In every individual’s life education and the learning of value systems contributes to a critical part of the development of an individual. Values teaches individuals habits, manners, appropriate behavior, respect for individuals among many other important life skills.
The people who play a key role in imparting these values is teacher / professor. Most individuals attain education during which time people come across some sort of a teacher / educator who teaches the critical values of life. Such education continues in some way or the other until a person finishes university. For their contribution they get the honoured across the world.
However, one needs to consider one question. What if someone instead of honouring them for these contributions decides to place such people in lock up. Unfortunately, the Turkish government does exactly this.
A report by the working group on involuntary disappearances which reports to the United Nations Human Rights commission mentions about how the Turkish state abducts such teachers just because they are opposed to the government in Turkey. The report states that:
“When Turkish authorities fail to secure the extradition through legal means, they resort to covert operations, in cooperation with law enforcement agencies from the third countries, including intelligence agencies and police. This primarily includes swift illegal actions to place vulnerable individuals outside the protection of the law and their subsequent transfer. In some cases, these acts have directly contravened judicial orders against illegal deportation. Faced with increasing pressure to comply, host states conduct around-the-clock surveillance, followed by house raids and arbitrary arrests in undercover operations by law enforcement or intelligence officers in plainclothes. The individuals’ names are cross-checked against prepared lists, before being taken to unmarked vehicles by force”.
Moreover, the basic rights of such people are denied.
In most of such disappearences, “Their family members are unaware of their fate and whereabouts. According to testimonies obtained, the victims of these operations have recounted unabated abuse perpetrated by intelligence agents, primarily aimed at obtaining forced confession. Most prevalent forms of torture include food and sleep deprivation, beatings, waterboarding, and electric shocks. This is coupled with threats against lives, security and personal integrity of family members and relatives”.
There are several specific examples where the victims have endured the brunt of the Turkish state for speaking against and opposing it. In Gabon for instance three “Turkish nationals and teachers, their three spouses and seven children were arrested and held in incommunicado detention for 23 days, before they were forcibly returned to Turkey due to their alleged affiliation with a foreign terrorist group. They were deported from Gabon to Turkey”. This is not the only case.
Another teacher was “abducted by Pakistani state intelligence, held in secret or incommunicado detention for 17 days, and then involuntarily returned to Turkey. The house of the Kaçmaz family was raided by intelligence agents in the middle of the night while the family was asleep, presumably after days of surveillance. According to the source, the agents behaved brutally, having pushed, shoved and slapped the parents and the children. The family was deprived of any contact with the legal counsel or the extended family, while their identification documents were forcibly taken during the arrest. Whilst being detained incommunicado, the family was reportedly subjected to physical and verbal abuse aimed at coercing them to voluntarily return to Turkey”. While, these are only a few examples there are many such teachers who are getting abducted.
No teacher/ educator should face the consequences of being educators. In fact in most countries provide full respect to their teachers / educators. It should be the duty of human rights organizations, defenders and the society to ensure that there is respect for its educators. Only then can a society continue to progress in various periods.
quotes from:
https://spcommreports.ohchr.org/TMResultsBase/DownLoadPublicCommunicationFile?gId=25209
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