Mother of dismissed Turkish educator on hunger strike detained in Ankara

A total nine people, including the mother of an expelled teacher, were detained by police on May 18 during a solidarity protest with dismissed teacher Semih Özakça and academic Nuriye Gülmen, who have been on hunger strike for 72 days, daily Cumhuriyet has reported.

Semih Özakça launched a hunger strike on March 10 after a months-long sit-in protest along with, Gülmen, another academic dismissed with a decree law, on Ankara's Yüksel Avenue to demand that they be given back their jobs.

Police assaulted the group which had gathered to protest the pair's expulsions after demanding that they extinguish a fire that they lit to keep warm. Police attacked the group with tear gas, detaining nine people including Semih Özakça's mother, Sultan Özakça.

Esra Özakça, Semih Özakça's wife, was also detained by police on May 17 in Ankara.

Sultan Özakça told daily Hürriyet on May 14 that she could not eat the food that her son loves. 

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

 Semih Özakça, 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. 

Semih Özakça told...