Nuriye Gülmen and Semih Özakça went on a hunger strike on March 10 in Ankara, demanding to be returned to their jobs, which they lost with a state of emergency decree. Mothers of Ahmet Atakan and Ali İsmail Korkmaz, Emsal Atakan and Emel Korkmaz, launched their hunger strike on May 14, on the 67th day of the educators’ hunger strike and Mother’s Day, daily Hürriyet reported.
Ali İsmail Korkmaz died on July 10, 2013, after spending a month in a coma following a savage beating by plainclothes police officers in Eskişehir, where he was studying. Atakan, meanwhile, was killed during a police crackdown in Antakya on Sept. 10, 2013 as he was participating in a demonstration supporting the protests of students in Ankara against the construction of a road through Middle East Technical University (ODTÜ).
