Costa Gavras Expresses Support for Gülmen, Özakça on Hunger Strike

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Director Costa Gavras has expressed his support for arrested educators Nuriye Gülmen and Semih Özakça, who have been on hunger strike for 83 days.

Gavras conveyed his message via filmmaker Yılmaz Güney’s wife Fatoş Güney. In the message, Gavras stressed that he signed the petition launched in support of the educators and said that “he supports them as well as those who struggle on their side”.

Costa Gavras in his message said:

“Dear Fatoş, I sign the petition of academics who are on hunger strike with pleasure. Furthermore, I support the protests of the people who struggle on their side. Dear Fatoş, I express my friendship and loyalty to you and Yılmaz’s memory”.

Yılmaz Güney’s movie “The Road” had shared the Golden Palm Award with Costa Gavras’ movie “Missing” in Cannes Film Festival in 1982.

* Photo: Beyza Kural. Costa Gavras had joined the protest staged against demolition of Emek Movie Theater in Beyoğlu on April 7, 2013, and he was subjected to police intervention with pepper gas.

Prosecutor demands 20 years in prison for Gülmen and Özakça

An indictment was prepared demanding up to 20 years in prison for Gülmen and Özakça, who are kept in Sincan Prison.

The educators are charged with “being a member of an armed organization”, “opposing to the Law on Meetings and Demonstrations”, and “propagandizing for a terror organization”.

CLICK- Gülmen, Özakça Detained on Hunger Strike Now Arrested

In the prosecution statement, Gülmen and Özakça said that started to stage sit-in in protest of their discharge through statutory decree and they went on their protest with the hunger strike because their request to be reinstated to their jobs was rejected.

Gülmen and Özakça were arrested on the grounds that “they would disturb the functioning of the justice system in case they were not arrested and probationary measures would be insufficient when taken into account prescribed time to be served for the respective crimes" on May 23.

About Costa Gavras

Costa-Gavras (born February 12, 1933) is a Greek-French film director and producer, who lives and works in France. He is known for films with overt political themes, most famously the fast-paced thriller Z (1969), but he has also made comedies. Most of his movies have been made in French; however, six were made in English: Missing (1982), Hanna K. (1983), Betrayed (1988), Music Box (1989), Mad City (1997) and Amen. (2002). He produces most of his films himself, through his production company K.G. Productions.

Gavras won Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium Oscar with “Missing” in 1983 and the “Z” directed by Gavras won Best Foreign Language Film and Best Editing Oscars in 1970. (AS/TK)