Dismissed academic, symbol of resistance, again arrested by Turkish court: report

Nuriye Gülmen, who became a symbol of resistance against the Turkish government’s authoritarian practices after going on a hunger strike for nearly a year, was arrested again on Tuesday, the Turkish Minute reported, citing the Duvar English news website.

Gülmen was among those detained on Aug. 5 during a police raid on İstanbul’s İdil Culture Center, which is run by members of the leftist folk band Grup Yorum.

“Our clients Nuriye Gülmen and Rıdvan Akbaş have been arrested. Our clients Yasemin Karadağ, Fırat Kaya and Ezgi Kul have been released under judicial supervision,” said the People’s Law Office on Twitter.

Gülmen, a former university lecturer, went on a hunger strike in March 2017 along with another educator named Semih Özakça after being dismissed from her job through a state of emergency decree.

They were among some 130,000 public servants purged by the government during a two-year-long state of emergency declared immediately after a failed coup in 2016.

Gülmen and Özakça were arrested two months later on charges of belonging to the outlawed militant leftist Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party/Front (DHKP/C).

The authorities released Özakça in October 2017 and Gülmen in December 2017. After spending almost 11 months on a hunger strike, Gülmen and Özakça ended their protest in January 2018.

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