21-year-old university student Tugce Olcer died after jumping off a balcony as she was depressed in the face of her father’s imprisonment, according to Turkish media.

A fourth-grade at the Istanbul-based Bogazici University’s (*) Faculty of Education, Olcer jumped to her death from her family house’s balcony in Buca, Izmir on Saturday. Local media reported that Olcer suffered psychological trauma after his father, identified with his initials M.A.O., was arrested and that she was in a bad mood for some time.

M.A.O., a former teacher who served as the Director of National Education in İzmir’s Tire district, was dismissed from his job over his alleged links to the Gulen Movement, which the government accuses of masterminding the July 15, 2016 coup attempt.

The father has been under arrest, since Sept 9, 2016, over his alleged membership in a “terrorist organization” as the government describes the Hizmet Movement as “terrorist.” He has also been denied permission by a prosecutor to attend his daughter’s funeral.

More than 120,000 people, including teachers, state workers, academics, judges, prosecutors, business people, lawyers, and others from different backgrounds, have been detained over alleged links to the Gulen movement since last summer. The Hizmet Movement denies both involvement in the coup attempt and the terror accusations.

A total of 35 people who or whose relatives have been affected by the post-coup purge, either by losing their jobs or by being arrested, due to their alleged links to the movement, have committed suicide, the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) said in a report in late April, this year.

An updated version of a report released by the Stockholm Centre for Freedom (SCF) in March 2017 has documented 76 cases of suspicious deaths & suicides in Turkey during detention or under arrest or following heavy oppressions applied by the Turkish government since a failed coup attempt on July 15, 2016.

(*) Bogazici University : It is the first American higher education school outside of the United States, founded in 1863 as Robert College. Even though it is now totally under Turkish authority, the university has strong links to the American educational system. Bogazici University always ranks first in Turkey, attracting the most significant number of applications through Turkish institution admission exams, making it Turkey’s most selective public university.

Source:

https://stockholmcf.org/bogazici-university-student-commits-suicide-as-dismissed-father-under-arrest-for-9-months/