Turkish educators Nuriye Gulmen and Semih Ozakca said on Friday they were ending a hunger strike that has lasted 324 days. “We are ending our hunger strike today but our resistance is not over,” Gulmen, a former university lecturer, told supporters in the Turkish capital, Ankara, according to Cumhuriyet newspaper. Gulmen said they would now attempt to regain their jobs through the judicial system. Gulmen and Ozakca went on hunger strike in March 2017 after losing their jobs and were arrested two months later on charges of belonging to a terrorist organization. More than 150,000 people have lost their jobs in the crackdown, which Ankara says is aimed at supporters of the exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom the Turkish government blames for the coup attempt.

Source: Egypt Independent January 26, 2018 19:41 UTC