During the peace talks in Doha in 2020, the Taliban emphasized the importance of education in several statements ‘because this is the basic right of all Afghans.’ They also wanted to ‘guarantee all human and legal rights of every child, woman, and man.’ In this, the Taliban presented themselves as a progressive force in favor of education for all citizens of Afghanistan, regardless of gender, even though in areas held under Taliban control, up until their recent resurgence, their record for girls’ education was poor and inconsistent.
Very few areas allowed girls past puberty to attend school; some prevented girls from gaining an education where the Taliban held influence over the curriculum and prioritized religious education at the expense of other subjects.
An estimated 3.7 million children are out of school in Afghanistan- 60% of them are girls. After the fall of Kabul and the reemergence of the Taliban and their dark ideology.
FILE PHOTO: Afghan women’s rights defenders and civil activists protest to call on the Taliban to preserve their achievements and education in front of the presidential palace in Kabul, Afghanistan, September 3, 2021. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo
Today millions of Afghan girls are deprived of their fundamental rights. Women and girls were banned from schools and universities under Taliban rule between 1996 and 2001, and they are again forbidden from going to school in 2021.
According to the Taliban, “the education system is not Islamic enough, and schools should be segregated by gender, and Taliban will introduce a new dress code.”- Taliban has said.
Taliban have promised the people of Afghanistan; they will not prevent women from being educated or having jobs. But since the fall of Kabul, women cannot go out of their houses, and they are imprisoned in the four walls of their homes.
Taliban’s actions and words are not the same. For more than a month, Afghan girls have been banned from their fundamental right to “education,” and the world is not doing anything about this. Afghan women are paying the price of their fake promises, and they are being tortured mentally and physically.
Afghan women have been fighting for their rights in the last four decades, and they are fighters. They didn’t give up in the previous 40 years, and they will not give up today as well. We are not asking the world to give us western liberties. We are asking for solidarity in this fight against darkness.
The Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances released a report about enforced and involuntary disappearances examined from 16 May 2020 to 21 May 2021. During the reporting period, the Working Group transmitted 651 new cases of enforced disappearance to 30 States.
taken from https://www.alhaq.org
This working group is the first United Nations human rights thematic mechanism m to be established with a universal mandate, whose primary task is to assist families in determining the fate or whereabouts of their family members who are reportedly disappeared.
In Turkey, the working group reported 86 outstanding cases at the beginning of the reporting period. Only 2 cases were clarified during the reporting period by the government.
The working group also documented cases of extraterritorial transfers that led to enforced disappearances with the participation, support or acquiescence of other States, in an attempt to capture their nationals or third-country nationals, often as part of purported counter-terrorism operations.
taken from https://pro-justice.org
Serious allegations of gross human rights violations, including enforced disappearances, were reported to the Working Group shortly before, during or in the immediate aftermath of alleged transnational transfers from Kosovo to Turkey. The report highlights its concern about the continued justification of extraterritorial abductions and forced returns under the pretext of combating terrorism and protecting national security. The Working Group therefore urges the Government of Turkey to prevent and terminate enforced disappearances, as stipulated in article 2 of the Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance. The Working Group recalls that no circumstances whatsoever, whether a threat of war, a state of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked to justify enforced disappearances.
One the other part, the report points out the impunity surrounding the perpetrators of enforced disappearances and its concern at the tendency to resort to transnational transfers. The Working group recalled that these transfers meet all the elements of the crime of enforced disappearance when before, during or after them information on the fate or whereabouts of the individual concerned is not revealed or disclosed. In addition, those transfers provoke denial of justice as long as individuals are deprived of liberty, and violate the rights to an effective remedy and fair trial.
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.
Due to World Teachers’ Day, teachers exposed to immigration from Turkey and started their teaching careers again in the Netherlands shared their stories in the program.
Many teachers who sought asylum in the Netherlands attended the meeting, which took place in the Broken Chalk Foundation’s Sara Burgerhart Activiteitencentrum (SBAC) conference hall in Amsterdam. Speaking at the panel moderated by the Dutch writer James Roolvink, Broken Chalk Foundation Co-Chair Ramazan İnce said that there have been many human rights violations in the last five years in Turkey and that everyone who is against the government of President Erdoğan, or anyone who is against him, has been declared a terrorist.
İnce gave the following information: “There are serious human rights violations against our educator friends living in Turkey. Life is getting harder for them every day. We must do something for them. We cannot continue with our lives by forgetting them. Therefore, we founded the Broken Chalk foundation. After the failed coup attack, the Turkish government has shut down more than a thousand private schools by statutory decree-laws in the last five years. According to the data collected by the National Education Union (Egitim-Sen), the government banned 41005 teachers from the profession, and their teaching certificates were revoked. These teachers cannot do their job. In addition, 16 universities were closed while 56000 students continued their higher education on the campuses, and 5342 people lost their jobs, among 2465 of which were academicians. All of this was done with the statutory decree by the AKP government. Broken Chalk reports on human rights abuses in education. We present our reports to the human rights organizations of the United Nations and the European Union. Broken Chalk organizes street protests to attract public attention and put pressure on governments. It publishes press releases about rights violations in the field of education.”
HUSNA JALAL FROM AFGAN KABUL TURKISH SCHOOL: I WANT TO BE THE VOICE OF AFGAN WOMEN
Husna Jalal, a graduate of the Afghan Turkish School in Kabul, who had to leave Afghanistan after the Taliban took over the country on the 15th of August, said, “Life has changed drastically after 15th of August for Afghan men and women. The young professional Afghans left the country, Afghans are starving and Afghanistan is now on the countdown of catastrophe without the support of the international community. I want to amplify Afghan women voices in Europe.” she said.
AUTHOR JAMES ROOLVINK: NETHERLANDS WON IN EDUCATION FIELD, TURKEY LOST
James Roolvink, the moderator of the Broken Chalk World Teachers’ Day program, said that it is significant for teachers who sought asylum in the Netherlands after the fictional coup to learn Dutch in a short time and start a new life. James Roolvink said: “For two hours, I got together with Ramazan İnce, Fatih OK, Zeynep Efil, Burhan Kasap, Kadir Tan, and Husna Jalal, teachers who work in different schools and jobs in different cities of the Netherlands. I want to say that the Netherlands won and Turkey lost. Because there is a shortage of 12000 teachers in the Netherlands, most refugees must be teachers in the Netherlands. I was together with seven teachers in the Broken Chalk program. We spent a conducive and successful two hours with them on my completely Dutch educational system without a translator. I am sure they will create a different situation for the Dutch education system. Especially their self-confidence and speaking Dutch without an accent were extremely impressive. I want to say that it was a very successful program for me personally. I wish these teachers success in their new lives.”
ŞAHİN: WHAT CAN WE DO FOR THE NETHERLANDS?
Stating that she came to the Netherlands 3 years ago, Neslihan Özcan Şahin said, “I was a science teacher. I had to seek asylum in the Netherlands for political reasons. After my extended stay at the asylum, we got home. I applied to the teaching project of the Municipality of Amsterdam. Then I completed this training. I got the right to work as a teaching assistant in the Netherlands. I have started teaching in Amsterdam at the high school level in the Netherlands. The Dutch people are amazed. Because you cannot do many things about language learning during the camp. We did not have a course. It took too long to get a residence permit. We came to the Netherlands for freedom. This country gave us our freedom. Now, we have only one aim is what can we do for this country and people. We discussed how we could help and be helpful in the Dutch education system in the Broken Chalk World Teachers’ Day program. I believe that every student has very different intelligence.
KASAP: I HAVE READ AND LISTENED TO MANY BOOKS IN THE NETHERLANDS. I RENEWED MYSELF
Burhan Kasap said that he took part in the Dutch Education system with a project he participated in. Dutch is a complex language. I followed language studies and courses closely for three years. I met with Dutch friends. I tried to read and listen to a lot of Dutch books. This is how I shortened my language barrier. I will now start working at a school in Den Haag city. Here we are trying to hold on to life. I came here for political reasons. We want to contribute something to Dutch society. I want to thank the Broken Chalk Foundation for giving us this opportunity. It has been a very effective program for me. We want to make severe contributions by using the chances that the Netherlands has offered for us. This was a start. I hope there will be more new programs in the future.
TAN: IT WAS A PLEASURE FOR ME TO LEARN THE DUTCH LANGUAGE
Kadir Tan learned the Dutch language in a short period of 3 years and started working as a French teacher in the Dutch education system. He said, “I am first involved in the Dutch education system as a French education assistant. Since I was a foreign language teacher in Turkey, I had sympathy for foreigners. I was doing my best to make my students love the foreign language French. It was my pleasure to learn the Dutch language. I learned Dutch not as an obligation but as pleasure while learning. It’s a bit of a challenge due to my age. I will be happy to teach French to my students in the Netherlands because the Dutch government gave me this opportunity. I want to teach in my country, but it was not fortunate. I am not angry with anyone.
I look forward to meeting my students with excitement. I learned that there is a tremendous teacher shortage in the Netherlands. In this respect, I fully believe that new young teachers will make an earnest contribution to the Dutch education system.”
OK: I AM TEACHING ENGLISH AT A HIGH SCHOOL
Fatih OK, who has been in the Netherlands for five years, described the process of starting teaching as follows: “It took a long time to take our place in the Dutch education system. After I learned the language, I started applying for jobs, and I got a job at a school in Hengelo, Netherlands. I continued to teach English in high school. I am pretty happy with my life right now.
Meanwhile, Broken Chalk organized an excellent program in the capital city of Amsterdam. In the program, we had the opportunity to share our experiences. Moderator James Roolvink asked us some good questions, and I found the program very useful for education. Hopefully, we can continue.”
İNCE: THE TURKISH EMBASSY DID NOT RENEW OUR PASSPORT
Ramazan İnce, who came to the Netherlands 3.5 years ago and said: “Our children were born in Nigeria. We were happy living in Africa. We had no problems with people in Africa. All people loved us. Now I would like to explain why we are in the Netherlands. And why we sought asylum here and why we left our family and friends behind. Our children’s passports were about to expire. The Turkish embassy did not renew our children’s passports. Then my wife’s and my passports were revoked. You may wonder why this is because the school where I worked belonged to the Gülen Movement. The AKP government under President Erdogan declared the Gülen Movement a terrorist organization. For this reason, our passports were canceled, and our children’s passports were not renewed. The AKP government is kidnapping teachers all over the world. The interior ministry said that Turkish national intelligence had kidnapped more than 100 teachers from 18 different countries. We could not get visas to other countries. If you work with the schools of the Gulen movement, you cannot get a visa. We had no other choice. Our children’s passports were only valid for three months. We had to do something before the passports expired. We tried to go to Romania via Amsterdam with KLM. It worked. We arrived in Schiphol and waited to miss our next flight. Then we went to the police in Amsterdam Schipol and sought asylum. The waiting time in the asylum centers was very long. I should do something. I sent many emails to schools. But unfortunately, I always received a negative response. They said ‘sorry’ because I did not have a residence permit. I tried to take Dutch lessons, but it was costly for me. I have completed three different IT courses. These were Data Science, Full Stack Web Developer, and Microsoft Azure Cloud Engineer. After my education, I did my internship at Fujitsu. Fortunately, Fujitsu offered me a permanent contract. And now I have been working as a systems engineer at Fujitsu for over a year.”
On the 6th of October 2021, Lighthouse Reports released a video on its Twitter account revealing the reality of an EU campaign compromising masked men in charge of turning away asylum seekers at EU borders. In this video, one can clearly see masked men beating asylum seekers with bludgeons while they are trying to escape along with their screams from being beaten up. The nonprofit organization points out similar cases in Croatia, Greece, and Romania.
Thanks to the testimonies of the victims, former policemen, and guard officers, videos containing footage, and tracing the money trails back to EU funds, Lighthouse Reports gathered strong evidence of the involvement of the EU and national governments. The organization gave detailed insight into the case of Croatia and stated that the footage allows for identification of the uniforms of the masked men as jackets used by the Intervention Police. The Intervention Police are the Croatian police’s riot control branch, whose jackets are financed by the EU’s Internal Security Fund. The organization managed to film 11 pushbacks in Croatia. Similar findings were carried out in Romania. In Greece, they collected and analyzed 635 videos of alleged pushbacks in the Aegean, at least 15 of them showing masked men in action.
This afternoon Aegean Boat Report received an emergency call from a group of 12 people, who had been forced into a life raft by masked men on a Greek coast guard vessel, and left drifting east of Simi. The group consisted of men, women and several small children. @YlvaJohanssonpic.twitter.com/ecZcKYgTIU
The report also highlighted the use of violence from the officials, with several testimonies of assaulted asylum seekers. Testimonies of police involved in border operations confirm the regular use of violence. It is also known that the belongings of migrants are stolen and confiscated, later burned.
The EU is therefore involved in the pushback perpetrated at the border by national police thanks to its financial and material support. The EU policy on migration was already highly criticized because of the policy of containment carried out at the borders, making agreements with third countries such as Turkey or Libya.
Those internal and external policies of containment carried out by the EU and the Member States go against all the fundamental values of the EU, the EU human rights legal framework, and the EU regulations on migration.
Migrants pushed back at the borders can be refugees from countries bordering Europe, such as Turkey, or nationals from third countries (Syria or Afghanistan) which use European neighboring countries as a transit to reach Europe. The pushbacks perpetrated at the EU borders by the masked men can therefore have tragic consequences for migrants, especially for refugees fleeing from bordering countries of Europe. For instance, if a Turkish asylum seeker fleeing from the persecution of the Turkish government is pushed back at the Greek border, they will be forced to go back to Turkey, where their life might be in danger. A Syrian refugee pushed back at the European border will continue his life in Turkey. The shadow armies are therefore violating the principle of non-refoulement, according to which no one should have to return to a country where they could face torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, and other irreparable harm.
This afternoon Aegean Boat Report received an emergency call from a group of 12 people, who had been forced into a life raft by masked men on a Greek coast guard vessel, and left drifting east of Simi. The group consisted of men, women and several small children. @YlvaJohanssonpic.twitter.com/ecZcKYgTIU
[1]OHCHR, “The principle of non-refoulment under international human rights law” (available in https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Migration/GlobalCompactMigration/ThePrincipleNon-RefoulementUnderInternationalHumanRightsLaw.pdf, 14/09/2020)
The European Union is largely recognized to be a successful union of 27 member states. All the 27 member states have the right to free movement of goods, services, people, and so on. By EU law and practice this also extends to the movement of refugees. However, law and practice in many cases have nothing in common.
The latest actions of the European Union highlight the doublespeak wherein there is a narrative for public consumption. However, the practical on-ground reality is something vastly different from the on-ground reality. Some latest reports highlight that an eight-month probe by journalists from seven countries uncovered a system run by special units who usually hide their identity by wearing unmarked uniforms and face-covering balaclavas.
The EU significantly finances Croatia’s border operations, including Koridor. Open source evidence reveals that Intervention Police who are part of Koridor stay at hotels along the border when they are on mission. Hotels & per diems are paid out of the EU’s Internal Security Fund pic.twitter.com/scpvdQWxei
The Der Spiegel news magazine in its investigation obtained and highlighted videos of 11 pushbacks described by Der Spiegel allegedly show men beating refugees before bringing them back across the border into Bosnia-Herzegovina. However, Der Spiegel is not the only magazine that has highlighted this pathetic treatment of the refugees to state the least. Other videos and witness testimonies point to special Greek coastguard units detailed to intercept asylum seekers’ boats in the Aegean Sea and set them adrift aboard orange life rafts, some paid for with EU cash.
Lighthouse reports which wrote the report concerning EU’s doublespeak highlighted that In Romania, we captured for the first time how Romanian police units are pushing people, back people, to Serbia. The videos, published by Libération, were supported by testimony from people who had been summarily expelled who also reported serious assaults during these same incidents captured on film. DW reports that According to human rights organizations, there were more than 16,000 pushbacks at the Croatian-Bosnian border last year alone. Similar incidents have recently been observed at the border between Belarus and Poland. There are also frequent reports of such operations at the Turkish-Greek border and on the high seas.
EU governments deny the existence of a violent campaign by masked men to turn away asylum seekers at EU borders. A months-long investigation by @LHReports & leading media unmasks these groups, reveals who commands & finances them pic.twitter.com/nGNFs5Epsi
There are two types of refugees in the EU. One section of them uses a border of a country that has a border to Europe. A second category is refugees from a country that has a border with the EU. It is the second category of refugees who are at risk because when they get pushed back they get arrested in a country that is a country that is not a part and thus is not bound by EU law. The refugees may face human rights violations in non-EU countries like torture.
However, there is very little being done by the European Union to take action against authorities who openly violate EU laws and guidelines and treat the refugees in a pathetic and despicable manner. The state by EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson has said that “This must be investigated” in the context of the pushbacks by refugees and she has also stated that “There is also convincing evidence of misuse of EU funds”, not all EU member states seems to agree. For example, the Greek foreign minister refused to “apologize” for Greece’s ongoing involvement and stated categorically that “Greek borders are the borders of the EU and we act within the framework of international and European law to protect them”.
These varied actions and statements expose Doublespeak. The hypocrisy of the EU’s woeful lack of recognition of pathetic and crass treatment of refugees. The statement by the EU Home Affairs Commissioner is not tantamount to placing pressure on countries whose border security officials are trying to physically push back migrants. After all, there isn’t a lack of unity by member states on the issue of what to do with errant police officers. The Greek Foreign minister is on record refusing to apologize for the actions of the Greek border guard. It is this doublespeak of the Greek border guard and the overall attitude of the European Union which emphasizes open borders and rights for people to be granted refugee status as soon as they enter EU territory. The double-speak is a woeful lack of recognition of the serious rights violations faced by refugees when police forces use force to push them out of the EU. It is a blatant violation of EU and International law and the EU’s silence in this instance and their general statements on welcoming refugees is hypocrisy and it is this double-speak between the statements and reality as seen in Greece and other EU countries.
Writing a project requires people to spend time in understanding what is expected by donors who want to fund the project, deciding on the ideas of a project in consultation with the organization and other interested parties/stakeholders, deciding on the budget with interested parties/stakeholders and finally writing project proposal. In a three-part article written by broken chalk concerning the requirements of how to write a project proposal for EU projects Broken chalk made various suggestions on how to write a project proposal. Through this article, we will provide applicants with a brief guide on how what they should be doing before they start writing a project proposal for any project be it in the European Union or not.
Understanding what is expected by donors who want to fund the project:
Before applicants begin to write the project they must have a thorough understanding of what is expected to be written as a part of the project proposal by donors. This is our experience in Broken Chalk.
To illustrate this we would like to provide an example of a project which is posted on the grants and tenders section of the European Union. The project that the Broken Chalk is working on is a project titled “Conditions for the successful development of skills matched to needs”. There is a description of the project on the funding and opportunities page of the EU website. We went through the various annexes of the general EU guidelines as well as the call document to understand the needs of the EU donors for the specific project.
Applicants need to ensure that they need to go through various documents, again and again, to ensure that they have a precise understanding of the needs of the donors who in the case of the project that the Broken Chalk is pursuing is the European Union.
Deciding on a concrete idea for the project:
Before starting to write a project applicants should take time to decide on a concrete idea for a project. The broken chalk is in the process of seeking ideas from its volunteers, interns as well as people in the organization responsible for project management on the project titled “Conditions for the successful development of skills matched to needs”.
It is suggested to the applicants that they consult as many people as possible and make a note of as many ideas as possible with many people so that there are options from which the best possible option can be selected. When selecting the best possible option for applicants should consult with the board of the organization so that the viewpoint of the organization is represented in the formation of the idea of the project. Consultation with the board will be especially useful in a situation where no other members of an organization are willing to contribute to various ideas.
Budgeting for a project:
Once an idea has been agreed upon then it is strongly recommended that applicants start budgeting for the project. Budgeting is the idea that there must be an account for how much will be spent on what items of the project.
Applicants must remember that the process of budgeting is not as simple as just including the costs of a product. Therefore, they must keep adequate time in hand to ensure that there is a proper account for the items on which they would like to spend. The project idea should drive the costs of the project that is budgeted. Therefore, it is strongly recommended that applicants have a concrete idea in mind and it is agreed upon with the board of the organization before starting the process of budgeting. There is also a need to have an understanding of the top line support budget that the EU or other institutes have to offer so that the idea takes this factor into consideration.
When budgeting for a project for the EU or other financial institutions there is a need to consider both personnel and direct costs of the project. Personnel costs take into consideration the cost of employing people. e.g. salary of people. Direct costs take into consideration the costs of the project. For example, if a massive room has to be built to teach students then the project costs should include the cost of building material such as brick and steel. The budgeting of the project ideas must at least 90% of the time account for contingencies as well as overhead costs. Overhead costs refer to costs of operating a business minus the direct costs. Contingencies are supposed to be utilized during the case of any emergencies. All of these costs (contingencies and overheads only when needed) need to be accounted for and only then should be sent to the European Union. As a rule, 10% of the overall costs and 5% of the overall costs are dedicated to overhead costs and contingencies respectively.
It is recommended that applicants send the budget estimate of the project in the form of a Microsoft Excel document to donors whether in the European Union or elsewhere.
This hashtag was created to fight against the nine years six months sentence prison against Ayse Ozdogan issued by a Turkish Supreme court of appeals.
Despite the massive social reaction in Turkey on social media, Ayse Ozdogan was arrested last Saturday. On Twitter, her brother said that “The execution was not postponed; they came to pick up my sister.” The grounds for her conviction were being an administrator in a private student dormitory, having an account at Bank Asya, using the Bylock, and being a member of an armed terrorist organization, namely the Gulen Movement.
The Gulen Movement is considered a terrorist organization according to Erdoğan’s regime, which accused the group of taking part in the attempted coup in July 2016. To this day, the government is carrying out severe repression about the member of the groups or the persons linked to the group in one way or another.
Her arrest was so controversial in Turkey because Ayse Ozdogan has end-stage cancer, and despite her poor health, she has been sent to prison. She had already been detained shortly after a first operation on November 12, 2019. Her detention provoked a massive reaction, and an online campaign started by Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu, a human rights activist and deputy from the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), led to her release on December 27, 2019.
However, her health got worse because she could not get her second surgery. The cancer had spread, and Özdoğan’s tooth, palate, zygomatic bone, and lymph nodes were removed in an emergency operation. She, therefore, lost her ability to see and hear due to the trauma her facial bones suffered.
Ayse Ozdogan recalled her hearing with the judge:
I went before the judge while I still had wounds in my mouth and face, and my stitches were not removed. As a result of the judge’s decision to arrest me, I became ill and fainted at the end of the court. Later, due to the interventions on my body and face, I was sobered up and sent to prison. The first day I was alone in a cell, it was cold, and I had to sleep on the floor. I slammed my operated areas against the wall on the bunk bed because I had difficulty walking. When I was taken to the ward, my face and eyes were swollen enough to obscure my vision completely.
Özdoğan suffers from cancer and is facing imprisonment on a terrorism conviction. According to the Human Rights Association, there are currently 1,605 sick prisoners in Turkish prisons, 604 of whom are critically ill. Critics have slammed authorities for refusing to release them. pic.twitter.com/zdnVCSC33L
Despite the evident proofs of the health condition of Ayşe Özdoğan and the risks of detention for her care, it was determined in the report of the 3rd Specialization Committee of the Presidency of Forensic Medicine on October 1, 2021, “that Ayşe Özdoğan did not find any recurrence or metastasis in her examinations, was followed at regular intervals without treatment, and did not receive active treatment; she lived her life in prison conditions. It has been concluded that he can continue his sentence alone and that his sentence can be continued in prison by providing regular polyclinic control.”
According to the Human Rights Association (İHD), there are more than 1,605 sick prisoners in Turkish prisons, approximately 604 critically ill. Despite the forensic and medical reports stating that they cannot remain in prison, they are not released.
Two years after the COVID-19 pandemic, many education systems still face significant disruptions. Students and teachers in more than 50 countries continue to be affected by the total or partial school closure. But whether students are learning face-to-face or remotely, teachers are at the center of the process. Education is at the center of building human capital. Although teaching is the utmost important job, they are underpaid. Adequate payment is not the only problem they are facing.
Today, we celebrate the extraordinary dedication and courage of all teachers and their capacity to adapt and innovate under very challenging and uncertain conditions. They are at the center of global education improvement efforts and play a key role in accelerating progress towards an inclusive, equitable, and quality education for every student, in all circumstances.
According to research carried out among teaching unions in more than 30 countries across Asia, Africa, Europe, and South America by Education International.[1]
There is a rise in profit-making, low-fee private schools, mainly in Africa and Latin America, which pay low teacher salaries and compromise quality as operating expenditures are brought down as much as possible to maximize profits.
According to 50 percent of the unions; Violence in the classroom is making teaching unsafe.
The mass media promotes “either a negative or a very negative attitude” towards teachers, according to 39 percent of the unions.
Only one in three teachers report having access to continuing professional and leadership development (CPLD), and three-quarters see the CPLD they receive as poor quality.
Today, education is under attack in many countries. The attacks range from the bombing of schools to the killing of students and teachers. Rape and sexual violence, arbitrary arrests, and forced recruitment also occurred, instigated by armed groups. Attacks on education harm the students and teachers, but they also affect the communities in the short and long term.
More than 22,000 students, teachers, and academics were injured, killed, or harmed in attacks on education during armed conflict or insecurity over the past five years.
Between 2015 and 2019, 93 countries experienced at least one reported attack on education, marking an increase of 19 affected countries, up from 74 countries in the previous reporting period of 2013-2017.
Attacks on higher education were reported in 73 countries. Law enforcement, military forces, or pro-government armed groups used excessive, even lethal, force to disperse university students and staff protesting on campuses or over education-related grievances, primarily in situations of insecurity.
As Broken Chalk, we want to take the attention of the international, national human rights organizations, human rights defenders, stakeholders, educational foundations, and associations into the challenges of Teachers In Turkey. The teachers from Turkey have been facing human rights violations from their Government for a long time now. Turkish Government has taken the lives of the teachers, their families. Being tortured and losing their jobs are among that educators have been suffering. Teachers have been exposed to torture, put in prison, exiled, and lost their lives.
According to the data compiled by the Union of Education (Eğitim-Sen), Government dismissed 41,005 educators, including 33,965 teachers, 5,740 academic personnel, 1,300 administrative staff at educational facilities.[3]
Moreover, the Government revoked the teaching licenses of more than 23,464 teachers, who used to work for the private schools affiliated with the Gülen movement.[4]
One thousand sixty-nine private schools, 1550 university preparation schools, 301 private study centers, sixteen private universities were closed. [5]
The Turkish Foreign Minister has been boastful about the abduction of around 100 educators from 18 countries by the Turkish National Intelligence Agency.[6]
Due to unlawful and injustice practices of the current Government in Turkey, society’s oppression, cancellation of teachers’ diplomas, work permits, and passports, hundreds of thousands of people had to leave their country illegally by risking their lives. Unfortunately, some of them, including babies and children, lost their lives during their journeys across the Aegean Sea and Evros River.
As Broken Chalk,
We urge the governments to honor the teachers for their commitments to quality education and ensure students have the trained, qualified and empowered teachers they deserve.
We asked the Governments and armed groups to end attacks on education and refrain from using schools and universities for military purposes.
We asked the Turkish Government to give all the rights of Teachers back.
We continue to claim the rights of teachers through the national and international judiciary. We want to draw the attention of governments, stakeholders, non-governmental organizations, and human rights defenders to fight against the Human Rights Violations which educators are facing.
We wish all the teachers in the world a Happy World Teachers’ Day!
Broken Chalk announces it to the public with due respect.
Broken Chalk*
*Broken Chalk is a human rights organization and mainly concentrates on violations in the educational field.
Cover Picture is from: https://en.unesco.org/sites/default/files/styles/commemoration_header/public/commemorations/world-teachers-day-2021-cover.png?itok=18IrYAVc
The question the rapporteur will try to answer is the following: Can we conclude that the Turkish state is taking action to abduct political opponents and it is not investigated properly into these facts? To answer it, he will present three different topics, namely the execution of international abductions by the Turkish government, the executions of domestic abductions, and the presence of effective investigations.
Preliminary topics:
The report relied on examples of 27 cases of national abductions and 68 of international abductions. The reporter pointed out that other independent sources concluded the same findings, and that he relied mainly on the Ankara bar association report, report of International investigations, court findings, journal reports.
The report only takes into account abductions from 2016 to now. The rapporteur recalled the legal criteria for an enforced disappearance to be found: to be arbitrarily deprived of their freedom by state officials or under state’s orders, and the refusal to communicate the place or the whereabouts of the victims. The prohibition of enforced disappearance is a ius cogens norm, which means that every state is bound by the prohibition even if they did not ratify treaties that prohibit it. The rapporteur recalled that Turkey ratified the ICCPR and ECHR, which prohibits the arbitrary deprivation of liberty, the use of torture and establishes the right to life.
International abductions:
There are different ways to be internationally abducted:
Turkish citizens who lived abroad (teacher), their passports are canceled and handed over to IMT and brought back to Turkish
When the host state is not fully agreeing, Turkey intervened directly in the territory of the host state. For instance, it happened in Kenya: Kenya refused the extradition of the Turkish citizen so Turkey intervened and abducted him.
The most common way is to do it with the consent of the host country, they work together to bring them back illegally to Turkey without following the legal channel asking for extradition.
In 2017, the MIT (National Intelligence Organization of Turkey) was created a special department which is for human abductions or executions, in charge of executing international operations abroad. The UN wrote an open letter to Turkey stating that it could stop concluding secret agreements with other countries to carry out international abductions and bringing people back illegally to Turkey.
After being abducted, the victims disappear for weeks or months or are never seen again. They resurface with strong allegations of torture (electric chocs, beatings).
The minister of foreign affairs and the president himself acknowledge publicly carrying out international abductions in the newspaper, to show their power and for people to be afraid. They pretend that people who disappeared are terrorists and that the current state of emergency allowed them to arrest them in other countries.
Domestic abductions:
Domestic abductions are executed in a very similar pattern: large scale operations are carried out (example of abduction by 40 people heavily armed), are always visible in busy areas (middle of the highway with a lot of witnesses), often with cars and victims are forced into a black Volkswagen van. The kidnappers don’t care about being seen, or about their license plates being traced. When the people resurface, it always happens in police stations or the anti-terrorism department in Ankara. One victim recalled that he was abducted by the secret services which forced him to call the authority and to sign incriminating papers against him. There is no trace of legal detention when they disappear.
Several elements prove the involvement of the authorities in those abductions. One victim recalled that he worked for the secret services and that he was abducted by a former colleague. The camera footages and testimonies of victims and eyes witnesses demonstrated that the kidnappers were wearing TEM jackets (antiterrorism unit), or presented themselves as being police officers, or police who took them for “Interrogations”.
The Turkish position on domestic abductions is different from international abductions: it denies any involvement or ignores the accusations it and does not even count it. The ones abducted are always political opponents mostly belonging to the Gulen movement. When they resurface they all have made self-incrimination or with regards to others. The objective of those abductions is therefore to gather evidence to incriminate other persons, so the state does not acknowledges it according to the rapporteur.
The Turkish government does not carry out effective investigations. The relatives of the family members are very active in filling complaints, gathering evidence, camera footage, eyewitnesses. They hand them over to the prosecutor and nothing happens, even the most obvious acts like checking the license plate or tracking the phone of the victims. Non-investigative acts are executed, and the cases are closed after a while without findings. In addition, if relatives become to vocals, they are pressurized to retract the complaint. According to the rapporteur, no one has been convicted for abductions in Turkey even if the Turkish criminal code prohibits arbitrary deprivation of liberty, the use of torture. In addition, the code of criminal procedure establishes a duty to investigate
Witness 1: Mustafa Ozben
The witness lived in Istanbul and was a lawyer for the bar of Ankara. Until the failed coup he was a university teacher and was a member of the Gulen movement since 1993. According to him, being a member is based on goodness, which means doing good acts for humankind. After the coup, his university has been shot down, so he was unemployed. He took measures to hide like using his father’s credit card, not staying at his legal residence…
On the 9th of May of 2017, after taking his daughter to school and went to shops, he was abducted while going back to his car. Around 3 or 4 people surrounded him, beat him, and put him into a black transporter van. They put a sack over his head and beat him, insulted him, screamed at him, put plastic cuffs around his ankles and his hands. They took him to a huge warehouse in a small cell (6×9 feet, 3msquare) with a very hard mattress and carpets all around the walls. It was a tiny place with a camera and sound system to establish contact with him, and with an aeration system with a continuous sound, which he recalled as a type of torture.
During the first days of detention, they knocked at the door and put him on his knees, took him outside to be interrogated. They turned his face against the wall so he cannot see anything because it was extremely important for them not to be seen. They said that this is a place that neither exists nor does not exist where they are the state. They told him that if he helps them, they will forget about all the complaints made against him and, give him a new identity, money, and opportunities. But if he does not, they know human anatomy very well and everything about torture, and he may start to beg them to kill him. The witness answered that he did not commit any crimes and that he was only a member of the Gulen movement. The perpetrators asked him which general he called on the day of the coup. According to the witness, they were unskilled, and they knew just a few things about him and most of it has been fabricated. They needed to fill the complaints with facts, information, and names because they made everyone a terrorist without any proof.
He was always blindfolded. One day, he went out of the cell without a blindfold so he can describe the warehouse, with cells and corridor and interrogations room. He lost 20 kilos there, he was hungry and thirsty most of the time, and they were trying to break his resistance.
The detention lasted for 92 days. He was also tortured. In one of the interrogation rooms, they were two cuffs on the wall, he saw sticks, blood. They used electric chocs, beating, sex instruments and say that they are going to penetrate him. they tried everything that could break him, threatening him his family. There were no windows or clocks. They put headphones over his head, with national music or noise that put him crazy. He was also worried for his children and his wife while he was detained: not knowing was also part of the torture.
They released him and left him off in a neighborhood in Ankara. He supposed he was released because her wife was fighting for him to be released. He was released on Tuesday, and on Wednesday he was supposed to buy a cell phone and to meet them again on Friday to pretend that he had never been abducted and that he was only hiding at home.
In January 2021, the victim was abducted at his workplace and victim of systematic torture for 6 days. He was from a family of socialist workers and working as an electrician. He was defending the rights of workers and was part of a trade union, participated in press releases and press conferences, and was detained many times.
When he disappeared, his lawyer made an application before the relevant prosecutor, with requests for the base station information to collect all the footage, because he was abducted at his workplace which is also a bus station. However, no persecutor was appointed to the file and even the one on duty did not take action.
They applied to other institutions such as the Turkish Grand National Assembly, Human Rights Commission, Ministry of Interior, or Ministry of Justice, the anti-terrorism branch in Istanbul to make a statement for their client to be released but it never happened. Democratic and legal institutions, unions and confederations, political parties waged a very meaningful struggle for the client to be found. There were demonstrations in many European cities, his family was all over Istanbul, especially in Galatasaray square in Istanbul, which became the symbol of the struggle for disappearances. There were also demonstrations in his neighborhood, workplace… despite the curfew. The European Parliament sent an open letter to the ministry of interior for them to make a statement, but they did not answer.
While he disappeared, the victim was threatened with rape, suspended, handcuffed upside down, kept naked for days or hours, and subjected to brutal beatings.
After he was found, his lawyer filed a criminal complaint about kidnapping and systematic torture, but it is progressing very slowly even though they provide the license plate of the bus and footage of the scene of the crime. The prosecutor acts with indifference and effortlessness, and they become perpetrators as well according to the lawyer.
He has released after 6 days thanks to the struggle made by his family and the massive social reaction. After he was released, he got physical and psychological treatment. He can work and maintain his life but not talk in public about what he went through.
Witness 3: Mesut and Meral Kaçmaz
The man was a school principal and director of public relations in Pakistan, and his wife was a science and English teacher in Pakistan as well. He used to go to turkey frequently.
On the 27th of September, at night, 15-20 armed people came to this house and said that they are going to take them to a safe house. They did not show any legal documents to prove they were policemen and were not wearing uniforms. When they protested, the couple and their children were beaten up. Meral Kacmaz fainted at the door of the house, and they have been taken to different vehicles. Mesut was continuously beaten up in the car.
They brought them to the place where they were detained. There was no sunlight but iron bars ad curtains. It was very scary, but they had to calm down for their two daughters (15 and 17 years old). They had been all handcuffed, beaten, and blindfolded. Meral recalled that for the first time in her life she had to clean up blood from his kids’ bodies.
After 17 days, they said they will take them to the capital of Pakistan where they will be allowed to meet their lawyers and people from the Turkish embassy. The kidnappers handing them over to the Turkish intelligence, so the Turkish government sent them a private air croft to reach Turkey. During all the flight, the husband has been tortured, threatened by his family, and they told him: “you are going to accept whatever we say, or we are going to rape your wife and daughters in front of you”.
The wife was taken into custody in Turkey without the children for 6months. She felt half dead because she has been forcibly separated from his kids. She recalled that she was able to see other women in other cells crying for their children. They make her believe that she will never leave the jail, but she did not sigh what they wanted her to sign,
Their first hearing started on the 13th of February 2018, and after the second hearing on the 26 April 2018, her wife was released. On the 3rd of July, the husband was released, but they sentenced them to 6years and 3 months of detention. They know that the judiciary is controlled by the government, which says the “ultimate truth” and nobody can change it
The kidnappers told us that they received their file from the intelligence services in Pakistan and that it was clear. One of the kidnappers says “sorry sir, you are being ruled in turkey by a dictator and this is the order of Erdogan”.
The court’s allegations for their detention were that he deposited money to Asia bank, but he doesn’t know the real reason, he guessed he was chosen randomly or to disconnect the relation between Tukey and Pakistan as he was the director of public relations.
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