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The 32nd Human Rights, Peace and Democracy Award and Commemoration Ceremony organized by the İstanbul Chamber of Medicine (İTO) in memory of dentist Sevinç Özgüner, who was assassinated at her home on May 23, 1980, was held yesterday (May 23) at the İTO building at Cağaloğlu.
Justice Vigil
The award ceremony started with a moment of silence for the healthcare professionals who lost their lives during the Covid-19 pandemic.
This year's award has been granted to Şenyaşar Family and Boğaziçi University Resistance.
After the opening speech, a cine-vision with images of the Şenyaşar Family's "Justice Vigil" and photographs of the Boğaziçi Resistance was screened.
Şebnem Korur Fincancı, chair of the Turkish Medical Association handed the Sevinç Özgüner Human Rights Peace and Democracy award to Şenyaşar Family whereas İTO Chair Nergis Erdoğan handed the award to Prof. Lale Akarun on behalf of the Boğaziçi Resistance.
"Opening the way of hope"
İTO Chair Nergis Erdoğan congratulated the award winners during her speech and stated the following:
"Hospitals are among the places that have to be the safest, however, the members of the Şenyaşar family were murdered in a hospital. This attack is also an attack against the doctors. The silence of the medical associations is not acceptable in the face of such attacks. The ones who opened the ways of hope, the Şenyaşar Family and the Boğaziçi Resistance, their resistance continues everywhere. We stand with them in their struggle."
"I want justice"
After receiving the award, in her speech, Emine Şenyaşar said that she will continue to call for justice:
" I will not go anywhere until my son Fadıl is free. I want justice, but there is no justice. They hit my son many times. We are tired now. I go in front of the courthouse but they detain me there, they hit my son, but I will continue to struggle until my son is free"
Receiving the award on behalf of the Boğaziçi Resistance, Prof. Lale Akarun, said that the common ground between the Şenyaşar Family's struggle and the Boğaziçi Resistance is not to give up on justice.
Emine Şenyaşar, Ferit Şenyaşar, Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Istanbul Provincial Co-chair Ferhat Encü, HDP deputy Züleyha Gülüm, Turkish Medical Association (TTB) Central Council Chair Şebnem Korur Fincancı, Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (TİHV/ HRFT), Labor Party (EMEP), Human Rights Association (İHD), Istanbul Chamber Of Dentists, Health Workers Union (SES), Maside Ocak from Saturday Mothers / Peoples, Republican People's Party (CHP) İstanbul Provincial Executives, Community Houses, Confederation of Public Employees' Unions (KESK) and Eğitim-Sen participated to the ceremony.
Şenyaşar Family
Having lost her spouse and two sons in an attack launched by the guards of ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) MP İbrahim Halil Yıldız in Urfa's Suruç district on June 14, 2018, Emine Şenyaşar and her son Ferit Şenyaşar, who survived the attack, have been keeping a "justice watch" for their killed family members since March 9, 2021.
Saying, "I wish there was no need for this resistance and there was a fair life. We will bring back this fair life with the resistance of honorable people", Ferit Şenyaşar and Emine Şenyaşar keep struggling despite everything, reiterating their insistence in their pursuit of justice.
Boğaziçi protests
The academics, students and alumni of Boğaziçi University have been protesting the appointment of rectors since January 4, 2021.
The protests began after President and ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan appointed Melih Bulu as a rector to Boğaziçi University from outside its academic community without an election on January 2, 2021. Bulu was dismissed by another presidential decision issued by Erdoğan and he has been replaced by Naci İnci.
With the slogan "We don't accept, we don't give up" and with the demand for a "free, autonomous and democratic university", the constituents of Boğaziçi Resistance have been struggling for 506 days.
About Dr. Sevinç Özgüner Sevinç Özgüner was born in Tarsus, Mersin in 1927. In the year 1946, she passed the Medical School entrance exam of the Ministry of National Education. She took active part in handling problems of the country from the first years of her university education. Having participated in the campaigns against paid education and deployment of soldiers to Korea and for freedom of poet Nazım Hikmet Ran, Sevinç Özgüner was arrested in the period after 1948. In 1951, she was arrested again only to be released two years later. In 1957, she started studying in Faculty of Dentistry of İstanbul University. In the post-1960 coup period, she first worked at the Labor Party of Turkey (TİP), then for the Türk Solu (Turkish Left) and Demokratik Devrim (Democratic Revolution) magazines. The İstanbul Chamber of Medicine (İTO) has been granting "Human Rights, Peace and Democracy Award" in her memory. |
(TY/TB)
