Students Berna Yılmaz and Ferhat Tüzer held a press conference on Friday (7 October), one day subsequent to their release from prison pending trial after 19 months in detention. The students are being tried on the grounds of posting a banner that read "We want free education and we will get it".
They stand accused of "membership of the DHKP/C terror organization" (Party and Revolutionary Front for the Liberation of the Turkish People) and "making propaganda for a terrorist organization" because they posted a banner calling for free education during the speech of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on 14 March 2010. Both students were expelled from university during the period of detention.
At the press conference at the Istanbul Bar Association, both Yılmaz and Tüzer declared that within the Youth Federation they were going to continue their struggle for the "demand for legal and legitimate education free of charge".
"I received letter from many people I never met"
Berna Yılmaz said "We are symbols" and went on, "We carried out this action for millions of young people who are suffering because of free education. We are symbols in this sense. We were released thanks to the public support and the struggle conducted by us inside and our friends outside. In prison I received letters of many people I did not know who expressed their support. I was very surprised and happy about this".
Life in an f type prison
Ferhat Tüzer stayed in the Tekirdağ F Type Prison and was then transferred to the Kandıra F Type Prison. He talked about the conditions of detention:
"We had heard about human rights violations in F type prisons before and we struggled against it but experiencing it personally was very different. From the moment you enter the prison they want you to undress in a disgracing application. If you refuse this, the torture starts. We received cell fines continuously. We were beaten. When we were taken to the doctor's, the bruises on our bodies were not written in the report".
Tüzer and Yılmaz claimed that their action was legal and that they did not expect it to end up in these dimensions. They added, "We would do the same again".
"They should be allowed back to university"
Yusuf Yılmaz, father of 22-year-old Berna Yılmaz, said that his family suffered morally and money-wise during the 19-month detention period.
"We let our children study with very limited means. I cannot talk very sophisticated but I just do not want our efforts to go to waste. We want them to be allowed to get back to university".
Lawyer Taylan Tanay pointed out that the probability for the students who are being tried on terror charges to return to school was very low according to the statutes of the Higher Education Council (YÖK). Tanay also stressed that their legal struggle for this was still going on. The lawyer also stated that Yılmaz and Tüzer were entitled to receive compensation for the time they were detained.
The coming hearing is set for 3 March 2012.
Bulut Yayla from the Youth Federation said that more than 100 members of the legal association founded in 2003 were arrested. Yayla mentioned that the federation came from the tradition of the Revolutionary Youth Federation (Dev-Genç) and that this was shown as a terror crime in the indictment. (NV/VK)
