AKP MP and member of Turkey’s human rights committee: ‘Hunger strike's against our belief’
Nuriye Gülmen and Semih Özakça, educators in Turkey who were dismissed from their post under emergency decrees, have marked the 72nd day of their hunger strike, which they started after not having been able to get their jobs back despite their months-long sit-in.
Throughout their demonstration, they have been taken into custody dozens of times and have even been injured as a result of forceful approach of the security officers.
Though they have received support from various groups and opposition parties in Turkey, government officials have been quite silent about it until very recently.
According to reports of Funda Öztürk from BBC Türkçe, deputy head of human rights committee of the ruling party AKP, İbrahim Aydemir, said ‘the members of the group in AKP have decided not to comment on it.’
AKP MP Yüce: 'Hunger strikes are against our beliefs'
On the other hand, mentioning that AKP members have been trying to ‘remedy the wrongdoings with dismissals’, parliamentarian from AKP who is also a member of the parliamentary committee of Human Rights Monitor, Sait Yüce, said ‘hunger strikes were against their belief systems’ and called on Gülmen and Özakça to ‘trust the state and God’ and give up on their hunger strike.
Parts of the statement of Yüce followed as: “Acts such as hunger strikes are acceptable under neither our belief system nor our values. They can do other things. The life that is given by Allah can only be taken away by Allah. And, it is also Allah that gives one sustenance. Sometimes, that sustenance granted by Allah is here; sometimes, it is there. One needs to surrender to his/her luck and trust in Allah. God forbid, if those people (Gülmen and Özakça) pay for this with their lives, it would be something not pleasing to Allah.”
Mother of Özakça taken into custody
Over the past week especially, police have been raiding the demonstration site of Gülmen and Özakça in Ankara’s downtown Kızılay. In Diyarbakır, a group of people trying to extend a message of support to Gülmen and Özakça, as well as, to all victims of the state of emergency laws, were also attacked by the police.
Most recently, a late night raid of the police at the demonstration site ended with 9 people, including the mother of Özakça, getting taken into custody.