'No news': families' despair over students held in Turkey

Waiting outside an Istanbul prison, Musa Akyol is desperate for news of his son, a 21-year-old university student detained by police for joining the massive protests roiling Turkey.

"We're really anxious because we cannot get any news about our son. How is he? Is he well? What sort of conditions is he being held in?" wondered the 56-year-old dentist.

Since the mass street protests erupted on March 19 following the arrest of Istanbul's opposition mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu, police have arrested nearly 2,000 people, among them many students.

With the system overwhelmed, family and friends are often left in the dark about where they're being held or when they'll get out, creating huge anxiety on the eve of Eid al-Fitr, the holiday marking the end of Ramadan.

The holiday itself -- which begins in Turkey on Sunday, meaning nine days off for civil servants -- will prolong the wait further.

Akyol said his son Temmuz, who is studying computer engineering, was arrested on Sunday night after clashes outside City Hall between protesters and riot police, then remanded in custody on Wednesday.

Lawyer Ferhat Guzel told AFP that in Istanbul alone, at least 511 university students had been detained, of whom 275 had been placed in pre-trial detention.

"These numbers were obtained from lists at various police departments or through reports from family and friends," he told AFP, saying the number was "probably much higher".

With a protest ban in Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir, most of the detainees have been charged with "taking part in unlawful protests" which can carry up to three years in jail.

'Dreaming of a better Turkey'  

"Protests and rallies are rights granted under the constitution but the government perceives them as actions against them," said Akyol.

For him, desperation pushed Turkey's youth to hit the streets in protest.

"The state's power weighs heavily on our children. All I see is young people who only dream of a better Turkey."

With the courts and the prisons overwhelmed, desperate families have been left in the dark, their stress, fear and anger often prompting tense exchanges with staff at Istanbul's main Caglayan courthouse, an AFP correspondent said.

Sitting on the steps outside was Kerime Ural Cengiz, an exhausted-looking mother who has spent the past two days agonising over her 20-year-old son Deniz, who is about to be released.

He was taken from their home in a pre-dawn raid by five police officers on Wednesday.

"We asked them which of us it was, and when they said our son's name, we were devastated," explained her husband Nuri.

"He's never been detained before, he's a kid who's never been involved in any political events," he told AFP.

"I'm hurting. I'm worried if he's been hurt, if he's starving. I just want it all to be over," said his mother.

What the authorities were doing to Turkey's young people was just plain "wrong", she said.

"They won't be able to silence them. These children are our future."

 'They won't be silenced' 

Outside the court, a group of newly released students thread laces back into their shoes, which were removed when they were arrested to prevent them harming themselves.

One was an 18-year-old student who didn't give his name but showed red bruises on his wrists which he said was from the cuffs placed on him when 15 anti-terror police arrested him at 5:00 am.

Another was 24-year-old law student Ataberk, who did not give his surname, who was also arrested at his student residence.

"I wanted to use my law training but it appears they won't let us," he told AFP.

Outside, as Deniz finally walked out of the court, there were scenes of joy as he was reunited with his parents and friends, just two days before his birthday.

"I didn't want my son to have his birthday in prison. Now we'll celebrate his birthday and we'll celebrate the Eid," his mother beamed.

"But I am so sad about families who will have to mark this Eid without their kids."