'Martyrs are immortal, but fathers die': Turkish hero's son sacked for peace call

ISTANBUL, Turkey - Turkish society holds the families of its fallen soldiers in the highest reverence. It does everything it can to make life easier for families whose loved ones made the ultimate sacrifice in the name of their country.

Ulas Bayraktar suffered all the trauma and bereavement at the age of five when his father was killed by the Apocular, a Kurdish separatist group that took up arms under Abdullah Ocalan and which later became the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in 1984.

Besir Bayraktar was a captain in the Turkish military when he was killed in 1980 in the south-eastern Turkish province of Mardin, becoming one of the first casualties in the long-simmering conflict with the PKK.

Turkish politics is always conducted based on rage and hatred. It has solved nothing

- Ulas Bayraktar

But Turkey's political leaders have had nothing but animosity for his son since January 2016. He has been branded a traitor who works with terrorists, and now finds himself deprived of even the opportunity to sustain his own young family.

Ulas Bayraktar was fired from his job teaching urban and environmental administration at Mersin University last week through a state of emergency decree.

His dismissal was for signing a petition known as the "peace declaration" in January 2016 that calls for the government to cease its military operations in the southeast of the country. The wording of the petition enraged the authorities.

"I will not allow rage to take over. I will not let them make me feel hate. And I am firmly behind my decision to call for peace," Bayraktar told Middle East Eye.

"I know the pain of losing a father. I don't want anyone to experience it. There is a saying in Turkish that martyrs are immortal. That might be, but fathers die."

Bayraktar said he was too small to remember details. He said he can remember a military aircraft at an airfield… his father's coffin in the distance…confusion because nobody would tell him what had happened to his father.

"What for? All because Turkish politics is always conducted based on rage and hatred. It has solved nothing until now," he said.

"Growing up I wanted to become a soldier and avenge my father's killing. Then I began asking myself what would that solve. Peace is the only way forward."

The declaration, "We will not be complicit in this crime", was signed by more than 1,000 academics and researchers. Ankara's reaction was fierce, branding the signatories "traitors" and even "terrorists".  

The armed youth wing of the PKK, designated a terrorist entity by Turkey, the US and the EU, had dug trenches, set up barricades and declared "autonomous" zones in urban areas for the first time since the collapse of a fragile peace process in July 2015.

Backlash

The government responded with extreme force. It defended its decision and stated that any sovereign state would respond in the same manner if public order was being compromised.

And it defended its steps against academics it said were sympathisers.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in particular, was enraged at the signatories of the petition. Erdogan had spent considerable political capital in previous years initiating and conducting a fraught peace process.

To him, this petition placing the blame for the renewed violence squarely on the government's shoulders without any mention of the PKK's role was unacceptable and the work of traitors.

Universities launched investigations into the signatories. Many of the signatories on fixed-term contracts didn't have their contracts renewed by their respective universities. However, firing staff on indefinite contracts required a lengthy legal process.

This changed with the state of emergency introduced on 21 July following the failed coup attempt. It allowed the government to rule by decree and deprived those impacted by such decrees from seeking legal redress.

Even the name of a park named after his father to honour his sacrifice was razed, according to Bayraktar

The government had vowed to only use the expanded powers of the state of emergency to go after followers and sympathisers of Fethullah Gulen, the US-based Turkish preacher accused by Turkish authorities of orchestrating the coup attempt.

Within a few weeks though, it was using such decrees to go after all its political opponents.

The purge has thus far resulted in around 40,000 arrests and left more than 120,000 people suspended or dismissed from their jobs. About 5,295 academics have been expelled through state of emergency decrees thus far.

The hatred felt toward Bayraktar and his fellow signatories by authorities is such that even the park, which was named after his father to honour his sacrifice, was razed, according to Bayraktar.

Bayraktar has avoided mentioning that his father was killed wearing his country's military uniform because he didn't want to exploit emotions.

"I didn't even mention it to the police officers taking my statement and questioning me. Only when I was leaving I told them ‘I know what it feels to lose a father in uniform at a young age and I hope no one, including you, experience it'. I left without waiting to see their reaction."

Travel ban

Bediz Yilmaz, Bayraktar's wife who was also an academic at Mersin University, was dismissed twice for signing the petition.

Her fixed-term contract was cancelled by the university in August, but then her name was also included in last week's decree.

The real victim here is Turkey. Such responses are a stain on the country

- Bediz Yilmaz

The Bayraktars believe this is to impose travel bans on them and to prevent them from finding employment in the future.

Yilmaz, who has been in Germany since November where she has received a research grant, is now concerned that her two young boys aged 10 and 14 will not be permitted to leave the country to join her.

Those dismissed by decree are not informed whether they face a travel ban. They only find out at the airport.

She said the plan was to have her two children stay with her in Germany for a year until things settled down and they all returned to Turkey.

"Now we don't know. I cannot live without my boys. If they can't come, I will return immediately. We will sell lemons in the market to get by if we have to," said Yilmaz.

Yilmaz said the targeting of the signatories via state of emergency decrees is cruel and fuelled by sheer hatred, but insisted that she didn't want their family to be seen as victims.

"Yes, it is cruel but I don't want us to be portrayed as victims," she said.

"Our decision to sign the petition was a conscious and political decision. We knew there would be consequences even if no one expected them to be so severe," she said. "The real victim here is Turkey. Such responses are a shame and stain on the country."

Bayraktar said the family expected such a hate-fuelled reaction all along but will not give up hope.

"This is a dark period but I maintain hope. A hope inspired by defiance and stubbornness. I cannot allow them to make me feel hate like they do."