A 15-year-old girl whose mother is serving a prison sentence on conviction of alleged ties to the Gülen movement was found dead in her bed last Thursday in the northwestern Turkish city of Sakarya, in an apparent epilepsy-related death, Turkish media reported.
Sümeyra Gelir had been caring for her two younger siblings since her mother, former physics teacher Melek Gelir, was jailed on alleged links to the faith-based Gülen movement, inspired by the late Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen.
Family members and rights advocates say the teenager, who suffered from epilepsy, struggled under the pressure of her living situation and the emotional toll of her mother’s imprisonment
“She didn’t die of illness; she died of injustice,” journalist Sevinç Özarslan wrote on X, sharing photos of Sümeyra and her mother from a recent prison visit.
Süleyman Sayın, father of Yusuf Kerim Sayın, another child who died while his mother was imprisoned under similar circumstances, shared Sümeyra’s story on X, calling it part of a larger tragedy.
“Sümeyra, the eldest at 15, had to be both sister and mother to her siblings. She became ill from the emotional toll and was under psychological treatment,” Sayın said. “Her mother was allowed to attend the funeral with special permission. Now the two younger children are left behind, and their mother has returned to prison without even having time to grieve.”
Melek Gelir is serving a prison sentence of almost seven years in Sakarya Ferizli Prison. Her conviction was based on her employment at a private tutoring center linked to the Gülen movement that was shut down by a post-coup emergency decree targeting institutions alleged to have ties to the movement.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been targeting followers of the Gülen movement since corruption investigations revealed in December 2013 implicated then-prime minister Erdoğan as well as some members of his family and inner circle.
Dismissing the investigations as a Gülenist coup and a conspiracy against his government, Erdoğan designated the movement as a terrorist organization and began to target its members. He intensified the crackdown on the movement following an abortive putsch in 2016 that he accused Gülen of masterminding. The movement strongly denies involvement in the coup attempt or any terrorist activity.
Melek Gelir was incarcerated approximately 120 kilometers from her children, which made it very difficult for her children to visit.
Pro-Kurdish People’s Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) lawmaker Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu, a prominent human rights advocate, said he repeatedly appealed for Melek Gelir’s transfer to a facility closer to her children in Bolu. Those requests were denied.
“When I visited Melek Gelir in prison, she wept, begging to be moved closer to her children,” Gergerlioğlu wrote on X. “The justice ministry ignored her.”
Human rights organizations have documented how this widespread incarceration has inflicted long-term harm on children. Many are left without one or both parents, often forced to live with extended family or in institutional care. The absence of stable parental support has contributed to documented cases of psychological trauma, depression and developmental issues. Some children have also been diagnosed with serious physical illnesses exacerbated by stress or lack of care.
Sümeyra’s death has drawn comparisons to other cases involving children of incarcerated parents. One widely reported case is that of Yusuf Kerim Sayın, a young boy who died in 2023 of a rare bone disease while his mother, also arrested over alleged Gülen links, was repeatedly denied release to care for him.
Sümeyra and her siblings were living with their father, but she had taken on primary caregiving responsibilities while he worked to support the household.
