Volkan Çalışkan, one of the seventeen soccer fans who unfurled a banner saying “Let Nuriye and Semih Live” at the 2017 Turkish Super Cup game between Beşiktaş and Konyaspor on August 6, support of two imprisoned hunger-striking educators, has been arrested. Meanwhile, fans who took photos with knives in their hands and who throw these knives onto the field are still free.
Beşiktaş fan group "Beleştepe", Volkan Çalışkan who was one of seventeen fans who unfurled a banner with the words “Let Nuriye and Semih live!” was arrested and sent to Sincan prison of the capital city of Ankara. An arrest warrant had previously been signed for the seventeen fans.
Meanwhile, fans who took photographs with knives at their hands in the stadium and who threw them onto the field are free. According to the daily Cumhuriyet, a person was taken into custody but subsequently released for throwing a butterfly knife.
The treatment received by the soccer fans who were backing educators compared to the treatment received by fans who were throwing knives on the field once again reveals the extent of the double standard of justice in Turkey under the rule of the Justice and Development Party (AKP).
Nuriye Gülmen, an academic, and Semih Özakça, a primary school teacher, were arrested on "terror" charges late on May 23, on the 75th day of their hunger strike for being dismissed through the unlawful decrees of the AKP government following the failed coup of July 2016. The two educators have been continuing their hunger strike in jail since then.
