Nuriye Gülmen

The Constitutional Court on June 28 denied the demand of jailed educators Nuriye Gülmen and Semih Özakça to be released from prison. The two have been on hunger strike for over 100 days in protest at their dismissal from their posts in state of emergency decrees, and were arrested at the end of May.

Teacher Semih Özaçka and academic Nuriye Gülmen were arrested on terror charges on May 23, on the 75th day of their hunger strike. The two educators decided to go on hunger strike after they were dismissed from their positions under the state of emergency rule that has been in place since July 2016, right after the failed coup attempt.

June 16 will be the 100th day of the beginning of the hunger strike of two jailed educators, Nuriye Gülmen and Semih Özakça, in protest at being dismissed from their posts through state of emergency decrees. 

"Semih has become so thin. He is having difficulty even walking," said Semih Özakça's wife, Esra Özakça, who herself has also been on a hunger strike for the last 24 days. 

The Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office has dismissed criminal charges against some media organs by the lawyers of two Turkish hunger strikers for targeting and labeling them as "terrorists," daily Cumhuriyet reported on June 4. 

Nobel laureate writer John Maxwell Coetzee has sent a message of solidarity to Nuriye Gülmen and Semih Özakça, the two hunger striking educators who have been on a hunger strike for over 80 days in protest at being dismissed from their posts through state of emergency decrees. 

A delegation from the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) has visited two educators, who were arrested after being on hunger strike for over 75 days in protest at being dismissed from their jobs through state of emergency decrees, in a jail in Ankara. 

Main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has slammed the arrest of two educators who have been on hunger strike for more than two months, calling on the government to "not cause an unforgettable disgrace to humanity."
 

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 have been on hunger strike for more than two months, calling on the Turkish government for their immediate release. 

On May 23, prosecutors demanded the arrest of two educators, Nuriye Gülmen and Semih Özakça, who have been on a hunger strike for 76 days for ruining public order with a potential to trigger acts of terror.

An Ankara court on May 23 ordered the arrest of two educators, Nuriye Gülmen and Semih Özakça, who have been on hunger strike for over 75 days in protest at being dismissed from their posts through state of emergency decrees. 

Özakça and Gülmen had earlier been referred to court with the arrest demands on May 23, a day after both were detained from their homes in the capital Ankara.