Hunger strike

Justice Minister Bekir Bozdağ has asked two jailed educators Nuriye Gülmen and Semih Özakça to end their long-running hunger strikes, carried out in protest at their dismissal through state of emergency decrees.  

The jailed co-chair of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), Selahattin Demirtaş, has called on two arrested educators to end their hunger strike.

Demirtaş penned a letter to Nuriye Gülmen and Semih Özakça, who have been on a hunger strike for over 110 days, from the prison where he is being held in the northwestern province of Edirne.

An investigation has been launched into a Turkish sociologist who has been carrying out a protest demanding to be returned to his job in the capital Ankara. 

Veli Saçılık, a sociologist who was dismissed from his post with a state of emergency decree, has been carrying out a protest to demand that he be returned to his job and that two jailed educators on hunger strike be released. 

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.

An Ankara court rejected the release demand of jailed Turkish educators who have been on hunger strikes for 108 days.

Teacher Semih Özakça and academic Nuriye Gülmen started their hunger strike demanding that they be returned to their positions, after they were removed with a state of emergency decree law.

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 head of a parliamentary commission has demanded information from the Ankara Governor's Office and police regarding dozens of plastic bullets that police recently fired at a demonstrator who has led a long campaign to be reinstated in his job.

A father in the eastern province of Tunceli who ended his hunger strike after 90 days, demanding the return of the remains of his dead son, has been taken to hospital in Istanbul. 

Kemal Gün ended his hunger strike after finally receiving his son's bones on May 26.

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 90-day hunger strike by a father demanding to be given his dead son's remains in the eastern province of Tunceli has ended after he finally received his son's bones.