By IPS Correspondents
ISTANBUL, Feb 22 2000 (IPS)

The young girl, GU (13) holds tightly onto her mothers hand and gazes around the court hall with wide, scared eyes. From afar it appears as if she is on a class visit to the judicial courts.

But she is not an awestruck pupil on a visit.

She is here to defend herself from the real and serious threat of imprisonment.

Along with five other children, aged between 12 and 14 years, GU is facing charges of ‘disturbing public order’ for demonstrating in a schoolyard five months ago. The teenagers hail from Istanbul’s suburban Gazi district.

The demonstration was to insist on the provision of more teachers to the school.

The children, pupils of the Ataturk Ciftiligi primary school, face a prison term of six to 18 months should the judges of Istanbul Infantile Court find them guilty.

It has taken the children, their schoolmates, families and well wishers, two hours to reach the court hall from Gazi, one of Istanbul’s most impoverished suburban districts.

But the families and friends, who have spent whole Thursday trying to attend the trial, are ordered to stay out of the courtroom.

These “little criminals” have to face the judges by themselves.

“Instead of more schools they are building more and more police stations in the neighborhood. It is as if we are living in another country. We want to have the same opportunities as the kids living in the city’s wealthier districts,” one student from the school told IPS.

“Most classes are empty. And when there are teachers, Turkish teachers teach mathematics and science teachers English. Our friends displayed placards in the schoolyard to attract public attention to the staff gap, but were immediately detained. I can not believe that,” another student says angrily.

“But we are proud of our friends, they have done an honest job,” she told IPS.

Derya Bayir, one of the children’s defendants, is of the opinion that the case should have been thrown out of court as it is devoid of legal pretext.

“Yet my demand in this direction was refused by the judges,” she says. “The children should have already been acquitted in accordance with the United Nations Covenant on the Rights of Children, of which Turkey is a signatory,” she told IPS. “Access to education is a basic right for all.”

“The government should be tried instead, for they have failed to fulfil their duty to provide proper education for these children,” she argues.

“Further the UN Convention provides children the right to demonstrate for matters specific to children themselves,” she says.

Not all teachers are indifferent to the students’ cause.

Officials from Teachers’ Union are present at the courts to support the children. “It is a pity that children of 13 to 14 years of age are being tried for asking for more teachers,” says Ahmet Korkmaz, district branch chair of the Teacher’s Union.

“This is indeed a graphic expression of the situation in national education,” he told IPS. “In the three districts of Eyup, Bayrampasa and Gaziosmanpasa, the part of Istanbul the children come from, there exists 140 primary and secondary schools and the staff gap in these schools is around 300,” he said.

According to Education Minister, Metin Bostancioglu, there already is a “huge gap of 30 000 teachers in the primary education- system” across the country.

In Istanbul, in a total of 3 000 primary and high schools there are two million students enrolled while the total staff numbers are around 60 000,” says Istanbul National Education Director, Omer Balibey.

Turkey’s national education system suffers from regional inequalities, says Professor Burhan Senatalar of Istanbul University.

According a national report drafted by Senatalar for the 1998 United Nations Human Development Report, “the schooling level in primary education in the West part of the country was 89 percent in 1996, while the ratio for the East part remained at 68 percent and at 71 percent for Southeast.”

“Similar inequalities apply in Istanbul’s well-to-do and impoverished districts,” believes Teacher’s Union spokesperson Ahmet Korkmaz.

“If they were not from the Gazi district, they would not have been treated as harshly,” says teacher Riza Tura from Istanbul. “Since they have relations to the conflict zone, they are treated as potential suspects but not as innocent children,” he observes.

The Gazi district, mostly populated by ethnic and religious minorities, was scene to bloody riots and clashes with the police in 1995 when 33 people lost their lives during disturbances began with the suspicious dealth of a local spiritual leader of the Alevite religious minority.

“The trial is having a traumatic effect on these children. They are extremely hurt. They are in need of psychological aid. We are trying to support the children and their families, as well as drawing attention to the problem of lack of equal opportunities to education for all,” Teacher’s Union official Korkmaz said.

GU’s mother, who requested anonimity, says she is extremely worried about the psychological trauma suffered by her daughter since her detention. This,she says, has been further compounded by the threat of a jail term.

“She does not sleep well. She usually used to go to bed by nine but now she stays awake until midnight. Last year she was on the honour roll, but this year she has failed three courses,” she told IPS.

“Her relationships with her friends and her surroundings have also changed negatively. Even when the telephone rings she is scared,” she explains.

But the conduct of her daughter is not a matter of concern for the mother who believes that the children did what their parents should have done.

“They showed us how indifferent we have become to our own conditions. They are more sensitive and more reactive to these inequalities than we are,” she told IPS.

The “accused” children come out of the courtroom perplexed.

They have been further remanded. It is almost impossible for them to understand the legal debate between their lawyers and the judges. It is a world and language totally alien to theirs.

Surrounded by police officers they are not allowed to have interviews with the journalists. The journalists are dispersed by the police.

Even more scared than before the children board the tram back home with the parents – until they are forced to return for the next hearing to determine their fate.

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