Leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has broken his silence about two educators who went on a hunger strike after they were expelled from their jobs by the government and said the educators are being forced to die by the government.
Nuriye Gülmen, a university academic, and Semih Özakça, a primary school teacher, who were removed from their posts by government decrees in the aftermath of a failed coup attempt in Turkey on July 15, have been on a hunger strike for more than two months to be able to return to their jobs.
The hunger strike of the educators has reached a critical threshold, with many of their colleagues in Turkey and abroad calling on Turkish authorities to allow the educators to return to work.
Writing from his Twitter account on Tuesday, Kılıçdaroğlu wrote: “Does not the hunger strike of the two educators hurt your conscience at all? Those who unlawfully destroy the lives of the people will give an accounting of their actions one day. While those who have power are released from jail, the powerless are being forced to die. The AKP [Justice and Development Party] government has killed law and justice in this country.”
Thousands of academics and teachers have been removed from their jobs since the July 15 coup attempt as part of a post-coup purge launched by the government under the pretext of anti-coup fight.