Protest, get arrested, get released, then start again: One woman’s fight against Turkey’s crackdown on dissent

For The Los Angles Times
Ankara — Light snow fell as Nuriye Gulmen carefully rested a whiteboard next to Ankara’s Human Rights Memorial, a statue of a seated woman reading a book.
“Day 48. We want to return to work,” she wrote with a marker on the board, as a dozen protesters glanced at the pedestrians around them, looking for plainclothes police who might thwart their demonstration.
Since a failed coup attempt in Turkey on July 15, the government has imposed a state of emergency, granting itself power to suspend or fire state employees, impose restrictions on news media and art shows, and hold suspects without charge for 30 days.
Protests are banned, but Gulmen is among a small number of people in Turkey who have taken to the streets to defy the crackdown, inspiring others but putting their own freedom at grave risk.
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