The following is an open letter from the international academic community in support of our Turkish colleagues, prepared by Science for the People.
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:
International solidarity is crucial at this time when our colleagues are facing criminal trials.
In an open letter to the President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul, HRK President Professor Dr Horst Hippler has expressed strong criticism of the prosecution of a large group of Turkish academics, whose trials are scheduled to begin this week.
This blog is curated by Academics for Peace Germany e.V. Its aim is, on the one hand, to create an archive of factual and up-to-date information on the ongoing developments that researchers, journalists and others with an interest in the topic can rely on. On the other hand, this blog will provide contextualization and analysis from a variety of different disciplines and theoretic approaches, in preparation of a planned research network on the instrumentalization of law for the suppression of academic freedom in Turkey and elsewhere.
36 of the 1,128 academics who are being tried for having signed the peace declaration of the Academics for Peace, stood trial before İstanbul Court. No academic has been acquitted. Their hearings have been adjourned.
ARTICLE 19 calls for the charges to be immediately dropped against all the signatories of the “Academics for Peace” petition and for anti-terror legislation to be reformed in line with international human rights standards.
