Nuriye Gülmen and Semih Özakça, two hunger-striking educators dismissed unlawfully from their jobs with statutory decrees of the AKP government, are on the 152nd day of their hunger strike. They are forcibly being kept at the hospital where none of their needs are met.
soL news portal spoke to their attorney Ebru Timtik about the current situation of two educators.
NO WASHBOWL GIVEN FOR THEIR LAUNDRY
Ebru Timtik said that no washbowl is provided for their laundry and Nuriye Gülmen had to clean around despite her severely weakened health condition. Timtik noted that Gülmen was extremely exhausted during the visitation hour.
"WE ARE ACTIVISTS, NOT PATIENTS"
The attorney of hunger-striking educators notes that Gülmen and Özakça do not want to be kept at the hospital and that they are angry about that. They remind that they are activists, not prisoners and they want to go back to the prison.
Gülmen and Özakça believe that the authorities are trying to break their will by keeping them alone at the hospital. They were together with other prisoners at the prison. The authority is not the physician in chief but the warden even at the hospital, their attorney says. They order what they need from the canteen only to get them a week later. They can even go to the toilet when they are allowed.
THEY ARE DENIED OF OPEN VISITATION
Their open visitation hours had been cancelled recently when Gülmen wanted to see her mother and Özakça wanted to see her wife. The authorities justified this cancellation with "hygiene concerns". Their attorney Timtik noted that the gendarmeries enter the rooms of Gülmen and Özakça in dirty shoes, without caring about hygiene. Timtik said that their basic need is seeing their loved ones.
Daily visitation period of 7 hours for their attorneys has also been reduced to 2 hours recently for hygiene concerns.
Their attorney Timtik said that they applied to the European Court of Human Rights when the domestic law has been exhausted, and yet the European Court rejected their request for release, saying their detention did not pose harm to their life. Timtik argued that the European Court worked in cooperation with the Turkish government.
Gülmen and Özakça say that the important thing is getting their jobs back.
