CUPE National President Mark Hancock and National Secretary-Treasurer Charles Fleury are today calling for the release of Cihan Erdal, a queer youth activist, PhD student and member of CUPE Local 4600 at Carleton University. Erdal was detained in Istanbul, Turkey, on September 25, as part of an apparent arbitrary mass arrest of 82 politicians, activists and academics. Erdal is a Canadian permanent resident, who was in Turkey conducting fieldwork for his doctorate.
In a letter to Foreign Affairs Minister François-Philippe Champagne, CUPE’s national leaders called for the Government of Canada to demand the immediate release of Cihan Erdal from detention and guarantee his safe return to Canada.
