Guantánamo Bay hunger strikes

A number of Turkish doctors and rights groups have slammed the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) for rejecting a request by two jailed educators, who have been on hunger strikes for nearly 150 days, to order Ankara to release them on health grounds.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on Aug. 2 rejected a request by two Turkish teachers who have been on hunger strikes for nearly 150 days to order Ankara to release them on health grounds.

Imprisoned educators Nuriye Gülmen and Semih Özakça were taken to Ankara's Sincan Prison Campus Hospital "by force" on the 143rd day of their hunger strikes early on July 29 although the authorities did not have their consent, the educators' lawyer Ebru Timtik said.

Imprisoned educators Nuriye Gülmen and Semih Özakça received medical check-ups in an Ankara hospital on the 140th day of their hunger strikes at the request of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), daily Cumhuriyet reported on July 26.

CoE Secretary-General Thorbjorn Jagland spoke to PM Yıldırım over the phone late July 19 to express his concerns over the arrest of human rights activists as well as the situation of two educators who have been on hunger strike for 134 days in prison.

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.

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 two jailed Turkish educators who are on hunger strike in protest at their dismissal through state of emergency decrees are at risk of death, Ankara Chamber of Doctors head Prof. Dr. Vedat Bulut has said. 

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 Frenchjournalist held in Turkey for over two weeks has begun a hunger strike to protest his detention, press freedom group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said on May 23.