The Week My Daughter Started University, Her Teacher Threatened Her

Hello, I want to share what we have experienced in the process. Until about ten years ago, I was someone who was liked and appreciated by my colleagues and administrators in my professional life. I was a healthcare worker and had received offers to work in administrative positions, the education unit, and even as a union president. Everything started to change after 2013. After joining the newly established union, I began to be labeled as "parallel" (which was fabricated by the AKP regime as an alternative structure or members belongs to it opposing the institutions and functioning of the state). In 2014, I had neck hernia surgery, and despite this, I was asked to work under harsh conditions in November of that year. They did not back down despite the doctor's report and changed my position. I thought about resigning during that period. When my lawyer friend intervened, they asked me to go to the workplace and sit until a response came from the ministry. The employees at the new place were not very welcoming either. They would mockingly ask if I had come there just to sit. I spent my time alone. I wanted to work in family medicine, but they were not allowing it because of the union I was a member of. I was uncomfortable with earning money without working in this way. Eventually, I resigned from the union and started working as a nurse in the family medicine unit. Later, I heard that people had talked about me, saying, "the parallel is coming," before I even started. After working for about five months, the July 15th event occurred. I went to work on Monday and was suspended in the afternoon. In October, I learned that I had been dismissed by a decree published in the official gazette. Many of my friends were suspended, dismissed, and their spouses were imprisoned. While I was going through this, a trustee was appointed to the school where my spouse worked, they were going through difficult times, and eventually, everything ended for them too. We lived in fear at all times. We had to either burn or throw away the books in our house because books had turned into an element used as evidence against us. No one called to ask about us. Neighbors stopped greeting us. Their children would not play with mine. We could not find a job. My father was hospitalized due to my dismissal. He was treated in the hospital for about three months and was finally taken to the intensive care unit. The doctors had lost hope. When I told him that I would start working again to give him hope, he immediately began to recover. Being dismissed from the profession, which he had supported me through financially, had been very hard on him. In the meantime, our friends' houses were constantly being searched by the police, and detentions continued. We were trying to support the mothers who stayed with their children, but even this was not desired by the oppressors. We would go to their houses with fear and were afraid to communicate by phone. Less than a year later, my mother-in-law fell into depression. She was hospitalized for the last month. In 2019, my spouse and I were called to give statements at the Counter-Terrorism branch. We sent the children to school, packed a bag, and went, just in case. They started by asking if I wanted to benefit from effective remorse. In the end, they threatened us. My spouse's trial started afterwards. We lived through this for years without sharing it with our families and children. During these times, the children also faced difficulties, which my daughter shared later. Her teachers and friends at school were bullying her. She was still in middle school. The teacher for Religious Education and Ethics Course constantly showed videos of the so-called military coup attempt that took place on July 15. The math teacher would get angry at her for no reason. And art teacher also. My daughter loved drawing, and when the teacher announced a competition, she wanted to participate, but the teacher deliberately gave her the wrong paper measurements. The teacher's own daughter also participated in the same competition with the correct measurements. A group of friends bullied her too. When she began at high school, we moved to the district, where her close friends started bullying her and insulting us after learning about our situation. She had to drop out of school and enrolled in an open high school. Years were passing, and nothing was changing in terms of oppression. Today, I had an appointment with a psychologist and started to explain the process from ten years ago. This session made me realize something. As I saw friends in more difficult situations, I hadn't thought about my own experiences. There were friends and their children I was trying to support. They were going through very tough times. Meanwhile, my spouse started working at a bread factory for minimum wage. To financially support the household, I brought my mother's knitting machine from my hometown and started making things. I would try to spend part of what I earned on the children of whichever friend I encountered. There were also volunteer teacher friends who gave lessons to my children. I really wanted my daughter to pass the university entrance exam and graduate from a university. My daughter finished open high school early and passed the university entrance exam.She attended for about two months. But there, a teacher, under the guise of orientation training in the first week, brought up July 15th and covertly threatened the students. The teacher said, "There are still those people among you, even if you don't know it, we know it, and when you turn 18, action will be taken against you." My daughter was the only under-18 student in her class. In other words, the university teacher was directly threatening my daughter. The country did not promise a safe future for me or my children. In Turkey, they would always be confronted with the negative memories they were labeled with. We witnessed very painful stories. I left my spouse, my parents, and my friends behind and came to the Netherlands with my children. The moment I arrived in the Netherlands, I felt like I could breathe, breathing without fear for the first time in years. I truly felt with all my cells what it meant to live without bread but not without freedom. Now my concern and prayers are for the husband and friends I left behind.

May God protect them.