Saylan should be nominated for Nobel Peace Prize

About 200 students at YİBO in Ulaş therefore had brand new bathrooms. Poverty in remote villages is indescribable. Students at the school that we toured saw a toothbrush, a toilet and hot water for the first time. Professor Saylan, who was detained as part of the ongoing Ergenekon crime gang case’s 12th wave of arrests, is the guardian angel of not only girl students but also of YİBOs. There are about 300 YİBOs providing education to approximately 115,000 poor students in 60 provinces. This is known rarely but Saylan visited most of them. So she knows the difficulties of such schools.

A loving heart embracing all
For instance she had decided that restrooms in 30 YİBOs need repair. I once again had admired her positive energy, big heart embracing all and her creativity in solving problems during our trip to Ulaş. She was taking chemotherapy then. I had thought that this woman deserves the Nobel Peace Prize because in the past she had also fought against leprosy and had gotten rid of the disease.

If you look at the Nobel Peace Prize winners, you realize that none did more than what Professor Saylan does. I easily make such a claim. The reason is that most of the Nobel winners have not revealed something as solid as changing lives of children the way Saylan did. However, we are reading recent news about her and watching stories about her on television.

She was detained in the morning hours a few days ago in possible relation to the Ergenekon terror organization. Her house was raided by the police and subjected to interrogations although she was sick. What was she saying last night on a TV channel?

"I was not upset for myself. I only was upset for children whose scholarships were interrupted upon the ÇYDD administrators’ arrest. What will happen to these children?"

Claims with no grounds
This is another story why records of children who are provided scholarships and of people donating money are confiscated: We all know that since Day One, donations to the ÇYDD are being monitored. Officials audit the association quite often.

Still, I heard on a TV channel, close to a certain religious community, as though collecting donations was a crime. But how should we interpret the nontransparent donation channels of the same community? With police raids at the association headquarters, we see that accusations Ğ such as Saylan is a "missioner" who is educating children of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK Ğ are being spread around.

Saylan applied to the court in the past and files against such accusation and win the cases. But still the old claims are now being repeated again by the pro-religion newspapers. Considering the confiscation of all ÇYDD records, a serious blow on the association, and the detention of the former vice President of Van University Professor Ayşe Yüksel whom Saylan wishes to take the flag after she passes away, some circles were awfully disturbed by her backing-up YİBOs, her efforts to bring girls back to school with no help from the state.