Turkey has been accused of violating academic freedom by rounding up university teachers who signed a petition denouncing military operations against Kurds in the south-east of the country.
Police detained 27 academics over alleged “terror propaganda” after they signed a petition together with more than 1,400 others calling for an end to Turkey’s “deliberate massacre and deportation of Kurdish people”. The US ambassador to Turkey condemned the crackdown as “chilling”. Local media reported that all the group were later released.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has severely criticised the signatories, including political scientist Noam Chomsky and the Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek, and called on the judiciary to act against their alleged treachery.
Prosecutors launched an investigation into the academics over possible charges of insulting the state and engaging in terrorist propaganda.
Staff from 90 Turkish universities calling themselves “Academicians for Peace” signed the petition last week calling for an end to the military campaign against the Kurds and accusing the government of breaching international law.
Entitled “We won’t be a party to this crime”, the petition urged Ankara to “abandon its deliberate massacre and deportation of Kurdish and other peoples in the region”.
All 1,128 Turkish signatories of the petition are under investigation, according to the Doğan news agency. If convicted, they could face between one and five years in prison.
Some of the academics who signed the petition have been the subject of a backlash by nationalist students, according to signatories who asked not to be named. One accused Erdoğan of a launching a witch hunt against the group and denied sympathising with terrorists.
She said: “My door at the university has been marked. Students wrote that they didn’t want terrorists as professors. They have also started a petition calling for me to be fired. At other universities signatories have [also] had their doors marked in red.
She said she and fellow signatories had been subjected to threats and intimidation, citing a speech by the convicted criminal and extreme nationalist Sedat Peker, who said he wants to “shower in the blood” of the signatories.
“Students and extreme rightwing groups have been circulating our pictures on social media or pamphlets, accusing us of being PKK terrorist teachers. They have said we won’t let you breathe in this city or this university. So the threats are very direct.” Another said “individuals are becoming the targets”.
A third said: “It is really dangerous, some people have gone into hiding. I’ve been threatened.”
Police detained 27 academics over alleged “terror propaganda” after they signed a petition together with more than 1,400 others calling for an end to Turkey’s “deliberate massacre and deportation of Kurdish people”. The US ambassador to Turkey condemned the crackdown as “chilling”. Local media reported that all the group were later released.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has severely criticised the signatories, including political scientist Noam Chomsky and the Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek, and called on the judiciary to act against their alleged treachery.
Prosecutors launched an investigation into the academics over possible charges of insulting the state and engaging in terrorist propaganda.
Staff from 90 Turkish universities calling themselves “Academicians for Peace” signed the petition last week calling for an end to the military campaign against the Kurds and accusing the government of breaching international law.
Entitled “We won’t be a party to this crime”, the petition urged Ankara to “abandon its deliberate massacre and deportation of Kurdish and other peoples in the region”.
All 1,128 Turkish signatories of the petition are under investigation, according to the Doğan news agency. If convicted, they could face between one and five years in prison.
Some of the academics who signed the petition have been the subject of a backlash by nationalist students, according to signatories who asked not to be named. One accused Erdoğan of a launching a witch hunt against the group and denied sympathising with terrorists.
She said: “My door at the university has been marked. Students wrote that they didn’t want terrorists as professors. They have also started a petition calling for me to be fired. At other universities signatories have [also] had their doors marked in red.
She said she and fellow signatories had been subjected to threats and intimidation, citing a speech by the convicted criminal and extreme nationalist Sedat Peker, who said he wants to “shower in the blood” of the signatories.
“Students and extreme rightwing groups have been circulating our pictures on social media or pamphlets, accusing us of being PKK terrorist teachers. They have said we won’t let you breathe in this city or this university. So the threats are very direct.” Another said “individuals are becoming the targets”.
A third said: “It is really dangerous, some people have gone into hiding. I’ve been threatened.”
