‘Our concern is our livelihood’ say Gülmen and Özakça, promised their jobs back by the Deputy Prime-Minister but detained at the prosecutor’s behest

Şeyma Paşayiğit

Özakça’s wife Esra Özakça also stated that Canikli promised that Gülmen and Özakça’s would be the first files to be examined at the state of emergency investigation commission. 
 
Academic Nuriye Gülmen and teacher Semih Özakça, who were taken into pre-trial detention on the 76^th day of their hunger strike, said in their defences, ‘We have no other concerns apart from our jobs.’ It has also been learnt that Özakça’s wife, Esra Özakça, who has been dismissed under a decree with the force of law, had a meeting with Deputy Prime-Minister Nurettin Canikli in the company of the resisters’ mothers and, at the meeting, Canikli promised that Gülmen and Özakça’s files would be the first files to be examined at the state of emergency investigation commission. Canikli reportedly remarked to Özakça’s wife and mother how ‘reasonable’ they were and that Esra Özakça should also be reinstated.
It has emerged from Ankara Penal Judgeship of the Peace No 5’s examination transcript made at the time of Gülmen and Özakça’s detention that Deputy Prime-Minister Nurettin Canikli and AKP Deputy General Chair with Responsibility for Human Rights, Yasin Aktay, have spoken to the resisters’ families and Canikli said that they should be restored to their posts. Esra Özakça, who attended a meeting at Çankaya Mansion at 14.30 on 16 May along with Nuriye Gülmen’s mother Cemile Gülmen and Semih Özakça’s mother Sultan Özakça, said, ‘We had a very measured meeting with them. They told us their lives were very important and this was one of the first matters that would be addressed at the commission.’

Meeting lasted two hours
Esra Özakça recounted, ‘We said that we just wanted our jobs and were not making this conditional on anything else. We stated that they would abandon their hunger strike if they returned to their jobs thanks to the commission, but they would not contemplate abandoning the hunger strike now in the anticipation of returning.’ Özakça, stating that Canikli and Aktay were very measured at the meeting of more than two hours in duration and said that they wished to stay in touch, said, ‘Either those who staged this attack are trying to pull the rug from under those who are striving for a solution or those striving for a solution lack the strength. The meeting was positive and then there was an attack and they were detained. We are now concerned for their lives.’

 ‘My sole concern is my livelihood’
Gülmen said in the defence she mounted before the duty Penal Judgeship of the Peace, ‘I am not staging a protest at the behest of an organisation. My sole concern is my fight for my livelihood.’ Gülmen, saying that her arrest on the charge of organisation membership was not based on just grounds and was an act whose aim was to bring the strike to an end on the 76^th day of the hunger strike, voiced her curiosity as to what the application for her detention consisted of. As to Semih Özakça, saying that he did not know which action of his since 2 May amounted to the commission of a crime and recalling that he had been expelled along with his wife Esra Özakça, continued his statement, ‘My wife and I have been deprived of our livelihoods. Our domestic situation has been wrecked. I just staged a sit-down protest holding a banner saying I want my job. We have no other concern apart from our jobs. I wanted to make my voice heard in this way. I have been arrested and released many times. If we had returned to our jobs and been reinstated none of these things would have happened.’

Intervention is impossible
General Chair of the Contemporary Jurists Association, closed under a decree with the force of law, Selçuk Kozağaçlı, said, ‘No intervention can legally be made without their consent as their health situations currently stand.’ Kozağaçlı interpreted the regulation in the Penal Execution Law whereby medical intervention can be made while there is loss of consciousness saying, ‘We are not at that point and may not be there for days. Both of them are currently in pretty good command of their mental faculties and are continuing this protest while conscious. Intervention can only take place in the form of attack and unlawful injury.’

Families denied visitation
The families, who went to the judicial complex in the early hours of the morning to get permission to visit, were denied permission to visit on state of emergency grounds. Lawyers who have managed to speak to Gülmen and Özakça have said that they are in good health and spirits. Lawyer Anıl Arman Akkuş, who made known that prison administration had concerns over the hunger strike and the pair were subjected to health checks as soon as they arrived, conveyed the information that, ‘Prison administration says they will conduct normal routine checks and will not make a medical intervention.’ Akkuş, intimating that Gülmen was being kept in a three-person and Özakça in a two-person F-type cell, described the situation on the inside as follows, ‘Both of them are aware that what has been done to them is a plot. They said they will not abandon their resistance having been thrown in prison and will continue to ask for their jobs and students.’
Alleged threats
On the other hand, Esra Özakça has said that some of Gülmen’s relatives had been threatened, with it said, ‘They will detain Nuriye. They will kill her. If her remains arrive they will break the windows and doors of your house.’