With a statement publicized on August 2, the Ankara Governor’s Office has banned demonstrations in public spaces for a month due to the demonstrations in solidarity with the imprisoned educators on hunger strike Nuriye Gülmen and Semih Özakça. The reason of the ban was declared to be “security reasons”.
The Victory Day celebrations, which is a national holiday and commemorates the victory of Turkish forces in the battle of Dumlupınar in 1922, will fall under the ban. However, a festival called the Great Ankara Festival organized by the municipality will not be effected by this banning decision.
According to Deniz Ayhan from Sözcü, the officials declared that necessary permissions have already been taken from the Governor’s Office and the festival will be held.
Ankara Governorship had previously ordered similar bans to prevent the public gatherings and demonstrations in solidarity with Nuriye Gülmen and Semih Özakça. Demonstrations featuring “singing of songs, ballads, anthems and slogans voiced in a loud and disturbing way” had been banned after sunset in Ankara on May 26 and July 5, 2017.
