Trial to Begin for Teacher Ayşe Çelik Who Said “Don’t Let Children Die”

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The first hearing in the trial of school teacher Ayşe Çelik and her 38 supporters will be held tomorrow (September 23) at 09.50 a.m. at Bakırköy Court. Charges were pressed against the teacher for propagandizing for a terrorist organization in her comments during a live broadcast of the Beyaz Show TV programme, which she called from Diyarbakır.

The the supporters, who turned themselves in, will also be tried tomorrow alongside Ayşe Çelik and Kadir Turnalı, the person in charge of the programme. Their names are;

Ahmet Dindar, Ayşe Erzan Silier, Ayşegül Akış Devecioğlu, Ayşegül İyidoğan, Bayram Bahri Belen, Dilek Gökçin, Ercan İpekçi, Ergin Cinmen, Ferhat Tunç, Gençay Gürsoy, Gülseren Onanç, Gülşen Denizhan, Gürhan Ertür, Gürkan Develi, Halim Bulutoğlu, İbrahim Akın, İbrahim Sinemillioğlu, Kemal Özgül, Mahmut Konuk, Mehmet Tursun, Mevlüt Ülgen, Murat Çelikkan, Nazmiye Özen, Nergiz Ovacık, Neşe Yaşın, Nil Özsoy Dindar, Orhan Alkaya, Orhan Silier, Oya Baydar, Perihan Pulat, Pınar Önen, Şanar Yurdatapan, Sibel Özbudun Demirer, Süleyman Eryılmaz, Temel Demirer, Türkcan Baykal, Üner Eyüboğlu ve Vecdi Sayar.

What had Ayşe Çelik said?

Are you aware of what is happening in Turkey's Southeast?

Unborn children, mothers, people get killed here.

...

The things happening here are reflected very differently in the media.

Don't remain silent... See, hear and lend us a hand now.

Shame. Don't let people die, don't let children die, may mothers not cry.

What had happened?

A viewer identifying herself as Ayşe Çelik, a teacher, joined the program via phone on January 8 and said, “Children are dying, don’t remain silent”.

The host of the program, Beyazıt Öztürk, had the audience applaud her by saying “We are trying our best to make it heard. Your words have been a lesson for us. We will continue to do more. Hopefully your peace wishes will come true as soon as possible”.

Following the incident, the Diyarbakır Chief Prosecution launched an investigation into Ayşe Çelik for “terror propaganda”, and the Bakırköy Chief Prosecution launched an investigation into Beyazıt Öztürk and Ayşe Çelik over “terror propaganda”. (EA/DG)