SAR urges expression of support for Turkey’s threatened higher education sector
Posted July 19, 2016
July 19, 2016—Scholars at Risk is gravely concerned about sweeping actions against Turkey’s higher education sector, including forced resignations, suspensions, and travel bans, reportedly affecting thousands of individuals, in Turkey and abroad.
Turkish scholars have been subject to heavy pressures and constraints since the declaration of the petition “We’ll not be a party to this crime” launched by the Academics for Peace initiative in mid-January. In Mersin, a middle-sized city on the Mediterranean Coast, this climate of pressure has been experienced in an accentuated manner as the twenty-one petitioners of the city's University have since then faced very serious threats and sanctions.
The case of Academics for Peace in Turkey shows us academics trapped between authoritarianism and precarity, and why international solidarity has become crucial.
Within the academic world, the long-awaited summer is the prize one gets after hectic semesters. It offers a welcome break from the immediacy and constancy of teaching, from committees and administrative work, giving one the ability to slow down, to breathe, and focus on research and writing.
For many Turkish academics, however, this one is bound to be a summer of heated legal battles, harassment, and uncertainty instead of being a much needed-break.
Hundreds Investigated for ‘Terrorism’
In the latest attack on free speech in Turkey, three academics who signed a peace petition in January 2016 have been jailed by an Istanbul court on suspicion of “making terrorist propaganda.” The three were jailed on March 15, 2016, pending the completion of a criminal investigation.
