FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 27, 2017
NEW YORK—The arbitrary use of judicial power in targeting signatories of the January 2016 Academics for Peace petition is the latest in a long series of legal charges filed against civil society actors by authorities, and demonstrates the Turkish government’s ongoing campaign to silent dissent in all its forms.
In January last year, more than 2,000 academics, mostly Turks, petitioned the Turkish parliament calling for an end to what they said was the “deliberate planned massacre” and “deportation of Kurdish people” since the resumption of conflict with Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) separatists the previous July.
Istanbul Chief Prosecutor indicts academics on trumped-up terrorism charges for signing peace declaration. An indictment has been issued for academics from several universities who have signed the peace declaration named “We will not be a party to this crime”. The academics are being charged with “making propaganda for a terrorist organization” and are facing 7,5 years of imprisonment. The indictments are being filed by Istanbul Public Chief Prosecutor’s Office. The exact number of academics who are all charged with the same indictment but on an individual basis.
The situation for academics in Turkey has dramatically worsened since the failed coup on July 15, a matter of increasing importance given the investigations, firings, deportations, trials, and detentions of academics even prior to the coup. In January of this year, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had already stretched the term “terrorist” enough to apply it to over one thousand members of Academics for Peace for publishing a petition. This threat to academics was foreshadowed in previous attacks on journalists and opposition lawmakers.
Scholars charged with terrorism offences almost two years after signing anti-war petition
Turkish academics who signed an anti-war petition could face up to seven-and-a-half years in prison after new charges were filed against them.
Almost two years after 1,128 people signed what has become known as the "Academics for Peace" petition in January 2016, which condemned military action in south-east Turkey, several of its signatories have been told they will face charges of “propagandising for a terrorist organisation”.
We write on behalf of 207 health professionals, academics, and researchers, and 25 health and human rights organisations from many countries (appendix). We wish to bring to the attention of The Lancet's readers alarming events taking place in Turkey, where the state has been waging a campaign of terror and punishment against thousands of health professionals and academics.
Full article: http://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lancet/PIIS0140-6736(17)32093-7.pdf
Mr. Bekir Bozdağ
Justice Minister of the Republic of Turkey
Brussels, 23 May 2017
Dear Minister Bekir Bozdağ,
As participants in the Prague conference “Philosophy & Social Science” who consider themselves part of the tradition of critical theory we express our deep concern about our colleagues in Turkey who have been dismissed by executive decrees without due process and legal recourse. We extend our solidarity to all persecuted academics and specifically to Nuriye Gülmen and Semih Özakça who are on an indefinite hunger strike in protest of the injustice they have experienced.
