Detained Bosphorus students’ families: Is this democracy?

Özgür T., mother of Bosphorus University detainee Ş.Y.T., said, “Our children have no ties with any organisation. My child grew up as a child who was always on the side of the weak and oppressed... There are anti-war opinions throughout the world.” Mustafa Kök, father of one of the students to be released under judicial control measures, in turn, remarked, “Regardless of who says what, we are on the side of our children. We believe them to be innocent. We have been at their sides until now and will be at their sides from now on.”

Of the fifteen students who were brought before a court with their detention sought on charges of protesting against students who opened a stand at Bophorus University and distributed Turkish delight in commemoration of fallen soldiers in Afrin, nine were placed in detention charged with “making terrorist organisation propaganda.” Özgür T., mother of detained student Ş.Y.T., stating that they were surprised at the perception there was an attempt to create, said, “They are trying to exploit the environment. We don’t understand what lies behind it. We the families are cut up. For example, my daughter is just eighteen. They are young and hot headed. It is not on for fully grown men to target these kids. There has always been a university youth that voices different ideas in this country. And there always will be. These kids are at the stage of learning about science and ideas. They were used as tools in this massive outrage. Our kids were all selected as victims. This is a horrific thing. These kids are kids with consciences and sensitivity who collect wounded street animals and bring them home. They are people who attach value to a tree’s and an insect’s life.”

“There is no hostility”

“Because they can speak freely at home, they imagined they could speak freely in the street as well,” said mother Özgür T., and continued, “There is no hostility towards any party in the kids’ thinking. They feel sensitivity over human life. They are being punished for thinking like this. What did they do? Did they pick up guns, mortars, shells or catapults? Why don’t they see this? My child is in shock. The kids are all social democratic children. They say that this isn’t freedom of expression. When America declared war on Iraq, did students and society there not rise up? Pain was experienced there, too. Did they throw them all in jail? There are anti-war opinions throughout the world. Is this Turkey’s democracy? What is this quarrel about?”

Clearly no crime

Mustafa Kök, father of one of the students to be released under judicial control measures, in turn, remarked, “They say there was a scuffle. Scuffles are two sided. There is nobody from the other side. The kids who were brought in are all left-thinking students. They are not the kind of students to fight and argue with one another. There is nothing these kids did that is a crime. It was also clear in their statements that there was no crime. My son got out and I will definitely be involved in whatever the other children’s parents do jointly.”

2011 SIGNATURES FROM 37 COUNTRIES

The number of signatures has reached 2011 in a petition that world-famous academics started for the arrested Bosphorus students and grows from day to day. 2011 academics from more than a hundred institutions in 37 different countries have demanded the immediate release of the 16 arrested Bosphorus University students. Part of the text of the petition reads “The arrests on campus, as well as subsequent police raids of student homes and dormitories, continue a disturbing trend of criminalizing political speech and dissent in Turkey. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has cynically referred to these students as ‘terrorists’, vowed to expelthem from Boğaziçi University, and to deny them the right to study at any other university. We have heard this kind of verbal attack from Erdoğan before and it was followed by the detention of thousands of academics, journalists, artists, and human rights advocates. We call upon the Turkish government to immediately release all student detainees.” Numbering among the signatories are: Angela Y. Davis, Judith Butler, Noam Chomsky, Alice Crary, Nancy Fraser, Marianne Hirsch, Michael Hardt, Etienne Balibar, Mary Marshall Clark, Seyla Benhabib, Jay M. Bernstein, Partha Chatterjee, Bertell Ollman, Susan Buck-Morss, Pulitzer prize winning Junot Diaz, Homi K. Bhabha, David Graeber, Todd Gitlin, Immanuel Ness, Eduard Brezin, Nobel prize winning Eric Wieschaus and Jack W. Szostak.

Boğaziçili tutuklu öğrencilerin aileleri: Demokrasi bu mu?