Figen Yüksekdağ and Selahattin Demirtaş were elected co-presidents of the People’s Democratic Party (HDP) in 2014. They were both arrested at their homes in November 2016 on allegations that were linked to the PKK. Although the European Court of Human Rights has strongly condemned this arrest, declaring it to be of an “incontestable consequence against democracy”, the co-presidents are still being illegally detained.
Nuriye Gülmen taught English and comparative literature at Osmangazi University, Eskişehir when she was dismissed from her position during the purges following the attempted coup of July 2016. Gülmen and her colleague Semig Özakça have relentlessly contested this injustice. In 2017, they undertook a hunger strike which has lasted for 324 days. According to Human Rights Watch, in the context of the emergency state declared after the attempted coup, 5800 academicians were dismissed through emergency decrees. Gülmen is still in prison while Özakça has been acquitted of all charges.
Letter from Figen Yüksekdağ to Nuriye Gülmen
Kandıra Prison,
19.11.2017
Dear professor Nuriye; I greet you with friendship, solidarity and respect!
I know greetings don’t travel easily from one place of isolation to another. But I also know we always find a way against difficulties and through difficulties. That’s why I can write to you confidently. As long as there are rights defenders like yourself, paving the way for social struggle with resistance and unwavering determination, we will always find a way to reach each other.
I’m sure you know you’re not alone, even in the face of isolation and threats of intervention. People who fight for the workers’ -and humanity’s- right to a full, dignified and free existence, as well as for the right to employment which is the most basic right, are never alone.
The government isolates those who seek their rights and forces them to accept their fate, but Nuriye Gülmen and Semih Özakça’s resistance has shown that the spirit of solidarity and resilience within society is still alive, it has given us hope and strength. The hunger strike you undertook in order to live from your profession and with dignity, will reach success thanks to the involvement of all peoples of Turkey, and their resistance, I truly believe that. Moreover, through the energy it has built up until now, your strike has gained major success by creating a social movement against the OHAL-KHK1 regime, and for justice.
However, today we are facing the duty to keep up the fight to make sure that you immediately return to your profession, that your unlawful detention which is turning into torture ends, and that thousands of public officials and academicians recover their rights.
We, the female politicians detained in Kandıra Prison, are always on your side. I embrace you with friendship, hope and resistance, I send all my affection to you and your eyes which are smiling to the future.
Figen Yüksekdağ
Turkey: Government Targeting Academics – Human Rights Watch
Turkey: Release Politicians Wrongfully Detained for 7 Years – Human Rights Watch
- OHAL: state of emergency
KHK: emergency decree ↩︎
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