Mother of Turkish educator on hunger strike says she 'cannot eat the food her son loves'

The mother of Semih Özakça, a Turkish educator who has been on hunger strike for more than 65 days, has told daily Hürriyet on May 14 that she cannot eat the food that her son loves. 

"I have to stay strong and not collapse, I feed on food like soup," Sultan Özakça said on Mother's Day. 

Semih Özakça launched a hunger strike on March 10 after a months-long sit-in protest along with another dismissed academic, Nuriye Gülmen, on Ankara's Yüksel Street, demanding they be returned to their jobs. 

Özakaça, a former primary school teacher at the Mardin Mazıdağı Cumhuriyet Elementary School, and Gülmen, an academic at Selçuk University, were dismissed from their posts along with tens of thousands of others with state of emergency decrees. 

After the educators' health deteriorated following two months of hunger strike, they were taken to their homes, where their mothers are helping ease their strike. 

"We've waited for a step to be taken [by the authorities]. For us, the most beautiful Mother's Day gift would be the reinstatement of Nuriye and Semih to their posts, and granting the lives of our children, who are dying day by day," Sultan Özakça said. 

"I want to start a hunger strike myself but Semih is not allowing me. I will always stand by him in this legitimate struggle," she added.

Nuriye Gülmen's mother, Cemile Gülmen, said the two were "sitting the most difficult exam of their lives and that they would pass it at the end of their struggle." 

"There is light at the end of every darkness…We've waited for a positive step to be taken this week. That would be the most meaningful gift given to us," Cemile Gülmen said. 

"We worry so much for our kids. We want them to be given back their health,...