British lawmaker Edward Leigh has described the recent death of a 15-year-old girl whose mother is imprisoned in Turkey as a human rights violation and urged Turkish authorities to release all political prisoners, Turkish Minute reported.
Leigh, a Conservative Member of Parliament and representative to the Council of Europe, made the remarks in Strasbourg in a video message recorded by a reporter from the TR724 news website.
“I’m very saddened by the death of a young girl, Sumera, who died because she was separated from her mother, Melek, who was in prison,” Leigh said. “This is a human rights abuse.”
Leigh was referring to Sümeyra Gelir, who died earlier this month in the northwestern Turkish city of Sakarya. The teenager had been living with her two younger siblings and caring for them since their mother, former physics teacher Melek Gelir, was jailed for alleged links to the Gülen movement.
Melek Gelir is serving a sentence of nearly seven years in Sakarya Ferizli Prison based on her past employment at a private tutoring center that was shut down by emergency decree following a 2016 coup attempt. Rights groups say her conviction is part of a broader crackdown on followers of the Gülen movement, which the Turkish government accuses of orchestrating the coup — a claim the movement denies.
Sümeyra, who reportedly suffered from epilepsy and was under psychological treatment, died in her sleep on April 4. She had been trying to balance school and caregiving duties while her father worked to support the family.
“She didn’t die of illness; she died of injustice,” journalist Sevinç Özarslan wrote on social media, sharing images of Sümeyra and her mother.
Leigh said Turkey must comply with the rulings of the European Court of Human Rights and condemned the government’s refusal to move Melek Gelir to a prison closer to her children.
Human rights advocate and opposition lawmaker Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu said he had repeatedly requested the transfer but that the justice ministry declined.
Sümeyra’s case has revived debate over the long-term effects of Turkey’s post-coup purges on families, particularly children. Rights organizations have documented cases of trauma, depression and illness among children whose parents were imprisoned after the failed 2016 coup.
The case has also drawn comparisons to Yusuf Kerim Sayın, a terminally ill child who died in 2023 while his imprisoned mother was repeatedly denied release to care for him.
Leigh concluded his statement by urging Ankara to free all those jailed for political reasons and to respect the judgments of the European human rights court in Strasbourg.
