Solidarity with Dilek

My name is Bilgesu Sumer. I'm a PhD candidate in political science in USA. I'm a citizen of Turkey currently living in Massachussetts. I'm fundrasing for Dilek, who is also from Turkey.  We have been friends since we meet in 2010, while I was doing research in Diyarbakir, where she lives. Dilek is a Kurdish single mother raising two daughters. She used to be a social worker and helped distribute the food supplies to Kurdish families with rural backgrounds displaced by Turkish scorched earth campaign in the recent past. Recently she became a victim of Turkey's purge and has lost her job based on a decree issued by the government. She has reached out to me asking for solidarity in meeting the extra-curricilar tutition fees for her youngest daughter's college preparation. As it stands, her daughter is a brilliant high school junior, studying at a high prestigeous school in Istanbul. The daughter has free accomodations and meals as a boarding student in the big city, and has won a scholarship for her academic successes helping cover her other expenses. Dilek lives in Diyarbakir, a city where many people have lost their jobs due to the purge because of their Kurdish identity and the local economy is in ruins due to the last year's military operations that leveled a part of the city to the ground, especially in areas where poor communities that Dilek used to work with. Indeed, Dilek has reached out to me to ask for solidarity, as our paths had crossed years ago and we became family friends. In 2012, I completed my Masters Degree in Political Science helping Dilek and her daughters in my acknowledgements. I know that Dilek is a proud person and I am positioned to respond to her solidarity demand. I am able to enjoy being a doctoral student in the US, partially indebted to the support of Dilek,  her institution dismantled by the current Turkish government and people of Diyarbakir who are under an economic siege so to speak. 

The sum that we aim to raise is 2000 $ which corresponds to 7000 Turkish liras. All the funds will be spent on this item. This is the sum asked by a private institution offering extra-curricilar support towards college education. Entry into Turkish higher education system is based on taking a nation wide exam conducted annually, in a high-stress environment. Dilek's daughter has triumphed over the Turkish education's attempts to marginalize Kurdish students thus she is able to study in a prestigous high school in Istanbul. Furthermore, her academic success has brought down the real price of private tutoring, which is 12500 Turkish Liras, and the services correspond to an 16 hour weekly support for a period of 10 months prior to the exam taken at the end of her senior year (2018). She is getting a cut in the price because the private institutions use the success of their students for their own advertisement. This is indeed an unfair education system nonetheless she must get help to pass it because she can become a great scholar or a diplomat in the future. This is much needed for the country in political strife and she shows signs of potential as she is already one of the founders of the Model United Nations club in her high school. I see this potential in Dilek's daughter, yet Dilek as the mother only wants to be able to provide her daughter a fair chance to compete in a highly competitive environment. While Dilek is laid off,  she also cannot receive any bank loans, neither find any other domestic sources for raising this amount of money. 

Helping Dilek's daughter in this regard is merely placing a stone for the people's in Turkey to walk towards peace. State repression cannot continue forever and the people will find ways to resolve conflict. Unfortunate it is time to extend solidarity at an individual level and help families endure the political crisis in order to have a normal future. Dilek's daughter will likely to seek academic opportunities in the United States because I know for a fact that she wants to study the conditions that make freedom and liberty possible. This is ambition for humanity and it is powerful enough to make a mother to ask for this type of solidarity and for me to mobilize around her wishes.

We see all contributions similar to candle lights lit to end the darkness that fascism and terror instills.