreyya Önder, Zeynep Kuray, Suna Aras, Onur Akın, İlyas Salman, Genco Erkal, Erdal Erzincan, Müjde Ar, Derya Köroğlu, Tayfun Atay, Cahit Berkay, Menderes Samancılar, Grup Yorum, Fuat Saka, Nebil Özgentürk, Nevzat Metin, Jehan Barbur, Ayşe Kulin, Merdan Yanardağ, Mustafa Altıoklar, Ayşe Semiha Baban, İrfan Aktan, lawyer Ahmet Özmen (Diyarbakır Bar Association President), lawyer Murat Timur (Van Bar Association President), lawyer Polat Balkan (Antalya Bar Association President), lawyer Zafer Kazan (Sakarya Bar Association President), lawyer Gürkan Altun (Bursa Bar Association President), Hakan Taş (German Left Party MP), lawyer Nuşirevan Elçi (Şırnak Bar Association President) lawyer Veli Küçük (Adana Bar Association President), Barış Bıçakçı, Ece Temelkuran, Lale Mansur, Barış Pirhasan, Reis Çelik, Rutkay Aziz, Eşber Yağmurdereli, Faruk Eren, Fatih Portakal, Ferzan Özpetek, Fatih Yaşlı, Orhan Alkaya, Filiz Ali, Vecdi Sayar.

About Nuriye Gülmen and Semih Özakça

On January 6, 2017, Nuriye Gülmen was discharged from her position through the Statutory Decree No. 679 issued under the State of Emergency.

On October 29, 2016, Semih Özakça was discharged from his position through the Statutory Decree No. 675 issued under the State of Emergency.

On March 9, 2017 Gülmen and Özakça went on an indefinite and non-alternate hunger strike in front of the Human Rights Statute on Yüksel Street in Turkey's capital city of Ankara.

They were taken into custody and later released several times during their hunger strike.

Being charged with "being a member of a terrorist organization" ,"opposing to the Law on Assembly and Demonstration" and "propagandizing for a terrorist organization", they were arrested on May 23. 

On September 14, ahead of the first hearing, Sincan prison gendarmerie commandership sent an official report for Gülmen and Özakça not to be brought to court on the pretext of “security, lack of staff and health conditions”.

Nuriye Gülmen was taken to Numune Hospital from the prison hospital on the 202nd day (September 26) of her hunger strike.

Semih Özakça was released in the third hearing and Nuriye Gülmen was released on December 2. (BK/TK)