The medical conditions of Nuriye Gülmen and Semih Özakça, dismissed by the Turkish government's statutory decrees, are deteriorating day by day.
Onur Karahancı, one of the three doctors who has been examining the medical conditions of Gülmen and Özakça since the first day of their hunger strike, visits Semih Özakça and his wife Esra Özakça at their home to regularly examine their medical conditions.
Karahancı, a Board Member of the Ankara Medical Chamber, underlined that a hunger strike is not a disease and therefore the solution is not medical.
Regarding the medical condition of Semih Özakça, Karahancı stated, "Özakça is prone to infection, although there have been no sudden changes in his medical condition at least for now. Yet, the neural system is devastated after 100 days of a hunger strike. Thus, we stay on alert. It is a period in which anything can happen at any moment and there will be serious differences between one day and the other. Precedent shows that there are many sudden death incidents on hunger strikes which exceed over 100 days. We have many experiences of it, but we can only respect their resistance."
MEDICAL CONDITION OF NURİYE GÜLMEN
Saying that the authorities are making the medical condition of Gülmen much more serious, Karahancı noted that they, as the Commission on Human Rights, supervise prison wards every year and that conditions are not proper in these prison wards, especially at Ankara Numune Hospital.
Stating that the prison wards in the basement of the hospital do not get sunlight and there is no ventilation in the rooms, Karahancı said that health is not only a medical thing, it is also related to social and psychological well-being.
"The authorities clearly formed a state of isolation for Nuriye. They have made things worse. They cannot say ‘we have done the best for their health’, while no one takes responsibility", he said.
Karahancı stated that they did not receive any response regarding their applications to meet with Nuriye, and added: "The authorities are increasing the threat of death [for Nuriye]. No one can claim that her captivity under these poor conditions was due to medical reasons. Nothing gets better, it gets worse. The authorities must stop imposing these conditions."
According to the doctors, Gülmen has lost far too much weight and is currently at 38 kilograms.
The two educational workers, Nuriye Gülmen and Semih Özakça, have been on hunger strike for 236 days to get their job back. A Turkish court on Oct. 20 had ruled that Özakça would be held under house arrest following five months in prison. The court ruled that academic Nuriye Gülmen, who could not attend the hearing for health reasons, would remain in custody.
