Teacher Canan Deniz who was jobless due to KHK (decree-law) locked herself in her room and committed suicide after her return from visiting her prisoner husband, who was a teacher too. Her two children are now parentless. Her detained husband was brought to the funeral of Canan Teacher, who was buried today, while he was accompanied by police and soldiers as he was handcuffed.
CEVHERİ GÜVEN
BOLD – Canan Deniz was a primary school teacher for 15 years. She was jobless because she was working in one of the closed many Gulen schools in Turkey due to decree-law (KHK) passed during the state of emergency. She was also unable to teach in another school because of her rights restricted by the Decree Law. The Deniz family had to settle in their hometown Denizli after the economic difficulties they had and they moved to the flat as a downstairs neighbor of Canan teacher’s family.
Judicial processes were added to economic problems too. In June 2018, her husband, Yılmaz Deniz, who was also a teacher in Gulen schools, had a car accident. He was detained by the police who came for the accident after being told that he was wanted, and then he was arrested. At the end of a fast trial process, Yılmaz Deniz was sentenced to 6 years and 3 months and sent to Denizli Prison.
Canan Deniz, who was alone with her teenage son and daughter, started to use heavy depression medications. She was hospitalized several times because of persistent pains, obsession with cleanliness and psychological problems.
Canan teacher, who was looking for a job to heal her psychology, could not find a job because she was jobless because of decree-law (KHK).
COMMITTED SUICIDE AFTER HER RETURN FROM PRISON
Canan Deniz returned home after visiting her detained husband Yılmaz Deniz with her children in Denizli Prison yesterday (17 June 2019).
Canan teacher, who went to her room, committed suicide by hanging herself with a kerchief. When the neighbors saw through the window in the evening, the children and her mother who lives upstairs wanted to be part of an effort to save her.
Medical teams from the scene found that Canan Deniz lost her life.
HER SON ENTERED THE UNIVERSITY ENTRANCE EXAM AT THE WEEKEND
Canan Deniz’s son entered the university entrance exam last weekend and she had a daughter studying in the first year of high school. It is expressed that both of her children had psychologically troubled in the current climate.
SHE WAS A VERY IDEALIST TEACHER
Her colleague, who has known Canan Deniz for years, said the following:
“Sister Canan was a very idealistic teacher. So I aspired to be like her, then I became a teacher. She certainly wasn’t a suicidal person. She was a successful teacher, well-liked by student parents. What she had been through, loneliness and illnesses probably triggered suicide. Her children also had psychological problems that affected her. She was alone in this painful process. She couldn’t talk to anyone. These all affected her.”
IN OUR LAST MEETING SHE ASKED, “SHOULD I PAY ZAKAT FOR MY MONEY IN THE BANK?”
Another colleague of Canan Deniz told about her last meeting:
“After graduating from high school, Canan teacher worked in a supermarket. Tired of the humiliating attitudes she faced during that time, she won the university with her own means. She became a teacher. She was a very idealistic teacher. Canan teacher had obsessive cleaning disease. What she had been through worsened this disease, but she also had severe pain in her body. Recently, she was hospitalized, after discharged from hospital ‘I don’t feel recovered’ she said. We worked together in the same school, and we were only able to talk on the phone in the last three years. When she sold her family’s car, there was some money and she put that money in a bank. Last week, she asked ‘if she could pay any zakat for that money?’ on our last talk. Psychologically she was very lonely. There was no one around to have a heart-to-heart talk, so we were inadequate on the phone. Her 62 years old mother was working in textiles. Canan teacher was very upset that she was inadequate for her family and inadequate for her children because of her health problems. She was a very idealistic teacher, not a suicidal person.”