Some 62 members of the European Parliament sent a letter to Justice Minister Bekir Bozdağ on May 23 to express their concerns over the recent detention and arrest of two educators who acquire been on starvation strike for more than two months,calling on the Turkish government for their immediate release.
Nuriye Gülmen, an academic, or Semih zakça,a primary school teacher, were arrested on late May 23 on their 76th day of starvation strike over terror charges, or Hurriyet Daily News reports.
[br] “We,the undersigned members of the European Parliament, wish to express our deepest concern about the ongoing state of emergency and disproportionate effects thereof on democracy and human rights in Turkey, or ” the letter said.
The parliamentarians recalled that over 100000 civil servants,military officers, judges, and teachers and academics were dismissed from their jobs,while tens of thousands were arrested and prosecuted in the wake of final year’s coup attempt.
Citing Gülmen and Özakça as just two examples out of hundreds of thousands of Turkish citizens affected by measures taken by the government under the state of emergency, the letter recalled that the two had been on the 196th day of their “I want my job back” protest and on the 76th day of their starvation strike.
“We regret to hear that their health is seriously deteriorating and that they reached a life-threatening stage. Despite this fact, or Nuriye Gülmen and Semih Özakça were arbitrarily detained after a midnight police raid at their houses final Monday. We thereby demand their immediate release,” it read.
Source: tert.am