Reacting to news that Turkey’s Constitutional Court found the convictions of academics on charges of “making propaganda for a terrorist organization”, because they signed a peace petition in 2016, violated their right to freedom of expression, Amnesty International’s Turkey Campaigner, Milena Buyum said:
The Constitutional Court has ruled that the penalization of Academics for Peace on charge of “propagandizing for a terrorist organization” has violated their freedom of expression.
The Honorable Judges of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Turkey
Ahlatlıbel Mahallesi İncek Şehit Savcı
Mehmet Selim Kiraz Bulvarı No: 4 Posta Kodu:
06805 Çankaya/ANKARA
Turkey
Fax: +90 312 463 74 00
bilgi@anayasa.gov.tr
Your Honors,
On January 2016, a small Turkish organization of activists, Academics for Peace (AfP) called the Turkish government to stop its violent assault against the Kurdish towns and areas of Eastern Turkey and return to peace negotiations with the Kurdish leadership towards resolving the prolonged conflict between the Turkish state and its Kurdish citizens. For the full story, see my essay, here (click).
Associate Professor Dr. Tuna Altınel, who is one of the academics to be prosecuted for signing the “We will not be party to this crime” declaration and has been detained, says with refence to the declaration, “I’m proud to be part of it.”
Attorney Baybuğa has said, "Right now, I can say that the execution [of the sentence] has been suspended. We are very happy," on the release of Üstel, an academic for peace.
Prof. Dr. Füsun Üstel, a signatory of the Peace Declaration, has been released from the Eskişehir Women's Closed Prison where she had been behind bars since she turned herself in on May 8 to serve the prison term approved by the İstanbul Regional Court of Justice 3rd Penal Chamber.
To: Ankara Prosecution
Ankara Cumhuriyet Başsavcılığı
Your Excellency,
We are writing to manifest our indignation for the judgement concerning Dr. Noemi Levy-Aksu : 30 months in jail for signing the declaration “We will not be a party to this crime! 10.01.2016″. The accusation of “ supporting terrorism” because of an appeal for peace is absurd and ridiculous.
Ankara prosecution Ankara Cumhuriyet Başsavcılığı
Academics are lining up to support this appeal for peace and express solidarity with the targets of Erdogan’s attacks on freedom and basic rights.
In support of ‘Academics for Peace,’ more than a hundred academics, including Seyla Benhabib, Noam Chomsky, Nancy Fraser, Fredric Jameson, Steven Pinker, Michael Löwy, Wendy Brown, Bertell Ollman, Warren Montag and Saskia Sassen, have reported themselves to the Attorney General’s Office in Ankara.
A campaign of silencing and prosecution is creating a vacuum at a pivotal moment.
For the past two decades, the Turkish academic Ayse Gul Altinay has been providing, through her writing and research, incisive analysis of the impact of violence on her country. Her work offered a better understanding of how conflict has passed through generations and was beginning to build a blueprint on how to break this cycle.
Individual applications by Academics for Peace who were given prison terms have been sent to the General Assembly of The Constitutional Court. Meanwhile, the courts began to postpone ongoing trials to wait for the top court verdict.
The First Section of the Constitutional Court examined the individual applications of the academics who were given prison terms for "terrorist propaganda" for having signed the declaration titled, "We Will Not be a Party to This Crime" and sent the file to the General Assembly on July 3.
