Around three years after the petition "We Will Not Be a Party to this Crime!" was published, the repression of researchers by the Turkish authorities has taken on a new dimension.
"This report is part of a broader research project currently in progress.* Conducted by the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (HRFT), the research is meant to explore the recent crackdown on Turkish universities and the destruction of the academic environment. The present report focuses on a special episode of that story, namely, the case of Academics for Peace."
On 3 March 2019, the Istanbul Regional Court of Justice announced its first decision on an appeal against academics for signing the “We will not be party to this crime!” (Bu Suça Ortak Olmayacağız) peace petition prepared by Academics for Peace (Barış için Akademisyenler). In this ruling, the Court upheld an imprisonment sentence of one year and three months for Zübeyde Füsun Üstel, a political scientist retired from Galatasaray University. This ruling is the first to have exhausted all local remedies.
As members of academic communities around the world, we strongly condemn the sentencing of Professor Zübeyde Füsun Üstel of Galatasaray University in İstanbul to 15 months in prison. Prof. Füsun Üstel was charged with “propagandizing for a terrorist organization” (Article No. 7/2 of Turkey’s Anti-Terror Law No. 3713), because she, together with over two thousand other academics in Turkey, signed the Academics for Peace statement “We will not be a party to this crime,” which criticized military actions in the Kurdish regions of the country.[1] Prof.
Political scientist Füsun Üstel, a professor who retired from Galatasaray University in Istanbul, was among the first of 1,128 [2212] scholars to undergo trial for having signed the Academics for Peace Petition, a letter publicized in January 2016 that denounced the Turkish state's violation of the basic rights to life, liberty, and security of civilians in Kurdish cities. Üstel was also the first academic to refuse the legal provision the courts offer when prison sentences are less than two years.
Bilindiği gibi Barış İçin Akademisyenler 11 Ocak 2016’da kamuoyuyla paylaştıkları “Bu Suça Ortak Olmayacağız!” başlıklı imza metninin ardından tehdit edildiler, adli ve idari soruşturmaların öznesi oldular, ihraç edildiler, seyahat özgürlükleri ve çalışma özgürlükleri ihlal edildi. İfade özgürlükleri ve akademik özgürlükleri yok sayıldı.
La Conférence des Présidents d’Université française (CPU) vient d’être informée de la situation de Madame Füsun Üstel, Professeure de Sciences politiques à l’Université de Galatasaray, aujourd’hui à la retraite, qui vient d’être condamnée à 15 mois de prison ferme pour avoir signé en 2016 une pétition en faveur de la paix avec 1127 autres universitaires turcs.
The World Medical Association has expressed shock at prison sentences handed down to several leading Turkish physicians.
BHRC has issued a public statement expressing serious concern at the recent arrests by Turkish authorities of academics and activists. The arrests appear consistent with a sustained attack on dissent as a means of silencing critical voices within Turkey.
In a petition made public in January 2016, 2212 academics and researchers from Turkey, supported by several hundred international academics—called on the Turkish government to abide by the domestic and international law and to return to the peace process that had been interrupted in July 2015. After the petition was made public, the signatories were specifically targeted by President Erdoğan and subsequently attacked, threatened and became subject to administrative and criminal investigations. Some were arrested and kept in prison.
İstanbul Üniversitesi'nden barış imzacısı hocamız, arkadaşımız Nuray Ergüneş'in aramızdan ayrıldığını büyük bir üzüntüyle öğrendik. Ailesine ve yakınlarına başsağlığı diliyoruz.
The Organizing Committee of the Graduate Workers of Columbia University – UAW Local 2110 severely condemns the Turkish government’s continued assault on dissenting voices amongst Turkish faculty and students, and stand in solidarity with the signatories of the January 2016 Peace Petition now facing a fresh round of criminal indictments. Read our full statement here:
