Assembling in center of Turkey’s capital banned as government fears ‘protests will spread’
Governor’s office of Ankara in Turkey has issued a ban against ‘all sorts of meetings and assembling’, as well as ‘slogans, songs, marches, and announcements’, in city center’s Yüksel Street and the surrounding streets.
The ban of the governor’s office came as a group of dismissed educators and human rights activists have taken over the place of jailed dismissed educators Nuriye Gülmen and Semih Özakça to demand reinstation of dismissed professionals and release of Gülmen and Özakça, who have been on a hunger strike for 120 days.
In the governor’s statement, the demonstration of the dismissed professionals and human rights advocates is deemed as ‘blocking the way; creating noise pollution; and, infringing public order’ and the site around the Human Rights Statue is claimed to have become ‘a spot seized by marginalized groups.’
“Therefore, the mentioned activities – singing, reading press statements, sitting, chanting slogans, etc. – are considered as having the potential to spread to a larger part of the society in a way that would put societal safety and security in danger”, the conclusion of the statement read.