Istanbul police detain educators Gülmen and Özakça on 75th day of hunger strike

Police have detained two educators, Nuriye Gülmen and Semih Özakça, who have been on hunger strike for 75 days in protest at being dismissed from their posts through a decree-law issued under the state of emergency rule in Turkey.  

The special operation police have also searched their house and confiscated some belongings in a late night raid on May 21.

"All our attempts to speak with the prosecutors were denied and we could not get hold of the documents. But what we understand from the documents is that the police believe that the hunger strike could turn into a death fast and there is a possibility that the protest [of Gülmen and Özakça] could turn into a mass protest,” Selçuk Kozağaçlı, the head of the Contemporary Lawyer’s Association, told a crowd gathered in front of the police station early on May 22.

Kozağaçlı said the detention took place without a court ruling, describing the detention and search warrant as "completely illegal.” 

Özakça’s wife, Esra Özakça, was also detained for resisting the detention of the two educators. 

Esra Özakça recorded herself live just before the police entered their house, in which she can be heard telling police officers that the two hunger strikers had already gone to the police headquarters early in the morning to give their signatures, as they are currently under a judicial control order.  

"You summoned them in the morning. But did they not already show up? These people have gone [to the police headquarters] to give their judicial control signature,” Esra Özakaça is heard saying to the police. 

"If there was a detention warrant, you could have taken an action right there it in the morning,” she said. 

Gülmen and Özakça have been on hunger strike for 75 days in a bid to retain the positions from which they were dismissed by decree law, as well as to raise awareness of similar injustices under Turkey’s state of emergency declared after the July 2016 coup attempt.