ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Turkish authorities have jailed a Kurdish teacher for her condemnation of the killing of civilians during anti-PKK operations in 2016. The teacher gave birth recently and will go to prison with her baby. “Do not stay silent… Do not let human beings and children die, and do not let mothers cry,” Ayse Celik said on-air during a phone-in show on Turkey’s Kanal D TV station in January 2016. She was reacting to military operations in her hometown of Diyarbakir and criticized Turkish media for their coverage of the events. “What is happening here is shown on screens very differently,” she said. Diyarbakir saw months of intense fighting and street clashes between the Turkish army and members of the PKK after the decades-long conflict resumed in 2015. At least 439 civilians have been killed in the clashes since July 2015, according to the International Crisis Group. Celik also called on teachers who had fled the city to return because of a shortage of educators. “How can they return there? How can they look inside the eyes of beautiful, clean, and innocent children? I really cannot speak,” she appealed. Authorities began an investigation after the show and Celik was arrested on the charge of “propagating for a terror organization.” She was convicted and sentenced to 15 months in prison in April 2017, but was granted a delay because she was pregnant at the time. Celik began serving her sentence on Friday with her baby daughter after her lawyer’s request for a ten-day delay was turned down by the court. Her lawyer, Mahsuni Karaman, told reporters that he did not expect his client would be granted another postponement of her sentence, according to Hurriyet newspaper. Lawmakers from the opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) and the Republican People’s Party (CHP) accompanied her to prison Friday. “I am calling on the head and member of the Constitutional Court – you have to order an end to the carrying out [the sentence of] Ayse the teacher and her six-month-old baby so that they will not be victims of injustice,” CHP deputy leader Muharrem Erkek said, Hurriyet reported. HDP said that public support for the teacher is strong. “Millions are with Ayse the teacher who has said ‘Do not let children die’! We will continue fighting for punishment of warlords and not the peacemakers. Those days are not far!” the party tweeted on Friday. Turkey will hold a snap general election on June 24. Hundreds of children are reportedly being held in Turkey’s prisons with their mothers under inadequate conditions. The situation “may constitute ill-treatment,” the United Nations’ human rights commissioner stated in a recent report on the impact of Turkey’s prolonged state of emergency. “Mothers and children exposed to such practices face serious risks of health complications, stunting and even death. Their situation may amount to torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment,” the commissioner wrote, adding that non-custodial arrangements should be the preferred choice and children in prison should be in conditions as close as possible to the outside.
