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Named after late peace and democracy advocate Sevinç Özgüner, this year's Sevinç Özgüner Human Rights, Peace and Democracy Award will be granted to the Şenyaşar Family and Boğaziçi Resistance.
A member of the Turkish Medical Association (TTB) Central Council, dentist Sevinç Özgüner was killed in her house in İstanbul's Mecidiyeköy on May 23, 1989. The award is granted in her memory.
The İstanbul Medical Chamber gives the award in order to honor the ones working in the field of human rights, peace and democracy and to encourage new works and efforts to be made in these fields.
Accordingly, the 2022 Sevinç Özgüner Human Rights, Peace and Democracy Award will be received by the Şenyaşar Family and the constituents of Boğaziçi University Resistance in an award-giving ceremony on May 23, the anniversary of Sevinç Özgüner's killing.
The award winners were shared with the public at a ceremony held in İstanbul on March 19 as part of the March 14 Doctor's Week.
Jury members
- Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions of Turkey / DİSK
- Confederation of Public Workers' Unions / KESK
- Union of Chambers of Turkish Engineers and Architects / TMMOB
- Human Rights Association / İHD
- İstanbul Chamber of Dentists / İDO
- Human Rights Foundation of Turkey / TİHV-HRFT
- İstanbul Medical Chamber / İTO
- Members of the Istanbul Medical Chamber Human Rights Commission
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 Resistance constituents
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 430 days.
About Dr. Sevinç Özgüner
After qualifying to study medicine by passing the Ministry of National Education exam in 1946, Sevinç Özgüner started to actively engage in the problems of Turkey. In 1948, he joined the İstanbul Higher Education Youth Association and served as an executive there.
During that period, Özgüner was frequently arrested due to the campaigns against the paid university education, for freedom of poet Nazım Hikmet Ran and against Turkey's sending soldiers to Korea.
She was arrested again in 1951 and released 2 years later. In 1957, she started studying dentistry at the University of İstanbul. During the incidents in April 1960, she sided with the young people.
After the coup on May 27, 1960, she first worked at the Workers' Party of Turkey (TİP), then at the magazines of Türk Solu (Turkish Left) and Demokratik Devrim (Democratic Revolution). In the early 1980s, when she was a member of the Turkish Medical Chamber under the chairpersonship of Dr. Erdal Atabek, she was targeted by the growing fascist terrorism.
Sevinç Özgüner and her spouse Vecdi Özgüner were massacred in an attack on their house on May 23, 1980. While her spouse was severely wounded, Sevinç Özgüner lost her life.
She was born in Tarsus in 1927. (EMK/SD)
