Int. Academic Community Speaks Out

Cultural Boycott of Turkey Led by Major Scholars and Artists

A group of 280 leading scholars, writers, and artists — including Angela Davis, Noam Chomsky, and Brian Eno — signed the petition in response to Turkey’s invasion of Kurdish regions in northeastern Syria.

A group of 280 leading scholars, writers, and artists have signed a petition to boycott Turkish government-sponsored academic and cultural institutions. Signatories include famous scholars Angela Davis and Noam Chomsky; art critics Boris Groys and David Levi Strauss; anthropologist Michael Taussig; musician Brian Eno; and Eyal Weizman, founding director of the London-based collective Forensic Architecture, among others. The petition was released in response to Turkey’s invasion of Kurdish regions in northeastern Syria.

The petition calls on academics, artists, and intellectuals around the world to opt-out of joint projects and research collaborations with Turkish universitiesand to pressure international academic institutions to sever all ties with Turkish counterparts. It also calls on trade unions representing university staff to make a commitment to support the boycott.

“The boycott we are calling for does not preclude communication and collaboration with individual Turkish scholars or democratic institutions/journals,” the petition clarifies. “Turkish scholars will be welcome to attend academic events, using institutional funding to do where appropriate, to publish in academic journals and to take part in other activities as individuals.”

This is also a call for cultural workers and cultural organizations to boycott events, activities, agreements or projects involving Turkish government or government-funded cultural institutions. International venues and festivals are asked to reject funding and any form of sponsorship from the Turkish government.

“Turkey’s academic institutions are deeply enmeshed with Turkish capitalism and the military industrial complex,” the campaign’s website reads. “Many universities act as incubators for Turkish military technology, making the arms companies richer, and strengthening the state’s oppressive militarism.” Turkey’s government and academic establishment, the petition adds, have been “working together to stamp out freedom of speech in Turkey.”

The petition builds on a previous call to boycott Turkish institutions released in 2017 in response to the Turkish state’s persecution of anti-war academics in the country. In January 2016, more than 2000 academics working in or researching on Turkey, a group that came to be known as Academics for Peace, signed a petition calling on the Turkish government to end its war in the Kurdish region, seek a peaceful resolution of the decades-long fight against Kurdish groups, and allow international observers to monitor the situation in Kurdish towns and cities destroyed by the Turkish army.

The Turkish government responded with a fierce crackdown on the scholars. More than 700 of them have been criminally charged with making propaganda for a terrorist organization. “[They] have been subjected to vindictive and punitive attacks ordered by the president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and implemented through joint efforts by the government and the higher education establishment,” the website hosting the petition reads.

Turkey’s military operations in Syria’s Kurdish regions began on October 9 after Erdoğan was reportedly given clearance by President Trump (the president later denied endorsing the invasion). Yesterday, October 21, United States troops withdrew from Syria, signaling a dramatic shift in American foreign policy in the region. A five-day ceasefire that was achieved last week expires today, October 22. Meanwhile, Russia is filling the void the American withdrawal left behind with a new agreement between Erdoğan and Russian president Vladimir Putin, which divides the power along the Turkey-Syria border between the two countries.

“US troops have been abruptly withdrawn from northern Syria, placing the Kurdish people in Rojava and others in Syria’s danger,” said Davis in an address at a conference in Sao Paolo, Brazil earlier this week. “I am inspired by the struggle for freedom that has been undertaken by the Kurdish people,” she continued. “Women’s freedom is conceptualized as the very heart of Kurdish freedom and of their struggle for democracy and socialism […] Kurdish women and men have been building the kind of democracy that should inspire us all to be more imaginative and more radical in our own aspirations and in our constant struggles for Freedom.”

 

In an email that raised a lot of eyebrows on October 14, chairman of Contemporary Istanbul, Ali Güreli, defended the Turkish invasion of Syria and called on visitors of the fair not to fall for “black propaganda” about ethnic cleansing of the Kurds in the region. In a follow-up email on October 18, Güreli retracted his statement, calling it “entirely inappropriate,” and vowing to “remain outside of any political situation or debate.”

“People in Turkey are being fed this Erdoğan gray wolf propaganda that what happened in Rojava was just an extention of the PKK [The Kurdistan Workers’ Party],” David Levi Strauss, critic, poet, and chair of the MFA program in Art Writing at the School of Visual Arts in New York, told Hyperallergic in a phone conversation. “That’s what’s they’re being told over and over again, and they believe it.”

In 2016, Strauss co-edited the book To Dare Imagining: Rojava Revolution, a collection of essays about the Kurdish revolution in Syria that has been hailed as a socialist, feminist, and democratic revolution since it started in 2012. In the past few weeks, Strauss has published a series of articles on the situation in Rojava, expressing his dismay of the overall indifference of the American public and media to atrocities committed against the Kurds. “Overall, the coverage in the U.S. media has been disgraceful,” he wrote in his latest dispatch. He continued: “Almost no one has mentioned the Rojava Revolution or the new society that had been formed there. No mention of the women. Do they really not know anything about it? The only mention I’ve seen was on Democracy Now.”

“We thought that we could have something to do with changing the conversation by publishing that book in 2016, and it had no effect what-so-ever,” Strauss told Hyperallergic. “Trump just handed Putin and Erdoğan everything they wanted,” he commented on the recent developments, “the ceasefire was just an extension of that.”

“What Rojava built, while attacked from all sides, was an amazing thing,” Strauss said. “I’m afraid it’s being crushed under the boots of Erdoğan, Trump, Assad, Putin, and it’s a terrible loss for the world.”

Cultural Boycott of Turkey Led by Major Scholars and Artists

YÖK event at SOAS cancelled

We are pleased to hear that the PR event of the Turkish Council of Higher Education (YÖK) on “the integration of refugee academics and students into Turkish higher education” at SOAS has been cancelled. YÖK and the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK) and the Turkish universities have violated the right for academic freedom and betrayed the international norms on higher education.

Under instructions from the president Erdogan, the government, the security establishment, the Higher Education Council and the university rectors have all joined forces to exact ‘a heavy price’ on Academics for Peace, who have signed a declaration calling on the Turkish government  in January 2016 to end the war in the Kurdish region, seek a peaceful resolution of the decades-long Kurdish question, and allow international observers to monitor the situation in Kurdish towns and cities destroyed by security forces.

The lynching campaign is still ongoing and has so far led to multiple waves of criminal and administrative investigations, detentions, imprisonment,  dismissals, passport revocations and travel bans, denial of pension rights, and exclusion from the labour market through blacklisting of national insurance numbers.

By violating academic freedom, intimidating, attacking, taking disciplinary action against “Academics for Peace” and sacking them, YÖK and universities have lost their credibility as academic institutions. YÖK and universities are acting as a mouthpiece for the authoritarian and repressive government in Ankara and there should not be any place at universities for those who not only violated the right for academic freedom and betrayed the international norms on higher education, but also acted like an extended arm of the intelligence agencies in their universities.

 

Once again, we call on the Turkish Government to stop the persecution of “Academics for Peace”, respect academic freedoms by ending persecution, imprisonment and all other measures to penalize signatories of the petition, and we urge the Turkish Government to re-instate all the academics suspended or expelled during the persecution campaign with compensation.

 

 

Open Letter to German Academia

Posted on 12/06/2019 

We are deeply concerned to learn that the Zentrum für Türkeistudien und Integrationsforschung (ZfTI) in Essen is sponsoring a panel discussion on 13 June 2019 on the integration of refugee academics and students into Turkish higher education, and that it will do so in collaboration with the Turkish Council of Higher Education (YÖK).

A similar event was scheduled to be held on 11 June 2019 at the Brunei Gallery in the United Kingdom. Due to opposition from the international academic community, the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) cancelled its hosting of the event (Source: https://academicboycottofturkey.wordpress.com/news/). Like the event in Essen, the panel discussion was planned in collaboration with YÖK, as one of a series of events organised to promote YÖK’s purported role in supporting refugee academics and students.

Established by the military junta in 1982, YÖK has played a key role in the harassment and dismissal of thousands of Turkish university faculty and staff, a role it has conducted under the direction of the Turkish government. The title of the event planned at ZfTI in Essen, ‘Carrying the Academic Heritage to the Future: Refugee Integration through Higher Education: Policies and Measures’, is thus both cynical and deeply troubling.

It is our hope that The University of Duisburg-Essen, as an internationally renowned institution which provides crucial support for persecuted scholars through the Academy in Exile, will not collaborate with an organisation that has been so detrimental to academic freedom.

Scholars at Risk, Human Rights Watch, and the Committee on Academic Freedom of Middle East Studies Association (MESA) of North America have all documented the severe violation of academic freedom in Turkey and reported on the Turkish government’s campaign against teaching and administrative staff and students. Since the July 2016 attempted coup d’etat, nearly 6000 university personnel have been dismissed and 15 universities closed. Most of their these individuals are permanently barred from employment in the public sector, and their passports have been confiscated. More shockingly, since 2016, almost 70,000 students have been jailed.

In January 2016, a group of 2212 academics have been specifically targeted for signing a petition requesting that Turkey return to the peace process. Hundreds of these academics have been either dismissed or forced to resign; dozens of graduate students have lost their scholarships or assistantships, and many are subjected to intimidation or threats at their universities. YÖK, together with the Turkish Scientific and Technological Research Council (TÜBİTAK) and the university chancellors, was directly involved in these purges and in the measures taken against students. The signatories of the peace petition have been removed from journal boards; they have been excluded from publications that are fully or partially funded by TÜBİTAK; many have been recalled to Turkey while abroad on visiting scholar positions; numerous scholars have been removed or banned from TÜBİTAK-funded projects.

Moreover, 742 academics have been required to appear in court. Today, 137 academics have been sentenced to 15 months in prison; 10 academics have been sentenced to 18 months and 15 days; 18 academics have been sentenced to 22 months; five academics have been sentenced to 25 months; 17 academics have been sentenced to 27 months;  six academics have been sentenced to 30 months, and one academic has been sentenced to 36 months of jail time. Of the 194 individuals who have received prison sentences, 35 have been denied the possibility of a suspended sentence. In addition, six of those who have been sentenced declined the opportunity. For this reason, we assert that any claim to protect the academic heritage in the Middle East by a country where thousands of academics are being arbitrarily dismissed, sentenced to jail terms, jailed, and forced into exile merely because of their alleged political views and without due legal process, is at best insincere. to have their prison terms suspended. At the moment, a total of 35 academics are at imminent risk of imprisonment; two are in prison already.

Since 2016, hundreds of academics had to leave Turkey and they are forced into living in exile in different countries abroad. YÖK, together with TÜBİTAK, has not only helped carry out the government’s attacks on academics, but also legitimised them.

For this reason, we assert that any claim to protect the academic heritage in the Middle East by a country where thousands of academics are being arbitrarily dismissed, sentenced to jail terms, jailed, and forced into exile merely because of their alleged political views and without due legal process, is at best insincere.

We thus entreat The University of Duisburg-Essen to join us in denouncing the panel discussion to be held at ZfTI on 13 June 2019 and to reaffirm its commitment to defending academic freedom.

12 June 2019
Academics for Peace – Germany

Open Letter to German Academia

 

ACADEMIC FREEDOM, AUTHORITARIANISM AND TURKEY

Solidarity with Academics for Peace: An Open Letter to SOAS -Call for Urgent action!

We are deeply disappointed about SOAS decision to sponsor a panel discussion on 11 June 2019 in conjunction with the Turkish Council of Higher Education (YÖK) on the integration of refugee academics and students into Turkish higher education. Established by the military junta in 1982 the Turkish Council of Higher Education has played a key role in the harassment and dismissal of thousands of Turkish university faculty and staff on the orders of the Turkish government in the last few years. Hence the panel’s title – “Refugee Crisis and Carrying the Academic Heritage to the Future through Higher Education is deeply troubling.SOAS as we know it, would not collaborate with an organization that has been so detrimental to academic freedoms.

 

Scholars at Risk, Human Rights Watch, and the Committee on Academic Freedom of Middle East Studies Association of North America documented severe violation of academic freedoms in Turkey and the Turkish government’s campaign against teaching and administrative staff as well as students. Since the July 2016 attempted coup d’etat nearly 6000 university personnel have been dismissed and 15 universities closed. Most of these individuals are permanently barred from employment in the public sector and have their passports have been cancelled. More shockingly since then close to 70,000 students are in jail.  Both the Council of Higher Education and the university rectors were directly involved in these purges and in the actions against students.

 

A more specific targeting happened to a group of 2200 academics who wrote a declaration asking Turkey to return to peace discussions with the Kurdish armed forces in January 2016.  Hundreds of those academics have been dismissed or forced to resign, dozens of graduate students lost their scholarships or assistantship and many were subjected to intimidation or threat in their universities. Moreover, 610 academics have been required to appear in court and as a result 134 academics have been sentenced to 15 months in prison, 18 academics have been sentenced to 22 months and 15 days, 8 academics have been sentenced to 18 months, and 2 academics have been sentenced to 18 months and 15 days. 17 academics sentenced to 27 months, 6 academics sentenced to 28 months, 4 academics sentenced to 25 months, and 1 academic sentenced to 36 months of jail time.  Of the 192 individuals who have been given prison sentences, a total of 35 have been sentenced to more than 2 years and thus denied the possibility of a suspended sentence. In addition, 6 of those who have been sentenced declined the opportunity to have their prison terms suspended. At the moment a total of 35 academics are at imminent risk of imprisonment and already 2 of them are in prison.

Since 2016 hundreds of academics had to leave Turkey through legal and illegal means were forced to themselves become refugees.

An event that celebrates integrating refugee academics from Syria in a country where thousands of academics are arbitrarily dismissed, jailed, sentenced to be jailed, forced to become refugees only for their alleged political positions without any due legal procedures is at best insincere.

Here, we would like to repeat UCU’s call on UK universities, colleges and other institutions to support persecuted academics and to freeze collaboration with Turkish universities taking action against academics.

We call on SOAS to cancel the 11 June 2019 panel discussion at the Brunei Gallery and reaffirm its commitment to the defend academic freedom.

Concerned UK Academics for Peace

For further information, please click at https://barisicinakademisyenler.net/English

Soutien à Tuna Altınel

L’université de Bordeaux s’associe aux voix nombreuses qui expriment leur indignation suite à l’emprisonnement en Turquie de Tuna Altinel, maître de conférences à l’université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 au sein de l’institut Camille Jordan.

Tuna Altınel a été emprisonné en Turquie le samedi 11 mai dernier au motif de sa participation à une conférence organisée à Lyon en février dernier par l’association “Amitiés kurdes de Lyon et Rhône-Alpes”, alors qu’il cherchait à récupérer son passeport confisqué à son arrivée à Istanbul pour les vacances de printemps le 12 avril. Tuna Altinel fait partie des plus de 2000 « universitaires pour la paix » signataires en janvier 2016 d’une pétition appelant à l’arrêt des combats au Kurdistan turc et à la reprise des négociations. Comme nombre de signataires de cette pétition, Tuna Altinel est poursuivi par les autorités turques pour « propagande pour une organisation terroriste ».

L’université de Bordeaux réaffirme son soutien et sa solidarité à Tuna Altinel, et plus généralement aux chercheurs, universitaires et intellectuels qui se trouvent aujourd’hui dans l’incapacité d’assurer leur mission académique. Elle rappelle son attachement à la liberté d’expression, pilier de toute démocratie, ainsi qu’à la liberté de recherche et d’enseignement.  Source 

Mehmet Ugur: We will eventually see an erosion of the authoritarian, nationalist and fascist elements in Turkey

“Where will it lead? I can’t tell. Changing and rebuilding the institutions will be a massive task.”

Academics for Peace unites 2,237 people supporting peace in Turkey’s mostly Kurdish-populated south-eastern provinces. Many are among the 1,128 signatories of a 2016 petition — We Will Not Be a Party To This Crime — calling for an end to violence in the region. The petition condemned state violence against the Kurds and Turkey’s violation of its own laws and international treaties.

As of 29 May 2019, 724 members of Academics for Peace are on trial and facing imprisonment. So far, 180 sentences – ranging from between 15 and 36 months – have been handed down.

One of the signatories of the petition, professor Füsun Üstel, began her 15-month jail term on 8 May 2019. She is the first of the signatories to begin her sentence.

In April, professor Tuna Altınel of Claude Bernard University in Lyon had his passport confiscated when he returned to Turkey for the Easter holidays. On 11 May, he was detained when he went to the police station to inquire about his passport. He remains in custody on charges relating to a conference he organised in Lyon on 21 February 2019 in solidarity with the Kurds.

Mehmet Ugur, a member of Academics for Peace and professor of economics and Institutions at University of Greenwich, spoke with Index on Censorship about the current situation for Turkish academics.  Read More

Solidarity with Professor Ayse Gül Altinay.

Ayse Gül Altinay (Sabanci University) a guest lecturer and grant recipient of CEU-Sabanci University Joint Academic Initiative was sentenced 25 months of prison. Here is her speech in the courthouse. Please feel to share it as an act of solidarity and support.  Read More

Statement of Support for Ayşe Gül Altınay

On May 23 Ayşe Gül Altınay , Sabanci University in Istanbul, was sentenced to 25 months in prison for ‘willingly and knowingly supporting a terrorist organisation as a non-member’. This is because she signed the statement “We will not be a party to this crime” in support of colleagues, democracy and academic freedom. Ayşe is a cultural anthropologist, Director of the Gender and Women’s Studies Centre and editorial board member of the European Journal of Women’s Studies. She is a very highly appreciated cooperation partner of our Center, the Cornelia Goethe Center for Gender and Women’s Studies at Goethe-University Frankfurt a. M. as she is for many Gender Studies institutions all over the world. Discussion and cooperation with her is always inspiring and leads to innovative research and teaching projects. Colleagues and students know her as an outstanding scholar and teacher, as a brilliant analyst and as an activist who makes a difference. Read More

 

Free Tuna Altınel

(Version française)

Tuna Altinel, a mathematician at Institut Camille Jordan, University of Lyon 1, is being held in prison by the Turkish authorities in response to his involvement in the defence of human rights with the “Academics for Peace” movement. We call for his immediate release and return to France, as well as respect for the fundamental rights of all the Academics for Peace.

For more information see the support commitee webpage.

Read More

 

 

DEMONSTRATION IN SOLIDARITY WITH IMPRISONED ACADEMICS IN TURKEY
Date/Time: 18 May at 1pm (Saturday)
Location: Opposite 10 Downing Street, London

 

Two Academics for Peace in jail: freedom of expression is ever more trampled upon in Turkey 

“Turkey is incarcerating its academics!” This is what Tuna Altinel (University of Lyon 1, France) wrote to the European solidarity networks last Wednesday (8th of May 2019), as Füsun Üstel stepped into the women’s prison in Eskişehir. A retired political science professor from Galatasaray University, Füsun Üstel is one of the 2237 signatories of the peace petition published in January 2016, that denounced the Turkish state’s violation of civilians’ basic rights in the Kurdish cities of Turkey. Since then, more than a third of the Academics for Peace have been prosecuted, on the grounds of “terrorist propaganda”. The outcome of the trials has invariably been a jail sentence. However, until recently, the indicted academics were sentenced to a maximum of two years in prison with a suspension provision, provided they refrained from committing further “crimes” over the following five years.

Füsun Üstel refused this provision because she did not want to be condemned to silence. That is the reason why she is now behind bars. Other academics are likely to face a similar treatment soon: nine of them followed her example and are awaiting their judgment on appeal. But there is more: in December 2018, Gencay Gürsoy was sentenced to 27-month imprisonment. Gürsoy is the former president of the Turkish Medical Association and a well-known activist of the fight for human rights in Turkey. As such, he was not judged for terrorist propaganda but for “insulting the Turkish people, the Republic of Turkey, the state institutions and the government”. Since then, several dozen academics have like him been sentenced to more than 24 months in jail, which means that the suspension provision is no longer an option. Furthermore, eleven members of the steering committee of the Union of Turkish Physicians have just been sentenced to 20 month-imprisonment for declaring, when Afrin was invaded in January 2018, that “war is a public health issue”

The last episode in the relentless expansion of arbitrary practices and crushing repression took place this Saturday, 11^th of May, when Tuna Altinel, a mathematician who has been an associate professor at the Claude BernardUniversity of Lyon 1 and a French resident since 1996, was put in jail.  Tuna is Turkish and has a Turkish passport which was confiscated at Istanbul airport last month, when he travelled to Turkey to visit his family over the Easter break. During his trial as an academic for peace, Tuna had refused to disavow the peace petition. Indeed, when asked whether he agreed with its content, he had responded that he had arrived at the same assessments as those contained in the declaration during his stays in the region, and that he actually had had a lived experience in Nusaybin and Cizre of what the declaration describes as if he was the author.

The official grounds provided for his incarceration today are that he took part in an event organised in Lyon on the 21stof February 2019 by an association of solidarity with Kurdish people, which an MP in exile, from opposition party HDP and from the city of Cizre, was also attending. During that event, a documentary was shown with scenes of the massacres committed by the Turkish security forces in Cizre after the electoral defeat of the ruling party AKP on the 7th of June 2015, i.e. the very massacres that motivated the peace petition.

Of course, academics are not the only ones under attack in Turkey: journalists, lawyers, civil servants are also targeted. But, through Füsun Üstel’s and Tuna Altinel’s incarceration, the Turkish state is punishing the refusal to bend to its arbitrary pronouncements and to submit to its parody of justice. We declare our solidarity with Füsun Üstel and Tuna Altinel, and with all the signatories of the peace petition who currently live under threat, and we call on all Universities in the UK and the EU and their federations, as well as on the EU institutions, to intervene and demand the immediate release of our incarcerated colleagues, as well as the end of state repression in Turkey.

 

EMS Statement on the Arrest of Prof Tuna Altinel

Last week the mathematician Tuna Altinel, member of the European Mathematical Society and professor at the Université Lyon 1 in France, was arrested in Turkey after he had his passport extracted by the police. Tuna Altinel was one of the signatories of the peace petition supported by more than 2000 scientists and intellectuals against military actions towards civilians. https://euro-math-soc.eu/news/19/05/14/ems-statement-arrest-prof-tuna-altinel

The European Mathematical Society condemns this violation of Prof Altinel’s human rights and demands that he is immediately released and allowed to return to France to resume his teaching and research.

AKADEMİSYEN YARGILAMALARI

Tuna Altınel’in Beyanı

Ben Barış Bildirisi’ni yalnızca imzalamadım. Onu düşündüm, hissettim, yaşadım. O metni ben yazdım. Her cümlesinin arkasındayım. Read More

Solidarité avec les universitaires turcs

Le professeur Füsun Üstel est actuellement emprisonnée en raison des positions qu’elle a prises pour la défense des droits de l’homme. Dans le même temps, notre collègue Tuna Altinel, Maître de conférences à l’université de Lyon, s’est vu confisquer son passeport ; il se trouve dorénavant dans l’impossibilité de quitter la Turquie. Read More

Rassemblement de solidarité avec les universitaires pour la paix en Turquie

by Tuna Altınel – Füsun Üstel

Tuesday 14 May 2019, 18:00 → 19:00Europe/Paris

Place de la république Lyon, read more

EMS Statement on the Detention of Betül Tanbay

The European Mathematical Society is outraged at the news that the Turkish police have detained, in Istanbul on the morning of 16th November 2018, Professor Betül Tanbay, a member of the EMS Executive Committee. We are incredulous at the subsequent press release from the Istanbul Security Directorate accusing her of links to organized crime and attempts to topple the Turkish government.

Professor Tanbay is a distinguished mathematician and a Vice President Elect of the European Mathematical Society, due to assume that role from January 2019. We have known her for many years as a talented scientist and teacher, a former President of the Turkish Mathematical Society, an open-minded citizen, and a true democrat. She may not hesitate to exercise her freedom of speech, a lawful right that any decent country guarantees its citizens, but it is preposterous to suggest that she could be involved in violent or criminal activities.

We demand that Professor Tanbay is immediately freed from detention, and we call on the whole European research community to raise its voice against this shameful mistreatment of our colleague, so frighteningly reminiscent of our continent’s darkest times.

TO THE INTERNATIONAL ACADEMIC COMMUNITY

We, the signatory academics to the Peace Declaration that went public in January 2016, have been subjected to multiple forms of intimidation, repression, defamation by governmental authorities as well as by pro-AKP groups in Turkey for more than two years. Despite all the pressures we have stood for our claim to peace in our country. Despite all the intimidation we opted to stand in solidarity against the breach of our academic rights and liberties.

This is a call to our colleagues worldwide against the violation of our right to movement due to the unlawful cancellation of our passports within the scope of State of Emergency, mostly via decrees in the force of law through which we are banned from public service.

Some Peace Signatories who are not included in any decree in the force of law are also arbitrarily subjected to this restriction. Even the family members are subjected to similar violations. As of August 2018, 405 peace signatories were banned from public service. Since it is not only the peace academics but their families whose right to movement is violated the number reaches detrimental levels. Besides, it is not only the peace academics who are immediately affected by this unlawful practice but the process works such arbitrarily that it can target anyone deemed to be opposing the government’s practices.

Many of us cannot activate the overseas scholarships that we have as a result of  this unlawful practice. We cannot refer to the domestic law procedures. This is because the government labels us as complicit to ‘terrorist’ activities.

This locks us into a sphere where we can no longer pursue our academic engagements at institutional level: ‘Civil death’, it is called!

That is why we prioritize the support of international academic and intellectual community.

We ask our colleagues all around the world to support us in our search for claiming our right to movement.

Below is a list of ways for support. Please do add your own ideas and let us know.

Freedom is in solidarity!

1. You can spread the word by:

   1. sending individual emails to your colleagues, to the administrative bodies in your workplaces and/or in the academic and research institutions with which you are affiliated

   2. writing petitions supporting our claim to the right to movement.

2. You can raise (academic) public opinion by symbolic acts of:

   1. inviting academics whose passports are cancelled to your institutions for research, as guest lecturers, as visiting faculty

   2. starting collaborative research

   3. organizing different forms of academic meetings where the academics whose passports are cancelled feature as participants.

3. Above all, you can continue supporting us by repetitive engagement in forming various forms of international academic solidarity networks and procedures.

AIDC WOULD LIKE TO REITERATE ITS SUPPORT FOR PROFESSOR  IBRAHIM KABOGLU, AT A TIME WHEN HE IS CALLED TO APPEAR BEFORE THE ASSIZE COURT FOR REASONS RELATED TO HIS PROFESSIONAL COMMITMENTS

28 March 2018

Ibrahim Kaboğlu, Professor of Constitutional Law, President of the Constitutional Law Research Association and a member of the Istanbul Bar, is being prosecuted for
“terrorist propaganda”.

His colleagues who welcomed him as a visiting professor or lecturer can testify not only to his great qualities as a researcher, but also to his sense of restraint, his deep humanity, and the strength of his convictions that have never called for violence.
Like 1128 other academics, in January 2016, he signed the “petition for peace”. The
petition was published several months before the coup attempt in July 2016 but
was included in the crackdown that followed the attempted coup and the proclamation of a state of emergency.

Ibrahim Kaboğlu was dismissed from his position as Professor of Law at Istanbul’s
Marmara University by the Decree of 7 February 2017 (issued under the state of
emergency). Ibrahim Kaboğlu’s passport was confiscated although he had begun delivering his lectures in France as a visiting professor at Paris III University. Just because of this, he cannot participate in international symposia. He will be unable to Chair Workshop 19 (on Conflicts, Peacebuilding and Constitutional Law) at the 10th World Congress of Constitutional Law as planned, just as he has been unable to participate in 10 conferences to which he was invited.
A criminal investigation was launched against the signatories of the petition. The trial
began on 5 December 2017. Ibrahim Kaboğlu was summoned before the Istanbul 36th
Assize Court on 21 December.

The second hearing will be held on 26 April 2018. Ibrahim Kaboğlu risks being sentenced to a prison term of between one and 7 and a half years and, furthermore, to the deprivation of all his political and civil rights.

The IACL reiterates its strong condemnation of the dismissal of Prof Kaboğlu without due
process, and without any evidence that could associate him with the failed coup of 15 July 2016, or any kind of terrorist activity. The prospect of conviction on spurious charges, with potentially serious consequences for him and his family, are regrettable and would aggravate the already grave violation of basic principles of the rule of law,
democracy and international human rights on the part of the Turkish government.

The President of the IACL, Prof Manuel Cepeda, is available for interviews relating to
this statement and can be contacted at manueljcepeda@gmail.com

President/Président
Manuel Cepeda-Espinosa (Colombia/Colombie)
Presidents Emeriti/Présidents Emérites
Jovan Djordjevic † (Serbia/Serbie)
Patrice Gélard (France)
Thomas Fleiner (Switzerland/Suisse)
Michel Rosenfeld (USA)
Cheryl Saunders (Australia/Australie)
Didier Maus (France)
Martin Scheinin (Finland/Finlande)
Honorary Presidents/Présidents d’honneur
Piet Akkermans † (Netherlands/Pays-Bas)
Cardoso da Costa (Portugal)
José Luis Cea Egaña (Chile/Chili)
Louis Favoreu † (France)
Louis Henkin † (USA)
Yoichi Higuchi (Japan/Japon)
George Kassimatis (Greece/Grèce)
Naoki Kobayashi (Japan/Japon)
Salvador Lozada (Argentina/Argentine)
Kostas Mavrias (Greece/Grèce)
Pavle Nikolic (Serbia/Serbie)
Christian Starck (Germany/Allemagne)
Guiseppe de Vergottini (Italy/Italie)
First Vice-president/Premier vice-président
Adrienne Stone (Australia/Australie)
Vice-presidents/Vice-présidents
Nadia Bernoussi (Morocco/Maroc)
Marcelo Figueiredo (Brazil/Brésil)
Charles Fombad (Cameroon/Cameroun)
Lech Garlicki (Poland/Pologne)
Mo Jihong (China/Chine)
Bertrand Mathieu (France)
Jaehwang Jeong

Executive Committee/Comité Exécutif
Zaid Al-Ali (Iraq/Irak)
Maria Lucia Amaral (Portugal)
Eva Brems (Belgium/Belgique)
Surya Deva (India/Inde)
Selin Esen (Turkey/Turquie)
Francisco Javier Garcia Roca (Spain/Espagne)
Tom Ginsburg (USA)
Werner Heun (Germany/Allemagne)
Chong Jong-Sup (Korea/Corée)
George Katrougalos (Greece/Grèce)
Helle Krunke (Denmark/Danemark)
César Landa Arroyo (Peru/Pérou)
Andrew Le Sueur (UK/Royaume-Uni)
Susanna Mancini (Italy/Italie)
Mulela Margaret Munalula (Zambia/Zambie)
Suzie Navot (Israe/Israël)
Enyinna Nwauche (Nigeria)
Harry Roque (Philippines)
Jose Maria Serna (Mexico/Mexique)
Elena Simina Tanasescu (Romania)
Miyoko Tsujimura (Japan)
Renata Uitz (Hungary)
Grégoire Webber (Canada)
Secretary General/Secrétaire Général
David Bilchitz (South Africa/Afrique du Sud)
Deputy Secretary General & Treasurer/Secrétaire Général Adjoint & Trésorier
Norman Taku (South Africa/Afrique du Sud)
Venice Commission representative/Représentant de la Commission de Venise
Gianni Buquicchio (Italy/Italie)

Int. Academic Community Speaks Out -Zalimin talim ettiği yola minnet eylemeyiz

Assist. Prof. Dr. Nazi Kazi’s historical talk at İstanbul Zaim University

Assist. Prof. Dr. Nazia Kazi of Stockton University has taught a lesson to those who think they can run roughshod over  academic freedom and/or become complicit with the ruthless and repressive systems like Erdogan regime. With the permission of Assist. Prof. Dr. Kazi, we are publishing her historical talk that is guided by ethical principles. She  delivered it at İstanbul Zaim University  last week.

The aim of the conference was to co-opt and utilize the invaluable scholarship of the international academics to legitimize the AKP authoritarian agenda. Many  Turkish ruling AKP members including the party’s Vice Chair Ravza Kavakci Kan and  pro-Turkish government’s academics were present at the conference. However some invited academics like  Assist. Prof. Dr. Nazi Kazi have refused to be  instrumentalised by the AKP authoritarian regime. We would like to thank to  Nazia Kazi  for her solidarity during this difficult time and for speaking out against injustice that has been done by those who have learned to use power as a weapon to silence the critical voices.

Here is Nazia Kazi’s inspiring talk

“My comments today will be very brief. The title of this conference is “Contextualizing Islamophobia” – contextualizing Islamophobia. The title of this event itself reminds us that our scholarship on Islamophobia is entirely dependent on context.

So, some context: I come from the US, where I study Islamophobia in the context of the anti-Muslim regime of Donald Trump, as I did in the anti-Muslim regime of Obama before him. I come from the US, where I live at the heart of the most racist and destructive empire to ever exist. The day before I departed for Turkey, there were flyers being circulated in major US cities entitled “April 3^rd is Punish a Muslim Day”.  Although I kind of think everyday is “punish a Muslim day” if you’re a US taxpayer. Just a week before that, police in California shot and killed an unarmed black man in his own back yard. Our military budget is a gargantuan $700BN, a number enthusiastically agreed upon by both of our imperialist political parties. This is business as usual at the heart of empire. Seeing Dr Sami Al Arian in the front row, whose ordeal horrified anyone invested in justice, is a reminder of the deep brutality of US empire. It is in that context that I do my work on Islamophobia.

 Speaking of Islamophobia today, in Istanbul, given the recent context of which we’ve all been made aware, means something very, very different.

 As a scholar with a commitment to decoloniality, it would be disingenuous to simply deliver the talk I’d proposed, without acknowledging a reality that has become patently clear to me over the few days. I’ll assume everyone is familiar with what we can call the recent ‘academic purge’.

 My work is not scholarship “on Islamophobia” or “about Muslims”. Instead, studying Islamophobia has been a way for me to make sense of domination; to make sense of the possibilities of international solidarity; to make sense of how powerful states coopt the language of liberation for sinister purposes.

 So, here are the political commitments that foreground my work.

 First, the brief comments I offer today in lieu of my proposed paper are not grounded in a particularly sophisticated historical analysis. My comments are not rooted in a deep understanding of local current affairs. The folks who reached out to each of the presenters to ask us to reconsider being here today – those are the people who would be better able to engage in that conversation than I would. So rather than being guided by an empiricism, I am guided by ethical principles, principles that are shaped by what I’ll call “the spirit of BDS”.

 The BDS – Boycott, Divest, and Sanctions movement that holds Israel accountable for their crimes – asks scholars to abstain from participating in spaces that are enactors of ethnonationalist violence, that are complicit in state crimes. Yes, it even asks those scholars who may not be intimately familiar with the facts “on the ground” to make these decisions, to make them based not on empiricism but on ethical commitments. I have often asked scholars to make decisions very similar to the one I was asked to make today. It is in that spirit that I offer these incomplete remarks.

 Second, I accept that many of our political commitments reside in ‘grey areas.’ I’ve felt disgust in the past when I learned of comrades who accepted speaking engagements that were affiliated with Assad’s regime, for instance, even when those affiliations were oblique.  Here I am, declaring my own discomfort with the repressive state of affairs here – yet I myself hail from a deeply repressive state. I hope that we understand that such contradictions are at the heart of all political and intellectual praxis.

 Third, I don’t believe in taking strange bedfellows as political practice. If anyone who stood up to Israel was automatically my ally, well, then I’d be getting cozy with former US politician Pat Buchanan, who a) espouses some horrendously racist and bigoted world views while b) speaking absolute truth on Palestine. No thanks to that alliance. No thanks to allying with, say, Indian PM Narendra Modi because he talks a good ‘anti-colonial’ talk in justifying his anti-Muslim and pro-business agenda. My enemies’ enemies are not my friends. This, for me, has been the most important lesson of decolonial scholarship. As I said earlier, this isn’t about enemies and friends. This is about unshakeable political commitments.

Any state that feels it imperative to purge academics has outgrown the need for the US’s propaganda to demonize it anymore. Any state that uses the language of anti-imperialism, anti-Zionism, or fighting Islamophobia to enact repression is no longer engaged in anti-imperialism, anti-Zionism, or anti-Islamophobia, not in any form I can recognize.

 For me, spending a decade studying Islamophobia and US empire has helped me to better understand how authoritarian states work, how repression of academic freedom works, and how Muslims themselves have at times been conscripted to carry out the very repression they want to fight. In other words, studying Islamophobia has allowed me to understand better how easily the very concept of Islamophobia can be co-opted.

 I had wanted today to engage in a meaningful discussion of how the fight against Islamophobia must be a multifaceted one, committed to those most marginalized in society. Committed to dismantling oppressive state practices. But then I realized, after enough emails landed in my inbox taking me to task, that contextualizing Islamophobia, as this conference calls for us to do, would require being attentive to the very context we find ourselves in.

 I realized that if I am to rage against the repression of academic freedom in the US, especially as it targets Muslim and Arab scholars engaged in a critique of Israel, then I have to be equally resolute against all crackdowns on academic freedom. I realized that if I wanted to speak of the importance of standing against oppressive state practices in the US, that I would have to attend to the nature of state repression in general.

 Today, I’d like to say something that may seem fairly obvious: if Islamophobia is to be confronted at all, it must be with a nuanced understanding of the forms repression can take. If Islamophobia is to be confronted at all, it must be with a sophisticated understanding of how authoritarian states work. If Islamophobia is to be confronted at all, it must be with a deliberate and principled commitment to academic freedom: academic freedom to speak robustly on the liberation of Palestine, to speak openly about the brutality of hegemonic states’ warfare, to speak openly about how powerful state actors disenfranchise their minority populations by calling them terrorists.

 African American revolutionary activist Fred Hampton, who was murdered by the US government in 1969, said “We don’t think you fight fire with fire best. We think you fight fire with water best. We’re going to fight racism, not with racism, but we’re going to fight it with solidarity. We’re not going to fight capitalism with black capitalism, but we’re going to fight it with socialism.”

 What will we fight Islamophobia with? An alter-ego to US empire, or a radical alternative to empire altogether? Our own brand of academic repression, or a radical vision of academic freedom? For, to close with Fanon, “Imperialism leaves behind germs of rot which we must clinically detect and remove from our land and from our minds as well.”

Nazia Kazi, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Stockton University, School of Social and Behavioral Sciences

Defending Academic Freedom: Interview with Dr Naif Bezwan

By Guest Blogger, on 11 April 2018

 By Miriam Matthiessen, UCL’s Cara Student Ambassador

Dr Naif Bezwan is a scholar from Turkey currently at UCL as a fellow through the Council for At-Risk Academics (Cara).

Founded in 1933 by Britain’s foremost academics and scientists to help refugee academics escape Nazi Germany, Cara assists those in immediate danger, those forced into exile, and many who choose to work on in their home countries despite serious risks. UCL has partnered with Cara since 2006.

Dr Naif Bezwan had been an associate professor in the Department of Political Science and International Relations at the University of Mardin Artuklu in Turkey since January 2014, when one day in October 2016, he received the news that he had been indefinitely suspended from his post and all civil service by emergency decree.

This was due to an interview he had given to a Turkish newspaper, which related to core areas of his academic interest and expertise, including Turkey’s political and administrative system, accession to the European Union, and foreign policy.

In the interview, Naif stressed the danger of using military force at home and abroad to deal with the Kurdish question and democratic aspirations of citizens at large, through tackling an essentially domestic issue by military means and conducting cross-border military operations.

Only a couple of hours after its publication, he received an order from the university administration, in which his reflections were described as evidence of support for a “terrorist organisation” and “undermining national security”, and used as grounds for suspension. The dismissal was issued prior to the outcome of a disciplinary investigation.

Alleged links

Naif is one of a number of academics, teachers and civil servants from Turkey dismissed from their jobs in the aftermath of the failed coup in July 2016.

According to a UN Report, over 100,000 people were reportedly dismissed and suspended throughout Turkey from public or private sector jobs for suspected links with the coup organizers.  Over 40,000 staff were allegedly dismissed by the Ministry of Education, mostly teachers. This included some 10,000 teachers in South- East Turkey, over 90 percent of whom were serving in Kurdish-speaking municipalities.

This was not Naif’s first disciplinary investigation. The first one took place in February 2016 after he signed a ‘Petition for Peace’ together with 36 colleagues and a total of 1,128 academics, calling on the Turkish government to end military operations against its Kurdish citizens. Signatories of the petition were targeted by a campaign of abuse, violence, and death threats.

In many public speeches, the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan accused the petitioning academics of “treason”, “support for a terrorist organization” and of threatening “national security,” which promptly resulted in numerous investigations, suspensions and dismissals.

Naif said he sees a great risk in the increasingly authoritarian regime, which governs the country “essentially through extralegal means unbounded by rule of law and the most basic principles of a democratic and accountable government.”

Finding a fellowship

Naif left the country for the UK in November 2016 – just days before the passports of all of his colleagues, subject to the same decree-law as him, were revoked.

In early 2017 he was recommended to apply for a Cara fellowship, for which he was found eligible in February.

He was granted a full fellowship at the Department of Political Science at UCL where he has been working since June 2017, doing research on Turkey’s political and administrative system as well as issues of Kurdish Conflict resolution and authoritarianism.

Coming to the UK meant having a breathing space in comparison to his colleagues who were not able to leave the country in time, and are therefore prevented not only from taking public jobs but also from seeking opportunities abroad.

For this reason, Dr. Bezwan continues his scholarly and public engagements as far as he can while in the UK. He is involved in Academics for Peace UK, and together with colleagues, has established a charitable institution, the Centre for Democracy and Peace Research, which aims to provide funding to colleagues in need back home and beyond.

In Naif’s own words: “Living in a country without concern of being exposed to harm, unjust treatment and intimidation, having the possibility of living under decent human conditions, and working in a friendly, international and inspiring academic setting, as UCL is, is of immeasurable value.

In a very critical period of my individual and professional biography, the Cara fellowship provides me with an opportunity and essential basis to continue with my life and studies in dignity and safety. The value of this support, and the importance of the institution which has provided, and continues to provide, hundreds of scholars under risk with a dignified foundation for their personal and professional life, cannot be emphasized enough.”

https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/ucl-global/2018/04/11/defending-academic-freedom-interview-with-dr-naif-bezwan/

Nobel and Pulitzer Prize Winners Join 1900 Other Academics in Response to Student Arrests at Bogazici University in Turkey

Contact: Media team / Academic Solidarity Network (solidarityacademics@gmail.com)

Approximately 1900 academics from more than 100 institutions in 38 countries have signed on to an open letter condemning the arrests of students at Bogazici University in Istanbul, Turkey and criticizing Turkish President Erdogan’s description of the students as “terrorists.” The open letter has also been endorsed by PEN International, Columbia Global Freedom of Expression at Columbia University, Research Institute on Turkey, and the Scholars at Risk Network. Signatories to the letter include Pulitzer Prize winner Junot Díaz, Nobel Laureates Eric Wieschaus and Jack W. Szostak, and world-renowned intellectuals Angela Y. Davis, Judith Butler, Noam Chomsky, Alice Crary, Nancy Fraser, Marianne Hirsch, Michael Hardt, Etienne Balibar, Mary Marshall Clark, David Graeber, Seyla Benhabib, Jay M. Bernstein, Partha Chatterjee, Bertell Ollman, Susan Buck-Morss, Homi K. Bhabha, Todd Gitlin, and Immanuel Ness.  The letter, drafted by academics with Academic Solidarity Network, calls upon the Turkish government to immediately release all student detainees and cease all investigations and arrests of students exercising political speech.  It ends with the signatories’ pledge to support the students through public and private means.

The letter is being delivered today to Turkish Consulates in New York and Washington DC, Turkish Government Officials, including the President, UN and EU officials, and the Bogazici University Rector.

On March 24, 2018, Erdogan delivered a speech in which he referred to the students as “terrorists” and “communist, traitor youth” and vowed purge such students from all universities: “we won’t give these terrorist youth the right to study at these universities,” he declared. (“Turkey’s President Calls Anti-War Students ‘Terrorists,’” New York Times/The Associated Press, March 24, 2018: https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2018/03/24/world/europe/ap-eu-turkey-student-detentions.html) On the following day, March 25, three students at Bogazici University were detained after the police raided their homes and dormitories. Detentions, including nine more today (April 3), were carried out after a group of students protested a stand on campus that was delivering Turkish delight for 46 soldiers who died in Afrin, Syria. In protest, students opened a banner that read “Invasion, massacre cannot be marked with Turkish delight.” The two groups verbally quarreled shortly thereafter (Scholars at Risk Network, Academic Freedom Monitor, Turkey: http://monitoring.academicfreedom.info/reports/2018-03-25-bo%C4%9Fazi%C3%A7i-university).

The arrests and description of the students as terrorists are part of a trend in Turkey since the attempted coup on July 15, 2016, which has witnessed the arrests and firing of more than 100,000 government employees, academics, journalists, artists, and human rights advocates. In their 2017 annual report, “Free to Think,” Scholars at Risk documents that “thousands of scholars, administrative staff, and students have been targeted, in apparent retaliation either for their imputed affiliations or for the content of their nonviolent research, publications, teaching, and other expressive activity.” (“Free to Think: Report of the Scholars at Risk Academic Freedom Monitoring Project,” Executive Summary, Scholars at Risk: https://www.scholarsatrisk.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Free-to-Think-2017-Executive-Summary.pdf).

Online letter: http://goo.gl/qAAxLx

Full Text:

Open Letter of Support for Students Arrested at Boğaziçi University in Istanbul, Turkey

As members of academic communities around the world, we strongly oppose the recent arrests and harassment of students at Boğaziçi University in Istanbul, Turkey. On March 19, 2018, students demonstrated against a campus event supporting the Turkish soldiers who fought in the invasion of Afrin, Syria, which was organized by the Society for Islamic Research (İslam Araştırmaları Kulübü). The arrests on campus, as well as subsequent police raids of student homes and dormitories, continue a disturbing trend of criminalizing political speech and dissent in Turkey. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has cynically referred to these students as “terrorists”, vowed to expel them from Boğaziçi University, and to deny them the right to study at any other university. We have heard this kind of verbal attack from Erdoğan before and it was followed by the detention of thousands of academics, journalists, artists, and human rights advocates.

We call upon the Turkish government to immediately release all student detainees.

We call upon the Turkish government to immediately cease all investigations and arrests of students exercising political speech.

We express our solidarity with these students, who continue to courageously express their dissent, despite the great risks they face.

We pledge our support to these students through the public and private means available to us.

Stops attack on Afrin!!! Against the war for peace

After days of bombing, the Turkish military marched across the border and now tries to occupy Afrin with Jihadist mercenaries. Turkey demands the active or passive consent of states such as the USA, Russia, Germany, etc. to this attack. The next war is imminent.

Afrin has been a self-governing canton for years, with one woman and one man each having equal rights in the canton administration. Afrin as part of the de facto autonomous Democratic Federation of Northern Syria (Rojava) was important in the fight against IS. IS was beaten off both in Iraq and in Syria by the active resistance of the Kurdish, Arab and Christian populations. What IS didn’t accomplish, is now going to be accomplished by the Turkish Republic: Destruction of the democratic structure in this region, where Christians, Muslims and Yazidis and others live together peacefully.

Turkey wants to continue its warfare despite internal and international resistance. One can remember that the peace academics were dismissed and persecuted because they didn’t accept the bombing of the Kurdish cities in Turkey. There are many HDP and CHP members, journalists and intellectuals who have spoken out against the war. Turkey still trusts that it can start wars and carry out massacres because even the genocide against Armenians is not recognized by Turkey. The stability achieved in Afrin is being undermined because Turkey does not want a democratic structure in this region, which could be seen as a possible alternative for the people of the region.

Therefore, we call on unions, democratic parties, intellectuals, academics and activists to speak out against the next war in this region. Avoid any military and political support of Turkey. Stop arm sales.

To sign: halisyildirim@gmx.net
Signers:

1. Dr. Halis Yildirim / Munich – GEW member ( The Education and Science Workers‘ Union)
2. Assoc. Prof. Ides Nicaise – Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences – KU Leuven
3. Prof. em. Sabra J. Webber –  The Ohio State University, Ohio, USA
4. Dr. Mesut Keskin, University of Hildesheim, Faculty Member, Institut of Philosophy
5. Prof. em. John Weeks –  SOAS University of London
6. Prof. Dr. Verena Krieger (Jena)
7. Prof. Dr. Clyde R. Forsberg Jr. -American University of Central Asia, Bishkek Kyrgyzstan
8. Full Prof. Luigi De Gennaro, PhD – , Dept. of Psychology, Univeristy of Rome Sapienza
9. Kamuran Akın -Humboldt University PhD Candidate and Academics for Peace from Turkey
10. Arash Dosthossein – Refugee activist – Refugee struggle for freedom, Germany
11. Prof. Silke-Maria Weineck – German Studies and Comparative Literature, Translation Advisor, Comparative Literature, University of Michigan
12. Narges Nasimi  – Refugee activist – Refugee struggle for freedom,  Germany
13. Hasan Saglam – Ex-refugee from Turkey and artist and autor
14. Meryem Cag, Refugee, Member of Trade Union BES (Turkey)
15. Prof. Alan Goodman – Biological Anthropology, Hampshire Colleg
16. Jeff McMahan – White’s Professor of Moral Philosophy. Professorial Fellow, Corpus Christi College – Oxford
17. Prof. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak – Columbia University
18. Em.Prof.Dr. Herman De Ley – Ghent University, Belgium
19. Serhat Yildirim – medical student Ghent University (Belgium)
20. Dr. Ersin Asliturk – Ph.D., Instructor, Psychology and Social science, Douglas College
21. Prof. Michael Loughlin – Fellow, England Centre for Practice Development, Canterbury Christ Church University
22. Daniele Savi – Italy
23. Prof. Dr. J.T.V.M. Joop de Jong – University Amsterdam
24. Prof. Dr. Andreas Zick – Universität Bielefeld
25. Süleyman Ates -Bundesausschuss für multikulturelle Angelegenheiten der GEW
26. Prof. Mehmet Ugur – University of Greenwich
27. Prof. Drucilla Cornell – Rutgers University
28. Ludo De Brabander  – representative from Vrede vzw,  peace organisation in Belgium (www.vrede.be)
29. Prof. Mine Gencel Bek -Academics for Peace
30. Professor Toby Miller – Loughborough University London
31. Christian Kesteloot – Division of Geography and Tourism, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, KU Leuven
32. Andrew Crosby, researcher, Université Libre de Bruxelles
33. Prof. James Dickins -Prof. of Arabic, University of Leeds, United Kingdom
34. Assoc. Prof. Robin Celikates –  Department Philosophy, University of Amsterdam
35. Prof. Charles Taylor – McGill University
36. Dr. Nil Mutluer, Humboldt university
37. Prof. Alex Demirovic –  Universität Frankfurt
38. Prof Dr. Patrizia Nanz –  Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies University of Postdam
39. Dr. Utku Sayın – Universität Bilefeld
40. Mehmet A. Oturan, Université Paris-Est, France.
41. Prof. Dr. Andreas Arndt – Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
42. Professor Malcolm J. W. Povey BA, PhD, FInstP, CPhys, CEng , Professor of Food Physics, School of Food Science and Nutrition, University of Leeds
43. Dr. Deniz Yonucu – Leibniz-ZMO
44. Prof. Avital Ronell – NYU
45. Marie Scheirlinck – Belgium Bacbi
46. Dr. Mehmet Rauf Kesici  – University of Duisburg-Essen
47. Dr. Mustafa Sener – University of Bamberg – Academics for Peace from Turkey
48. Dr. Hakan Mertcan- Germany – Academics for Peace from Turkey
49. Prof. Dr. Markus Tiedemann –  Philosophiedidaktik und für Ethik, Technische Universität Dresden
50. Prof. Dr. Christine Hanke, Media Studies, Faculty of Languages and Literatures, University of Bayreuth
51. Dr. Nicholas Smith – Senior lecturer (ph.d.), Department of Philosophy, School of Culture and Education – Södertörn University
52. Prof. Frederick Neuhouser, Barnard College – Columbia University
53. Jun.-Prof. Dr. Béatrice Hendrich – Junior-Professur für türkische Sprache und Kultur, Orientalisches Seminar der Universität zu Köln
54. Prof. Judith Butler – University of California, Berkeley
55. Prof. Seyla Benhabib – Professor of Political Science and Philosophy, Yale University
56. Prof. Athena Athanasiou – Professor of Social Anthropology and Gender Studies, Panteion University, Greece
57. Em. Prof. Aviel Verbruggen – University of Antwerp
58. Prof. Werner Ruf – Universität Kassel
59. Howard Winant- Distinguished Professor of Sociology, University of California, Santa Barbara
60. Prof. Bertell Ollman, Dept. of Politics, NYU – USA
61. Prof. Dr.  Nikolaus Müller-Schöll – Institut für Theater-, Film- und Medienwissenschaft, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt
62. Prof. Dr. Sabine Hark -Zentrum für Interdisziplinäre -Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung (ZIFG), Center for Interdisciplinary Women
    and Gender Studies, TU Berlin
63. Prof. Catherine Malabou – Kingston University
64. Dr. Daniel Bendix – University of Kassel
65. Prof Dr. Daniel Loick- Goethe-University Frankfurt
66. Prof. Dr.em. Jan Engelen- Kath. Univ. Leuven, Belgium
67. Kevin Rittberger – Author, Berlin
68. Dr. Andrew Chitty, Senior Lecturer in Philosophy, Department of Philosophy, University of Sussex
69. Phd. Özgür Ünveren , University of Marburg – Academics for Peace
70. Assoc. Prof. Engin Sustam –  University of Geneva
71. Prof. em. Prof. Sondra Hale – Anthropology and Gender Studies,  University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
72. Asst. Prof. Marina Sitrin – Univeristy Binghamton
73. Konstanze Schmitt, artist, Berlin
74. Prof. em. Frank Roels – MD, PhD, FRMS, Universiteit Gent
75. Sima Aprahamian Hovhannessian – Ph.D, Research Associate , Simone de Beauvoir Institute, Concordia University
76. Prof. Dr. Hauke Brunkhorst – Europa-Universität Flensburg
77. Prof. Thomas Hylland Eriksen – Universitetet i Oslo
78. Dr. Frieder Vogelmann, Institute for Intercultural and International Studies, University of Bremen
79. Asst. Prof. Ozlem Goner – Department of Sociology and Anthropology, College of Staten Island, City University of New York
80. Prof. Dr. Gie van den Berghe – Department of Ethics, University of Ghent (Belgium)
81. Dr. Karin Verelst, philosopher, Vrije Universiteit Brussel
82. Prof. em. Jonathan Rosenhead, London School of Economics
83. Prof. Dr. em. Madeline Lutjeharms – Vrije Universiteit Brussel
84. Dr. Esmeray Yogun CNAM Paris France
85. Dr. Dagmar Comtesse, Wiss. Mitarbeiterin, Exzellenzcluster Normative Orders, Frankfurt
86. Dr. Nozomi Takahashi, Ghent University, Belgium
87. Dr. Eva Meyer, author and filmmaker, Berlin
88. Prof. Konrad Ott – CAU zu Kiel
89. Tina Turnheim – PhD candidate, Berlin
90. Dr. Nicola Pratt – University of Warwick, UK
91. Assoc. Prof. Stefan Andreas Kipfer – York University
92. Asst. Prof. Steven Klein  – Political Science, University of Florida
93. Assoc. Prof. Dr Susanne Bauer, TIK Centre for Technology, Innovation and Culture, University of Oslo
94. Dr Les Levidow, Senior Research Fellow, Open University, UK
95. Assoc. Prof. Ariel Salzmann – Islamic and World History, Department of History, Queen’s University
96. Univ.-Prof. Diedrich Diederichsen, Theory, Practice, and Communication of Contemporary Art , Institute for Art History and Cultural Studies, Akademie der bildenden Künste, Wien
97. Prof. Dr. Christoph Lumer – Professor of Moral Philosophy, University of Siena
98. Prof. Haim Bresheeth – SOAS, London
99. Prof. Heinz Kurz – Universität Graz
100. Prof. Eran Schaerf, Zurich University of the Arts
101. Dr. Candan Perry – PhD, HDR, DABCC, FCHAS
102. Prof. Charles Larmore – Brown Universtiy
103. Prof. em. Sherna Berger Gluck – California State University
104. Prof. Bonnie Honig – Brown University
105. Prof. Michael Meranze- UCLA
106. Prof. María do Mar Castro Varela, Alice Salomon University, Berlin
107. Dr. Hatice Pinar Senoguz – Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
108. Prof. Patrick Williams – Literary and Cultural Studies, School of Arts & Humanities, Nottingham Trent University
109. Prof. em. Nick Havely –  English & Related Literature, University of York U
110. Dr. Winnie Lem, International Development Studies, Trent University
111. Prof. Dr. Michi Knecht, Universität Bremen
112. Prof. em. Angela Davis – History of Consciousness and Feminist Studies, University of California, Santa Cruz
113. Prof. Dr. Thomas Meier, Universität Heidelberg
114. Prof. Werner Bonefeld, University of York
115. Dr. Franziska Müller, University of Kassel
116. Dr. Alper Açık, Academics for Peace
117. Prof. Dr. Marianne Pieper,  Fachbereich Sozialwissenshaften, Universität Hamburg
118. Roberto Veneziani – Queen Mary University of London
119. Prof. Özen Odağ –  Psychology, Touro College Berlin
120. Prof. Dr. Dr.hc.Frigga Haug – FU Berlin
121. Prof. Dr. Dr.hc.Wolfgang Fritz Haug – FU Berlin
122. Dr. Knut Tullius – Sozialwissenschaftler, Göttingen
123. Prof. Dr. Elmar Altvater –  FU Berlin
124. Hauke Heumann, Schauspieler
125. Prof. Thomas Kilpper –  Faculty of Art, Music and Design, KMD, Bergen University, Norway
126. Corinna Eleonore Trogisch, Social scientist, PhD at Leibniz University, Hannover
127. Dr. Nurhak Polat, Bremen University, Department of Ethnology and Cultural Science
128. Henning Bochert – Autor, Dramaturg , Berlin
129. Ivor Stodolsky – Co-Founding Director and Curator, Artists at Risk (AR)
     www.artistsatrisk.org
130. Dr. Guido Kirsten, Vertretungsprofessor, Institut für Film-, Theater- und empirische Kulturwissenschaft, Universität Mainz
131. Andreas Siekmann, Prof. Kunsthochschule Berlin Weissensee
132. Alice Creischer, Prof. Kunsthochschule Berlin Weissensee
133. Prof. em. Andreas A Huyssen – Villard Professor Emeritus of German and Comparative Literature -Columbia
134. Prof. em. Carol Delaney,  Stanford University
135. Marita Muukkonen – Curator, Helsinki
136. Nazan Üstündağ, Boğaziçi Üniversitesi
137. Dr. Nevra AKDEMİR, Independent Researcher, Berlin
138. Prof. David Klein –  Mathematics, California State University Northridge
139. Çiçek Ilengiz, PhD fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development
140. Yasmine Siblot, professeure de sociologie, Université Paris 8, France
141. Univ.-Prof. Dr. Sabeth Buchmann – Kunstgeschichte der Moderne und Nachmoderne,Institut für Kunst- und Kulturwissenschaften, Wien
142. Dr. Simon Teune, Technische Universität Berlin
143. Prof. Susan Wright – Educational Anthropology, Danish School of Education, Aarhus University
144. Assoc. Prof. Janick Schaufelbuehl – University of Lausanne
145. Prof. Thomas E. Wartenberg – President, PLATO, Senior Research Fellow in Philosophy,
     Mount Holyoke College
146. Kariane Westrheim, Professor, Department of Education, Faculty of Psychology, University of Bergen, Norway
147. Prof. Sally Sedgwick – University of Illinois at Chicago
148. Assoc. Prof. Norma Claire Moruzzi -University of Illinois at Chicago
149. Prof. Sibylle Fischer, NYU
150. Prof. Christie McDonald – Harvard
151. Gözde Meral Sönmez – refugee
152. Ibrahim Sönmez – refugee
153. Prof. Ben Kiernan, A.Whitney Griswold Professor of History, Professor of International and Area Studies, Yale University
154. María Ferrara Jiménez Barrio – performing artist, Gestalt therapist, yoga teacher – Berlin
155. Baran Caginli, artist and researcher , Helsinki
156. Prof. Dr. Helene Decke-Cornill -Fakultät für Erziehungswissenschaft, Universität Hamburg
157. Prof. em. Richard A. Walker –  Geography,  Director, Living New Deal Project,
158. University of California
159. Matthias Naumann, writer & publisher, Futur II Konjunktiv, Berlin
160. Inga Zimprich, artist, Feminist Health Care Research Group, Berlin
161. Prof. Susan Buck-Morss, CUNY Graduate Center
162. Prof. Michael Lambek, FRSC, Canada Research Chair, Department of Anthropology,
     University of Toronto Scarborough
163. Prof. Adi Ophir, The Cogut Institute for the Humanities and the Program for Middle East Studies, Brown University
164. Anand Pillay, University of Notre Dame, USA, and University of Leeds, UK
165. Friederike Schneider – Akademie der Bildenden Künste Wien
166. Prof. John Chalcraft –  Middle East History and Politics, Government Department, London School of Economics and Political Science
167. Dr. Hilmi Tezgör – University Duisburg-Essen
168. Binna Choi, director of Casco Art Institute: Working for the Commons, Utrecht, the Netherlands
169. Prof. Beth Baron, Disting – History, City University of New York
170. Prof. Michael Lowy,  directeur de recherche émérite,  CNRS
171. Dr Stefano Ba‘ – PhD, MA, ‚Laurea‘ (BA hon.), Lecturer, Institute for Childhood and Education, Leeds Trinity University
172. Elke Heublein, entrepreneur & facilitator, educational consultant
173. Prof. Jean-Louis Fabiani – Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology, Central European University
174. Prof. Mary Nolan – Department of History, New York University
175. Aydın Bayad-Ph.D. Candidate, Bielefeld University
176. Prof. Josefina Saldaña-Portillo  -Department of Social & Cultural Analysis (SCA), Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS),Director, Undergraduate Studies, SCA, New York University
177. Eske Schüters, artist
178. Dr. Muzaffer Kaya, TU Berlin
179. Dr Lars Peter Laamann -Senior Lecturer, History Department,Editor, Central Asiatic Journal, SOAS, University of London
180. Prof. Elti Cattaruzza, Ca‘ Foscari University of Venice, Italy
181. Prof. Dr. Sabine Hess – Geschäftsführende Direktorin, Institut für Kulturanthropologie/Europäische Ethnologie, Georg-August Universität Göttingen
182. Prof. Dr. Christina Schües – Institute for the History of Medicine and Science Studies, University of Lübeck
183. Ceren Türkmen, Research Assistant, Justus Liebig University, Gießen
184. Prof. em. Jill Julius Matthews  – Australian National University
185. Prof. Dr. Eva Youkhana – The Center for Development Research (ZEF),  University of Bonn
186. Olivia Stutz, actress, Berlin
187. Tim Schütz, MA Student, Department of Anthropology, Goethe University Frankfurt
188. Dr. Sharo I Garip  –  Universität Duisburg-Essen
189. Prof. William Raban – Film, London College of Communication
190. Apl. Prof. Dr. Herbert Breger –  Hannover, Deutschland
191. Prof. Dr. Gertrud Koch, Freie Universität Berlin
192. Prof. Erik Swyngedouw, MAE , Department of Geography, The University of Manchester
193. Chris Zisis, PhD Candidate, Institute of Cult.Anthropology, Hamburg University
194. Prof. Dr. Jörn Etzold, Ruhr-Universität Bochum
195. Prof. Dr. Martin Schraven – Universität Bremen
196. Samil Sarikaya – PhD student, Institute for Migration Research and Intercultural Studies (IMIS), Osnabrück University
197. Prof. em. Malcolm Sawyer – Economics, University of Leeds
198. Richard Greeman, activist, writer and translator, Montpellier, France
199. Dr. Henry C. Theriault – Worcester State University (USA) and President, International Association of Genocide Scholars
200. Sönke Hallmann, Publizist, Berlin
201. Prof. Heinz lynen von Berg- Hochschule Bremen
202. Prof. Andrew Woolford – Department of Sociology and Criminology, University of Manitob
203. Prof. Israel W Charny – Institute on the Holocaust and Genocide Jerusalem
204. Buket Han – Refugee – refugee, München
205. Önder Han – Refugee – refugee, München
206. Prof. Steven Pinker – Harvard University
207. Millay Hyatt – Writer and Translator
208. Dipl. Soz.wiss. Ralf Steckert, Leibniz Universität Hannover
209. Prof. Darrel Moellendorf –  International Political Theory, Normative Orders, Philosophy, Goethe-University Frankfurt/Main
210. Dr. des. Jana Häberlein, Basel
211. Dr. des. Leonie Otto, Institut für Theater-, Film- und Medienwissenschaft,
212. Goethe-Universität Frankfurt
213. Marita Muukkonen – curator,  The Helsinki International Artist Programme
214. Elisabeth Abendroth, Sozialwissenschaftlerin
215. Dr. Giuseppe Acconcia, University of Milan (Bocconi)
216. Prof. Dr. Ulrike Bergermann, University of the Arts, Braunschweig
217. Dr. Alisha M. B. Heinemann – University of Vienna, Austria
218. Prof. Toni Negri, philosopher, Paris
219. Assoc. Prof. Greg Albo – Department of Political Science, York University
220. Fatoş Atali-Timmer – Center for Migration, Education and Cultural Studies (CMC), Institut für Pädagogik, Fachgruppe diversitätsbewusste Sozialpädagogik, Carl von Ossietzky Universität
221. Prof. Dr. Eckart Förster, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore
222. Paul Redding – Prof. Em., School of Philosophical and Historical Inquiry, University of Sydney
223. Retd. Prof. Achin Vanaik -International Relations and Global Politics, University of Delhi
224. Michèle Adelhardt, teacher, Bruchsal
225. Dr. Christian Martin, LMU, Munich
226. Prof. Raphael Salkie, University of Brighton, England
227. Prof. Dr. Alexa Färber, HafenCity University Hamburg
228. Dr. Alessandra Mezzadri – Senior lecturer in development studies, SOAS, London
229. Prof. Dr. Martin Vialon (Yeditepe University, now: Carl v. Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg
230. Dr. Noémi Lévy-Aksu, Birkbeck College
231. Prof. Michalis Spourdalakis, University of Athens
232. Prof. Dr. Sabine Broeck, University of Bremen, Germany.
233. Prof. i. R. Dr. Michael Hartmann
234. Prof. Michael Harris –  Department of Mathematics, Columbia
235. Prof. Evelyn Ruppert, Goldsmiths University of London
236. Prof. em. Carol Delaney – Stanford University
237. Prof. Andrew Arato – Dorothy Hirshon Professor, New School for Social Research, New York
238. Asst. Prof. Christy Petropoulou – Department of Geography, University of the Aegean
239. Prof. Saskia Sassen – Robert S. Lynd Professor of Sociology, Columbia University
240. Gennaro Avallone – Università di Salerno, Italy
241. Prof. Dr. Gottfried Heinemann – Kassel
242. Dr. Yasser Munif – Emerson College, Boston, USA
243. Maria Abu El Haija – Bayreuth
244. Kathrin Peters, Prof. Dr., Berlin University of the Arts
245. Prof. Hamit Bozarslan, Ecole des hautes études en sciences sociales, Paris
246. Dr. Peter Birke, Universität Göttingen
247. Prof. Dr. Nora Räthzel – Department of Sociology, Umeå University
248. Prof. em. Dr. Tilman Borsche – Institut für Philosophie, Universität Hildesheim
249. Prof. Chandler Davis – Mathematics, University of Toronto
250. Prof. Rebecca Gould – Islamic World and Comparative Literature, University of Birmingham
251. Prof. R. Radhakrishnan – Chancellor’s professor of English and Comparative Literature, University of California-Irvine
252. Dr. Dana Mills, Lecturer in Philosophy, Oxford Brookes University
253. Dr. Tanja Ehmann, Fachhochschule Potsdam
254. Prof. Sally Haslanger, MIT
255. Dr. Marietta Kesting – Juniorprofessorin für Medientheorie, cx centrum für interdisziplinäre studien -Akademie der Bildenden Künste München
256. Dr. Alice von Bieberstein, Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin
257. Sinibaldo De Rosa, PhD Candidate, University of Exeter
258. Prof. Etienne Balibar – Université de Paris-Ouest, Kingston University London
259. Prof. Claudia Breger, Columbia University
260. Prof. Sophie Wauquier – University of Paris 8, Academics for Peace
261. Prof em. Catherine Belsey –  English, Swansea University, UK
262. Prof. Karen Van Dyck, Modern Greek Studies, Columbia University
263. Dr. Tolga Tören, University of Kassel, Academics for Peace (BAK), Germany
264. Claude Calame- Directeur d’études, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris
265. Prof. Terry Pinkard – Georgetown University
266. Prof. Dr. Manuela Bojadzijev – Globalisierte Kulturen an der Fakultät für Kulturwissenschaften der Leuphana Universität Lüneburg
267. Jonas Bokelmann – PhD student, LMU München und University Iceland
268. Debbie Bookchin, journalist, author, U.S.
269. Kevin B. Anderson, University of California, Santa Barbara
270. Prof. em. Prabhat Patnaik – Jawaharlal Nehru University New Delhi
271. Prof. Dr. Claudia Bruns, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
272. Marcel De Prins, trekker van de Syrië werkgroep, Belgium
273. Prof. Dr. Cinur Ghaderi – Fachbereich Soziale Arbeit / Psychologie, Evangelische Hochschule Bochum RWL
274. Dr. Frauke Banse, Universität Kassel
275. Prof. em. Mike Davis – U.C. Riverside
276. Prof. Geoff Eley – Michigan
277. William Callison, PhD Candidate in Political Science, UC Berkeley
278. Noelia P. Streicher, Dozentin an der Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg, Institut für Pädagogik / Arbeitsbereich Migration und Bildung
279. Dr. Hanna Meissner – TU Berlin
280. Assoc. Prof. Emmanuel Szurek – EHESS, Paris
281. Dr. phil. Konstanze Hanitzsch – Gender- und Literaturwissenschaftlerin
282. Assoc. Prof. Sruti Bala – Theatre Studies, University of Amsterdam
283. Prof. August H. Nimtz – Political Science and African American and African Studies, University of Minnesota
284. Dr. Alisa Lebow – Reader in Film Studies, University of Sussex
285. Eva Pandulova, student at KHB, Berlin
286. Prof. Dr. em. Birgit Mahnkopf – Hochschule für Wirtschaft und Recht Berlin
287. Dr. des. Janine Doerry, Historian, Osnabrück
288. Todd Gitlin – Journalism and Sociology Chair, Ph D Program in Communications, Columbia University
289. Dr Jamie Gough – Department of Urban Studies and Planning, University of Sheffield
290. Prof. Dr. Andrea Seier, Universität Wien
291. Prof. Lorna Hutson – Merton Professor of English Literature, Director of CEMS, Merton College, Oxford
292. Bill Bowring -FAcSS, School of Law, Birkbeck College, University of London
293. Prof. Dr. Albert Scherr, Soziologe, Pädagogische Hochschule Freiburg
294. Prof. Dr. Silja Klepp – Social Dynamics in Coastal and Marine Areas, Institute of Geography, CAU/ University of Kiel
295. Prof. em. Joop T de Jong – MD, PhD -Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research (AISSR), University of Amsterdam, Adjunct Professor of Psychiatry, Boston University School of Medicine, USA,  Em Prof of Cultural and International Psychiatry VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam
296. Jan Kordes, M.A. – Institut für Humangeographie,  Goethe-Universität Frankfurt a.M.
297. Prof. Karin Scherschel, University of applied Sciences Rhein Main
298. Dr. Giovanni Zanotti-  department of Philosophy, University of Brasilia
299. Prof Nadje Al-Ali – Professor of Gender Studies, SOAS University of London
300. Prof. em. Jan Fridthjof Bernt – Faculty of Law, University of Bergen
301. Leander Meuris – Ghent University
302. Ergun Ozgur – Leibniz-ZMO, Berlin
303. Andreas Foitzik – Netzwerk rassismuskritische Migrationspädagogik Baden-Württemberg
304. Karen Murray, Associate Professor, Department of Politics, York University
305. Dr. Fanny-Michaela Reisin, ehem. Präsidentin der Internationalen Liga für Menschenrechte – FIDH
306. Dr Paolo Cuttitta – VU University Amsterdam
307. Prof. Norman M. Naimark, Stanford University
308. Mario Candeias, Direktor, Institut für Gesellschaftsanalyse, Berlin
309. em. Magali Sarfatti Larson – Temple University, Philadelphia
310. Dr. Frank Nullmeier -Universität Bremen – SOCIUM
311. Stephan Lessenich – LMU
312. Michael Thompson, Philosophy, University of Pittsburgh
313. Jane Mansbridge, Harvard University
314. Dr Ibrahim Malazada . Lecturer at Soran University, Sociology Department, Kurdistan Region
315. Prof. Dr. Joseph Maran – Universität Heidelberg
316. Prof. Dr. phil. Tessa Hofmann – independent scholar of comparative genocide and Armenian studies; chair of the human rights NGO Working Group Recognition – Against Genocide, for International Understanding.
317. Prof. Jack Amariglio, Economics, Merrimack College, USA
318. Lorenzo Tripodi – PhD, Owner and Senior Researcher, TESSERAE Urban and social research
319. Prof. Marie-Claire CALOZ-TSCHOPP, ex-Dir. de Programme
     Collège International de Philosophie (CIPh), Paris
320. Prof. Debra Satz, Stanford university
321. Ludo De Witte, author
322. Dr Karen Adler, History, University of Nottingham
323. Dr Kate Hudson, General Secretary, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, UK.
324. Ingeborg Breines – consultant and former co-president International Peace Bureau
325. former director UNESCO
326. Prof. Dr. Georg Mohr – Institut für Philosophie, Universität Bremen
327. Prof. Hamid Dabashi – Hagop Kevorkian Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature, Columbia
328. Prof. Patrick Deboosere, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium
329. Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Kaschuba – HU Berlin
330. Dr. Nélida Boulgourdjian (University of Buenos Aires)
331. Jun.-Prof. Dr. Francesca Raimondi-Philosophie, Kunstakademie Düsseldorf
332. Beth Lilach – M.A., Senior Director of Education and Community Affairs, Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center
333. Sabine Lösing (MEP, DIE LINKE)
334. Koen Bogaert (professor conflict- and development studies at UGENT – Belgium)
335. Chigbo Arthur Anyaduba, PhD candidate, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada.
336. Aris Babikian – Retired Citizenship Judge, Chair Levant Settlement Centre
337. Wolf Göhring, Bonn
338. Dr Othon Anastasakis – Director, South East European Studies at Oxford (SEESOX)
339. St Antony’s College – Oxford
340. Prof. Dr. Ulrich Bröckling – Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg
341. Prof. Elsa Stamatopoulou – Director, Ιndigenous Peoples‘ Rights Program, Columbia University
342. Yunus Özgür, Mitglied der GEW-Tarifkommission für studentische Beschäftigte – FU Berlin
343. Irene Victoria Massimino -Lawyer, LLM, MA in Human Rights, Buenos Aires
344. Alex Karschnia, andcompany&Co, Berlin
345. Daniel Feierstein, National University of Tres de Febrero and University of Buenos Aires, Argentina
346. Amy C Hudnall, Senior Lecturer depts of History and Global studies Appalachian State University, Boone, NC, coordinator for peace studies at the ASU Center for Judaic, Holocaust, and Peace studies.
347. Maral N. Attallah – Distinguished Lecturer, Dept. of Critical Race, Gender & Sexuality Studies, Humboldt State University
348. Dr. Vanessa Agnew – Universität Duisburg-Essen
349. Martina Michels, Europaabgeordnete, stellv. Mitglied der parlamentarischen Delegation EU-Türkei
350. Dr. Konstanze Kriese, Kulturwissenschaftlerin
351. Helmut Scholz – The Left, MdeP, European Parlament
352. Sevim Dagdelen, MdB, stellvertretende Vorsitzende der Fraktion DIE LINKE. im Bundestag
353. Dr. Marlene Schäfers, Department of Conflict and Development Studies, Ghent University, Belgium
354. Clinical Assist. Prof. Kathy Barker – Univ. of Washington
355. Prof. em. Jean-Jacques Amy – School of Medicine and Pharmacy, Vrije Universiteit Brussel
356. Gabriele Zimmer – Chair of the GUE/NGL Group in the European Parliament – Member of the European Parliament
357. Katharina Sufryd – M.A. Bergische Universität Wuppertal
358. Parti de Gauche (France)
359. Corinne Morel Darleux, National secretary in charge of ecosocialism, Regional deputy (Parti de Gauche)
360. Keko Kutlubay – Amsterdam
361. Fatma Dikmen – Refugee – Holland
362. Nikki Marczak, Genocide Scholar, Australian Institute for Holocaust and Genocide Studies
363. Ali Mahmud Mhamad – Human rights activist, writer and journalist ُerbil Iraq
364. Prof. Naom Chomsky – Institute Professor (emeritus), MIT, Laureate Professor, U. of Arizona
365. Greg Stanton – Genocide Watch
366. Asst. Prof. Kasturi Chatterjee – Foundation for Liberal and Management Education (FLAME) University (Pune, India)
367. Prof. em. Dr. Norman Paech, Universität Hamburg
368. Prof. Dr. Frank Deppe – Marburg
369. Srećko Horvat, philosopher (independent scholar) & DiEM25 (Democracy in Europe Movement 2025)
370. Prof. Dr. med, Hans-Ulrich Deppe, Universität Frankfurt a.M.
371. Lorenzo Marsili, writer, DiEM25
372. Assst. Prof.  Mike Weaver – Leavenworth, KS
373. Sara E. Brown, USC Shoah Foundation
374. Assoc. Prof. Hannes Lacher – York University, Toronto, Canada
375. Prof. Dr. Otmar Hagemann – Kiel University of Applied Sciences
376. Assoc. Prof. Hannes Lacher – York University, Toronto, Canada
377. Dr.phil. assoz.Prof. Angela Koch – Kunstuniversität Linz
378. Ass. Prof. Dr. Judith Keilbach, Media and Culture Studies, Utrecht University, The Netherlands
379. Ass. Prof. Dr. Markus Stauff, Media Studies, University of Amsterdam
380. Jan Deck, freier Theaterschaffender, Frankfurt/Main
381. Dr. des. Roger Behrens – Fakultät für Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaft, Helmut-Schmidt-Universität / Universität der Bundeswehr Hamburg
382. Dr. Thomas Schmidinger, Department for Political Science, University of Vienna, Austria
383. Prof. Dr. Kira Kosnick – Faculty of Social Sciences – Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany
384. Prof. Dr. Werner Goldschmidt (Hamburg)
385. PD Dr. Joachim Bromand – Institut für Philosophie – Universität Bonn
386. (em.) Dr. Klaus Zimmermann – Universität Bremen
387. François Cusset – University of Nanterre
388. Birgit Koch – Chair GEW HESSEN (The Education and Science Workers‘ Union)
389. Prof. em. Colin Barker, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK
390. Landesfachgruppe Hochschule und Forschung der GEW Bayern
391. Felicity Dowling, National Secretary of Left Unity, UK
392. Tariq Ali – London
393. Prof. Kariane Westrheim, University of Bergen Norway and Chair of EUTCC
394. GEW-Hochschulgruppe der Martin-Luther-Universität,  Halle-Wittenberg
395. Dr. Maud Meyzaud, Goethe University Frankfurt, Faculty Member, Department of Comparative Literature and Literary Theory
396. Prof. Todd Gitlin – Columbia University
397. Dr. Hans Theo Langhammer, Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg
398. Prof. em. Mike Davis – U.C. Riverside
399.  Haydar Işık – Writer
400. Prof.Dr. Dieter Boris (Univ. Marburg)
401. Dr. Wolfgang Lenk, Bezirksparlament Berlin Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg
402. Dr. Veysel Demir – University of Bern
403. Dr. Gregor Kritidis
404. Bülent Aydın – Berlin
405. Dr. Mehmet Kart – Soziologe, Hochschule Bremen
406. Dr. Seref Kavak – Lecturer in Political Science and International Relations, SciencesPo Paris, France
407. Dr Özgür Gündoğan – University of Portsmouth
408. Prof. Dr. Juliane Rebentisch –  Philosophie und Ästhetik, Vizepräsidentin,  Hochschule für Gestaltung Offenbach
409. Dr. Nikos Christofis, Balkan, Slavic and Oriental Studies, University of Macedonia
410. Prof. Samuel Weber –  Northwestern University
411. Prof. Fatma Müge Göçek University of Michigan
412. Gülseren Demirel – Stadtraetin, Fraktionsvorsitzende, Die Gruenen – rosa liste, München
413. Dr Jacqui Lovell, Leeds Beckett University

TRIAL OF ACADEMICS

Yasemin Gülsüm Acar’s Statement of Defense

From Bianet.org

We are publishing the statement of defense of Özyeğin University academic member Assist. Prof. Dr. Yasemin Gülsüm Acar, who has been tried at İstanbul Courthouse 32nd Heavy Penal Court in Çağlayan for having signed the declaration entitled “We will not be a party to this crime” released by Academics for Peace.

Like my colleagues who have found themselves here in the last weeks, and who will continue to come here in the coming months, I am here because I tried to use my academic identity to voice a need for peace. I’m an assistant professor of social psychology, and have been living and working here in Istanbul for the past six years. I chose social psychology because I am the child of immigrants, and as such, felt that the places I lived and the collective history I shared shaped me into the person I am, but also left my identities fragmented between different places and cultures. I study identity, groups, collective action, and conflict. Some of my work also focuses on post-conflict peace. My work informs who I am. It helps shape me, and I hope, in some small way, the work that I do also shapes the world around me.

Social psychology has taught me the importance of thinking critically. I have learned, and now I teach, that critical thought and critical action help to better shape our communities. Social psychology reminds us that blind followership, that dumb silence, helps no one. Criticism may not bring popularity, but it is the best way to serve the community as a whole, because the intent is to make our situations, and ourselves, better.

When the petition came out it was a time when many of us were feeling hopeless. The peace process was over, there were curfews in a number of cities and towns, and though we couldn’t see everything that was happening, we heard, from friends and family, and we read from the many national and international reports that came out of the region. So often at that time, the question “but what can we do?” was answered by “nothing.”

In social psychological research on collective action, we ask people about levels of engagement. That is, when people want to make their voices heard, how do they do so? In our measures, the least, the absolute minimum we use, is for a person to sign a petition. It is, at the same time, the most traditional and simple way for citizens to engage in political participation in democratic countries. I signed this petition, like many of my colleagues, because it was the least I can do, and because it was more than “nothing.”

Many of my colleagues on trial here are seasoned professors. Others are still PhD students, and others, like me, are just at the start of their careers. But all of us saw something that we wanted to speak out against, and found that, if nothing else, we could use our academic identities to do that. Maybe, we said, if we use this one social identity, this one aspect of ourselves, that we may be able to gain some attention to this issue.

I didn’t grow up in this country, but this is the home I chose. I haven’t witnessed history here the same way many of my colleagues have, but that doesn’t mean I don’t know what violence looks like, or that I don’t know the pain that conflict can cause. It is my duty as an academic to draw on my knowledge and my insight, to use my academic freedom and my freedom of speech, to better serve my community. That’s what I did, and what I will continue to do. I reject the charges that have been made against me and my colleagues.

I reject them because there is nothing in the petition that legitimizes violent action. It does not praise or legitimize any organization, as the prosecutor attests. It is nothing more than a call made to the state, within the scope of academic freedom and freedom of speech, to stop the deaths of civilians due to the ongoing conflict. The prosecutor’s interpretation of the individual words of this text is an attempt to subvert the overall meaning of the text, which as it stands is a call for peace, and should not and cannot be interpreted as any sort of call to criminality or violence. Therefore, even the filing of a lawsuit based on this petition is a violation of freedom of expression, which is a constitutional right and guaranteed under international conventions (Article 10 ECHR).

The prosecutor has tried, through this lawsuit, to add unwritten intent to this petition, and subverted it to suggest a forced association with an organization. I’ve been living in Turkey for six years. I made a choice to live here and make a life here. This case and my being here at all goes against my work as an academic, my ability to engage in free thought, and my personal beliefs.

Therefore, I request that an immediate acquittal be made, considering that there is no action that can be taken based on the peace declaration. (TP/BK/TK)  https://bianet.org/english/law/194612-yasemin-gulsum-acar-s-statement-of-defense

 

Joint Statement Regarding the Situation of our Colleagues in Turkey

As professional associations of social scientists in various disciplines, the organizations listed below condemn the ongoing persecution by the Turkish government of our colleagues in Turkish universities. We are deeply concerned by current threats to academic freedom in Turkey of signatories of the ‘Peace petition’ in 2016. In particular, we regard the dismissals by executive decree, without due process and legal recourse, and the decision to bring academics to trial as profound violations of academic freedom. Turkey is isolating itself from the international academic community where, for so long, colleagues in Turkey have played such an important role.

We show solidarity with the academics in Turkey and closely follow the development of these trials. We call on the Turkish authorities to stop proceedings immediately and to reinstate academics to their university positions.

International Society of Political Psychology (ISPP) Executive Committee
European Association of Social Psychology (EASP) Executive Committee
Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI) Executive Committee
British Psychological Society (BPS), Social Psychology Section
Association pour la Diffusion de la Recherche Internationale en Psychologie Sociale (ADRIPS) Bureau http://www.easp.eu/news/itm/joint_statement_regarding_the_situation_of_our_colleagues_in_turkey-613.html

Statement of Solidarity with Academics for Peace from the members of the Psychology of Peace and Violence Program

We, the members of the Psychology of Peace and Violence Program, condemn the ongoing persecution by the Turkish government of our colleagues in Turkish universities.  We express our deep concern about our colleagues in Turkey who have been dismissed by executive decrees without due process and legal recourse and who are now facing a fresh round of criminal indictments. We stand in solidarity with the signatories of the 2016 Peace Petition entitled “We will not be a party to this crime!”, denouncing the government’s violations of human rights in the Kurdish provinces. We call for the termination of the trials and the reinstatement of academics to their university positions.

Who are Academics for Peace?

Academics for Peace was founded in November 2012 in the aftermath of a statement that supported Kurdish prisoners’ demands for peace in Turkey, which they voiced through a hunger-strike. The statement was signed by 264 academics from over 50 universities. In their first meeting in December 2012, Academics for Peace decided to work for a peace process in Turkey and to contribute to it by producing knowledge and information on topics like processes of peace and conflict, practices of peace-making, women’s role in the peace process, education in native languages and the destruction of the environment through war. Between the years 2013 and 2016 Academics for Peace signed petitions, organized meetings including one with several members of the Wise People Committee—a committee that the government tasked for meeting with people to learn about their expectations from peace—and published reports on their activities. The members of Academics for Peace also contributed to the peace process by writing in newspapers that compared Turkey’s process with other cases in the world and have at numerous times announced their willingness and readiness to actively participate in the process. However, today, what is known as the Academics for Peace are the signatories of the petition “We will not be a party to this crime!”, which was publicized  in January 2016 and include a plurality and a size that go much beyond these previous works.

Since the day the petition “We will not be a party to this crime!” was declared to the public through a press conference, the signatories, whose number at that time already exceeded 2000, faced many attacks. Hundreds of them have been fired from their jobs, their passports have been cancelled and confiscated, they were prevented from finding jobs, several were physically and verbally threatened, others were taken into custody, four of them who read a press statement condemning these violations were imprisoned, hundreds have been robbed from the right to work in the public sector through governmental decrees and finally all of them are currently facing individualized court. In short, the signatories have faced “civil death” through the cooperation of the government the commission of higher education and university managements exactly like the journalists siding with the Justice and Development Party suggested. Despite all this repression, threats and unending harassment a great majority of academics have continued to stand behind their initial statement, resist and collectively support each other.

What is happening now in Turkey?

There is an urgent update regarding the Peace Declaration academics signed last year. As the situation is worsening, the repression of academics in Turkey is also growing. Governmental bodies have started to launch individual lawsuits based on allegations of terrorist propaganda for Peace Declaration signatories, as well as charges of inciting students to revolt among those working in the Solidarity Academies. The academics, including social psychologists, are being charged with “propagandizing for a terrorist organization” and are facing 7.5 years in prison. So far, one ISPP member has received their indictment, though others are expected to receive theirs in the coming months. The first trials have started in early December.

Although conditions are worsening and our possibilities to continue our academic lives are threatened, there is also some promising news coming from Turkey: Solidarity Academies around Turkey have started to collaborate and create common spaces and programmes outside of universities. In addition, many organizations, including ISPP and EASP showed their solidarity with Academics for Peace. Please do not hesitate to contact Academics for Peace or directly solidarity academies to show solidarity by giving lectures or joining the collaborations.

How can I support academics in Turkey?

We hope you can actively support academics in Turkey. Here is a summary of how you can do this:

1.     Commissioning universities and diplomatic relations to prepare short term work possibilities, research grants or research asylums abroad to help academics, including social psychologists, to continue their academic work.

2.     Providing small to mid-scale research funds for the academics who have been banned from leaving Turkey, to help them to pursue their research in Turkey and sustain their livelihoods and scholarly careers.

3.     Sharing daily/weekly social media reports on developments related to the state of emergency in Turkey and to the violation of multiple rights.

4.     Providing honorary memberships or affiliated memberships for academics banned from academia to help them preserve their academic titles. (New additional remark: If possible and/or applicable, international pairing partners can take initiative to ask their partner in Turkey whether they would need/want honorary affiliation)

5.     Holding round table meetings in future conferences regarding academic freedom

6.     Skype and recorded video options (and free-registration to conferences) for colleagues who are not allowed to go to international meetings

7.     Donating to support academics who have been purged from their positions. You can donate either through a direct donation to the Education and Science Workers’ Union (see the picture: IBAN number on the right side, for those in Europe) or through the following link: https://www.youcaring.com/academicsforpeaceinturkey-763983. Both will go to the same source. Read more

 

Turkey Scholars Fund

The Turkey Scholars fund is a special donations opportunity to help support academic scholars in Turkey who have been impacted by the recent actions of the country’s government. ISPP’s Executive Committee will determine the distribution of funds collected specifically for this purpose. Read More

ISPP, EASP, SPSSI, BPS, ADRIPS’s statement

To whom it concerns,

As professional associations of social scientists in various disciplines, the organizations listed below condemn the ongoing persecution by the Turkish government of our colleagues in Turkish universities. We are deeply concerned by current threats to academic freedom in Turkey of signatories of the ‘Peace petition’ in 2016. In particular, we regard the dismissals by executive decree, without due process and legal recourse, and the decision to bring academics to trial as profound violations of academic freedom.

Turkey is isolating itself from the international academic community where, for so long, colleagues in Turkey have played such an important role.

We show solidarity with the academics in Turkey and closely follow the developmen

t of these trials. We call on the Turkish authorities to stop proceedings immediately and to reinstate academics to their university positions.

International Society of Political Psychology (ISPP)

Executive Committee European Association of Social Psychology (EASP)

Executive committee Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI) Executive Committee British Psychological Society (BPS),

Social Psychology Section Association pour la Diffusion de la Recherche Internationale en Psychologi e Sociale (ADRIPS)

Bureau

*More information on ISPP actions to support colleagues in Turkey will follow throughout the coming months.

When there are people who are watching, it makes a difference

Professor Stephen D. Reicher returns from acting as an international observer in Turkish court, as academics are charged with ‘terrorist propaganda’.

I am sitting in Court room 32 of Istanbul’s fortress-like High Court, observing the trial of a young colleague, Ekren [names are changed for the safety of those involved]. She is one of several people on trial today, fellow academics, journalists, even someone who wrote a short story in which the government was described as a ‘dragon’. Apparently that is enough to have taken before the criminal bench. Read More

Free Speech On Trial in Turkey

by Academics for Peace-UK and Centre for Democracy and Peace Research

DESCRIPTION

Both before and after the state of emergency that followed the botched coup in 2016, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government has shown increasing authoritarian tendencies, rolling back an essentially weak democracy. Now a truly authoritarian regime is in place and instigates multiple attacks against fundamental rights and democratic institutions, such as arbitrary arrests and prosecutions of critical voices, extensive use of emergency decrees, massive purges of the state institutions and the witch hunt against the Academics for Peace, signatories of the Peace petition. As it is generally the case, free speech and academic freedom have been major casualties of this authoritarian drift. Gathering academics, lawyers and human rights defenders, this panel will offer a critical insight into current legal and political developments in Turkey and discuss the way forward in the defence of freedom of expression and academic freedom in the country.

Panel 1 – 14.30 – 16.00 Free Speech under Threat in Turkey: A Legal Approach

Chair: Noémi Lévy-Aksu (Birkbeck College)

Ayse Bingöl (Media Legal Defence): The criminalisation of speech under state of emergency regime.

Bill Bowring (Birkbeck College, Professor of Law): Recent Strasbourg case law on freedom of expression in Turkey.

Oya Aydın (Lawyer): What are the Academics for Peace accused of?

Panel 2 – 16.15 – 17.30 Trial Observation, Legal Intervention and Advocacy

Chair: Mehmet Uğur (University of Greenwich)

Georgia Nash (Article 19)

Sarah Clarke (Pen International)

Hanna Machlin (Index on Censorship)

Turquie – Délibération du CA – “Universitaires pour la Paix”

A partir du 5 décembre ont débuté en Turquie des procès individuels ouverts pour le moment contre près de 150 universitaires des universités d’Istanbul dont celle, francophone, de Galatasaray avec laquelle l’Université Paris 8 a un accord Erasmus. Nos collègues sont poursuivis pour avoir signé en janvier 2016 la pétition des « Universitaires pour la Paix », dénonçant la politique du régime turc au sud-est de la Turquie et le sort des populations civiles kurdes. Immédiatement accusés de collusion avec des milieux « terroristes », ils ont d’abord été licenciés de leur université, écartés définitivement de l’enseignement et de la fonction publique, dénoncés et jetés en pâture à la vindicte publique via les réseaux sociaux et la publication de leurs noms dans la presse. La répression s’est accrue à la suite de la tentative de coup d’Etat du 15 juillet 2016. Elle vise particulièrement les journalistes, les avocats mais surtout les universitaires dont la déontologie et la fonction consistent à défendre la liberté de pensée, l’indépendance de la recherche et d’enseignement indispensable à une vie démocratique.

Aujourd’hui, les Universitaires pour la paix qui n’ont fait qu’exercer leur métier et les valeurs qui s’y attachent sont traduits en justice.

  

Le CA de l’Université Paris 8 exprime sa totale solidarité avec les « Universitaires pour la Paix » ; il attire l’attention de la CPU sur cette situation particulièrement alarmante et s’étonne d’une absence de position claire de la France donnant blanc-seing à la Turquie pour continuer à mener une politique liberticide menaçant les valeurs et liberté académiques.

Voté à l’unanimité par le Conseil d’Administration de Paris 8 du 15 décembre 2017

La justice turque entame le procès des universitaires, manifestation à Bruxelles

 Un seul chef d’accusation, des dizaines d’audiences jusqu’en avril. A Bruxelles, on manifeste.

Date et lieu du crime ? “Le 11 janvier 2016, propagande pour une organisation terroriste”, entame l’acte d’accusation dressé par le procureur en chef d’Istanbul. Derrière cette lourde accusation, se cache l’un des procès les plus emblématiques de l’ère Erdogan, allié aux nationalistes turcs du MHP.

Sept mois avant la tentative de coup d’État, il a trait à la signature par 1128 universitaires turcs d’une pétition appelant à renouer le dialogue avec les Kurdes, à un moment où la guérilla du PKK avait relancé l’option militaire contre l’armée turque, laquelle déployait ses blindés dans les villes à majorité kurde. Read moore

Alors, que fais-tu à présent ? by Funda Cantek

Dans ma jeunesse, quand je ne pouvais plus dominer l’hyper-activité cérébrale, un héritage génétique, je récitais les poèmes que je connaissais par coeur, l’un après l’autre. Ensuite, j’ai appris dans un livre de souvenirs que j’ai lu, qu’une personne politique gardée longtemps en isolement, persécutée en étant laissée sans livre, sans crayon ni papier, avait fait la même chose pendant cette période. Il n’est pas si facile de dominer l’activité cérébrale !

Un des poèmes que je récitais pour moi même, était celui d’Edouard Galeano. Ces vers sont extraits de ce poème : “Vivre, rester debout / est cette petite victoire / rester vivant / pouvoir être joyeux malgré les adieux et assassinats… / A la fin, nous nous sommes habituéEs à la douleur / et la joie demande plus de courage que la tristesse” Read more

Open letter – Re: Sweeping actions against higher education

professionals in Turkey

Your Excellencies:

I write to express ongoing, grave concern about a large number of scholars in

Turkey who face criminal charges solely as a result of the nonviolent expression of

ideas; specifically having signed a petition in January 2016 (the so

-called “Peace Petition”), criticizing government policy in the southeast of the country. As several of these scholars’ trials are scheduled to begin this week, I urge you to take any action practicable to reverse the dangerous and destructive course of the past two years,

by dismissing the charges against these scholars and ensuring full protection within

Turkey of human rights, including due process, freedom of expression, freedom of

association, and academic freedom. Read more

 

Trials Begin in Turkey for Academics for Peace

by Judith Butler and Başak Ertür • 11 December 2017

International solidarity is crucial at this time when our colleagues are facing criminal trials

On December 5, 2017, the trials began for those who signed the Academics for Peace petition in January 2016. Conducted by High Criminal Courts in Istanbul, these trials focus on a single individual at a time. Currently 148 trials are scheduled through to May 2018, with new hearings expected to be announced in the coming weeks and months. But the indictment is the same for all of them. Each signatory is charged with “making propaganda for a terrorist organization” and if found guilty, each will face a prison sentence of up to seven and a half years. Read more

In Turkey, academics asking for peace are accused of terrorism

Judith Butler and Başak Ertür

Last week the trials began in Istanbul of those who signed the Academics for Peace petition in January 2016. A total of 148 trials are scheduled through to May 2018, with new trials expected to be announced in the near future. Each focuses on a single individual, but the indictment is the same for all of them. If they are found guilty, each signatory faces a prison sentence of up to seven-and-a-half years. Read more

Great Solidarity On The First Day Of Hearings – Michael Löwy – Raymond Haroutioun Kévorkian – Silke-Maria Weineck – Joan Cocks – Terry Pinkard

Thanks to the international solidarity and cohesion of the scientists, the Turkish Public Prosecutor’s Office was unable to enforce its indictment. In desperation, the court has first postponed the lawsuit to April 12. The other court hearings take place as planned. Therefore, it has become even more important to show solidarity. Anyone who wants to, could send a video message, which we will perform both at the congress “academics freedom and politics” as well as to the colleagues in Turkey and to the press forward.

Noam Chomsky’s Statement to Turkish trial against academics for peace

The penal case against the signers of the Academics for Peace petition is a shocking miscarriage of justice, which friends of the Turkish people can only view with dismay.  The wording of the indictment, throughout, makes it clear that the case is an assault against fundamental rights of free expression that should be zealously safeguarded.  To take only one example, the signers are accused of calling on the government “to lift the curfew, punish those who are responsible for human rights violations, and compensate those citizens who have experienced material and psychological damage.” These are entirely reasonable appeals, quite standard in free societies, and very natural and praiseworthy on the part of concerned citizens.  Those who feel that the petition misrepresents facts have ample opportunity to respond in a civilized manner.  There is nothing in the petition that supports terrorism in the slightest way.  The tortured attempt of the prosecution to distort a principled appeal for peace and justice into support for terrorism should not be tolerated in a society that values freedom and basic human rights.

Noam Chomsky
Institute Professor (emeritus), MIT
Laureate Professor, U. of Arizona

Prof. Michael Löwy – CNRS Paris -video support for academics in Turkey – December 6th 2017

 

Prof. Raymond Haroutioun Kévorkian video support for academics in Turkey – December 6th 2017

Prof. Silke-Maria Weineck video support for academics in Turkey – December 6th 2017

Prof. Pinker (Harvard) video support for academics in Turkey – November 2017

Prof. Joan Cocks, Mount Holyoke College: ”I express my strong support in this email for Turkish intellectuals and all others suffering from state repression”

 

 

 

 

I strongly support the Turkish intellectuals’ heroic protest against the Turkish government’s obviously fraudulent attempt to paint the petitioners as “terrorists.” This is a typical move made by authoritarian governments to misstate the positions of its opponent or to outright lie about them. It is an attempt to shut down free intellectual inquiry in Turkey.

Terry Pinkard
Georgetown University

 

Letter to Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim

Dear Prime Minister Yıldırım:

California Scholars for Academic Freedom,* an organization devoted to defending academic freedom and representing more than two hundred faculty at universities throughout California, has written to your office on several occasions, most recently on November 6, 2016, in order to express our concern over reports that the Higher Education Council (Yüksek Öğretim Kurulu, or YÖK) had commenced an investigation against scholars who signed a petition for peace in the Kurdish ​provinces of the country (“Peace Petition”). Since that date, many signatories have been prosecuted or dismissed from their posts. Hundreds more academics were dismissed with statutory decrees, their passports were confiscated, they were banned from public sector employment, and criminal investigations were launched. Many of those academics had to leave the country and are now facing extreme difficulties in resettling their lives and professions

We wish to reiterate our concern that these violations of human rights and academic freedom are continuing and in particular that individual Turkish academics are now being targeted in what amount to political trials.  Signatory academics are being sued on an individual basis based on the accusation of terror propaganda according to the Anti-Terror Law, Article 7/2. The public prosecutor proposes imprisonment extending to 7.5 years. The number of academics with indictments is increasing day by day, and their trials start on December 5, 2017.

The government’s actions against the Peace Petition signatories are distressing for at least three reasons. First, investigating the signatories after President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan criticized the campaign in a public address, calling the signatories “traitors,” suggests that government’s actions are inappropriately politicized and in violation of internationally recognized principles of academic freedom. The mere act of signing the Peace Petition has left academics facing charges of “making terror propaganda”.   In addition to governmental actions, numerous universities have taken anticipatory action against academics, producing a wave of punitive actions against scholars solely on the grounds that they criticized the government’s policies in the southeastern provinces. The actions being taken against signatories of the Peace Petition are a disturbing indication of the degree to which restrictions on academic freedom have become a matter of state policy in Turkey.

Second, among the signatories of the petition are scholars whose research is on the Kurds, other minorities, politics, history, and other related fields. That is, their scholarly work is related to the concerns raised in the text of the petition. By treating the Peace Petition as treasonous and launching an investigation of signatories, the government is effectively interfering with the ability of these academics to conduct their research. President Erdoğan suggested that the petition calls for foreigners to intervene to correct the situation in Turkey. In fact, the petition called for national and international independent observers to monitor the situation in the Kurdish provinces. This is not a call for foreign intervention, but rather an invitation to engage in the kind of independent observation that is the hallmark of both human rights monitoring and academic research. To investigate and criminalize a petition in which scholars call for independent observers to monitor areas under siege and curfew where civilian deaths have been reported is to strike at the heart of the academic enterprise—the ability to conduct independent research.

Third, as a member state of the Council of Europe and a signatory of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, Turkey is required to protect freedom of thought, expression and assembly.  Turkey is also a signatory to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), all of which protect the rights to freedom of expression and association, which are at the heart of academic freedom. These rights are also enshrined in articles 25-27 of the Turkish Constitution. We urge your government to take all necessary steps to ensure that these rights are protected.

We particularly urge the government of Turkey to desist from prosecuting these academics under the Law on Struggle against Terrorism.

The use of spurious charges of engaging in “terror propaganda” to punish dissent and silence critics of your government’s policies on various issues, including Kurdish rights, represents a serious violation of academic freedom, freedom of speech and freedom of assembly, and has cast a long shadow over the democratic credentials of your government. Against a backdrop of mounting international condemnation of the erosion of democratic rights and freedoms under your administration, taking steps to protect academic freedom and the right to education would be an important step to address concerns about human rights in Turkey.

Thank you for your attention to this matter. We look forward to your positive response.

Yours sincerely,

California Scholars for Academic Freedom

Contacts:

Sondra Hale, Anthropology and Gender Studies, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA); email: sonhale@UCLA.edu; phone: 310-836-5121

Katherine C King, Professor of Comparative Literature, University of California at Los Angeles; email: king@humnet.ucla.edu; phone: 310-822-2830

David Lloyd, Distinguished Professor of English, University of California, Riverside; email: david.lloyd@ucr.edu; Phone: 951-827-1459

**CALIFORNIA SCHOLARS FOR ACADEMIC FREEDOM is a group of over 200 academics who teach in more than 20 California institutions.  The group formed as a response to various violations of academic freedom that were arising from both the post-9/11/2001 climate of civil rights violations and the increasing attacks on progressive educators by neo-conservatives. Many attacks have been aimed at scholars of Arab, Muslim or Middle Eastern descent or at scholars researching and teaching about the Middle East, Arab and Muslim communities.  Our goal of protecting California Scholars based mainly in institutions of higher education has grown broader in scope to include threats to academic freedom across the United States, and where relevant, globally as well. We recognize that violations of academic freedom anywhere are threats to academic freedom everywhere.

Further information on CS4AF: https://cascholars4academicfreedom.wordpress.com/author/cs4af/

https://cascholars4academicfreedom.wordpress.com/2017/12/05/letter-to-turkish-prime-minister-binali-yildirim-re-turkish-scholars-who-signed-the-peace-petition/

 

An evening of solidarity with Academics and Teachers in Turkey

Half-Day Conference
Transformation of Academia in Turkey and its Impacts on German Higher Education
University of Bremen (6th December 2017) Haus der Wissenschaft, Sandstraße 4/5

This half-day conference will provide a forum to analyse and discuss about different aspects of a very present problem that is increasing number of academics who were displaced by political force from Turkey and exiled to Germany. The conference specifically aims to bring this issue into academic context and handle with it from a critical academic perspective within the discipline of Education Sciences.

Furthermore the conference would not only focus on academia in Turkey but also on German Higher Education within which exiled academics are presently sustaining their academic life.
The papers at the conference will picture out not only present conditions of academia in Turkey but also the historical process through which the Higher Education System went deep structural changes for the last few decades. In other words, there would be an aim to find out historical as well as structural dynamics that made it easier for an authoritarian regime to involve into universities through authoritarian measures and with the aim of re-ordering and re-shaping them in line with its nationalist-conservative ideology in Turkey. However this seems a unique experience, in fact academic freedom in producing critical views on particular sensitive topics is under threat not only in Turkey but also in many other parts of the world. In order to point out this general framework of new trends in Turkey, the conference would look at the issue of
academic freedom from a global perspective. Here the emphasis will be on the impacts of neoliberalism on Higher Education. Also there will be a focus on the alternative strategies and counter developments which might have the potential of challenging authoritarian developments in academic life. Within this general context of the conference, the first session would analyses transformation of specific academic
dicisplines (i.e. Gender studies, Kurdish studies, Psychology) in Turkey. Particularly disiciplines of gender studies and Kurdish studies are the onces that have been mostly effected by the rise of authoritarianism in Turkey in the last couple of years. However pscychology can be considered as an example for understanding negative impacts and outcomes of neoliberalism on a social sicence disipline.

In the second part of the conference there will be papers on the structural analysis of different Higher Education Systems. Within this context, there will be presentations and discussions on different examples of neoliberal and authoritarian modes of governing Higher Education Systems in different countries like England, Germany, Greece and Turkey. This session will also provide a context to see differences as well as similarities between different higher education systems in respect to their shared neoliberal context. Despite this general framework, we would like to make a zoom specifically on German Higher Education in which exiled academics continue their academic works. By expanding on all these issues, we hope to develop better understanding where present and possible future problems might derive from in German Higher Education System and how exiled academics might cope with them. This session might also help us to evolve and adapt more comprehensive and stronger alternative approaches, perspectives, strategies and plans to conduct not only for the safety of present exiled academics in Germany, but also for academic freedom and freedom of speech in general in the world. These presentations will be followed by a panel discussion by experts from interbranch organisations like “Heinrich-BöllStiftung” and political organisations like “Education and Science Workers’ Union” (GEW). Here we like to provide a shared context for both academics and activists and discus on the limitations and potentaisl that we have in the present system of Germany; share views on possible counter strategies and plans that might be conducted for the sake of academic freedom in Turkey and Germany.

So this last section would be more policy oriented and would aim to describe and bring out issues and problems as well as potentials related to the topic of the conference. The discussion will be run by Prof. Dr. Kader Konuk who would also rap up the whole conference with some final comments on the general outcomes that might be drawn from the conference.

CONFERENCE PROGRAM
Opening 13.00-13.15
First Session 13:15-14.45
Transformation of Social Disciplines in Academia in Turkey
(Coffee Break 15 min.)
Second Session 15.00-16.45
Impacts of Neoliberalism on Higher Education
(Coffee Break 15 min.)
Third Session 17.00-18.30
Panel Discussion on Potentials, Counter Strategies and Policies
Closing 18:30-18.45

***This conference is organized thanks to a financial support from “Bremen University Faculty of Education, Intercultural Education Unit” and from “The Philipp Schwartz Initiative of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation”***

Turquie autoritaire / Turquie contestataire

Vous trouverez ci dessous le programme d’une journée de solidarité consacre à la Turquie à l’Université Paris 8 le 23 novembre 2017.
Cette journée est publique, mais s’adresse également aux étudiant-e-s de l’université et en particulier de l’UFR, qui lui a apporté son soutien. Elle mêle interventions universitaires et militantes. Read More

Academics For Peace protested TUBITAK at Naturejobs Career Expo- London

After a massive leafleting campaign and sending tweets to all the participants of Naturejobs Career Expo, only 4 people (two of them from Turkey) attended the Tubitak workshop at #NJCELondon.

TUBITAK at Naturejobs Career Expo, New York, NYU Langone Medical Center, 4 November 2017

TUBITAK will also participate in Naturejobs Career Expo-New York. Then join the conversation: #WCUB2017 and inform the participating organizations about the TUBITAK record. https://www.nature.com/naturejobs/career-expo/event/naturejobs-career-expo-what-can-you-be-with-a-phd-new-york/exhibitors/#T

Freeze all collaborations with the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK)! Defend academic freedom!

Would you like to be affiliated with an institution that criminalizes

-freedom of expression?

-defunds projects at the whims of the government?

-rejects evolution theory and claims to make seeds more productive by praying?

-provides your personal data to Turkish Intelligence service?

Would you like to work in Turkey where your work visa can be cancelled overnight by decree-laws, or where you can suddenly face terrorism charges?

To give an example, which is only one out of hundreds of similar cases, it happened to Dr. Chris Stephenson, a UK citizen, who had been working as a lecturer in computer science in Turkey.

The government-controlled Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK) has:

· terminated existing grants to and rejected funding applications by signatories of the Academics for Peace petition1;

· terminated the study-abroad scholarships of PhD students who signed the petition;

· obliged funded PhD students to submit statements on their research to ensure that their research does not harm national interests;

· forced Academics for Peace signatories to withdraw their names from published or under-review work that it had funded in the past;

· stopped printing books on the theory of evolution and has increased support for shady ‘research’ projects that champion creationism.

DEFEND ACADEMIC FREEDOM. FREEZE ALL COLLABORATIONS WITH TÜBİTAK.

SUPPORT YOUR COLLEAGUES, DO NOT BE A PARTY TO THIS CRIME!

Presseinformation

GEW verurteilt Verhaftungen und Massenentlassungen von Lehrkräften und Wissenschaftlern in der Türkei

Bildungsgewerkschaft zum „Weltlehrer*innentag 2017“: „Lehren in Freiheit, Lehrkräfte stärken“

Frankfurt a.M. – Die Gewerkschaft Erziehung und Wissenschaft (GEW) verurteilt mit Blick auf den morgigen „Weltlehrer*innentag“ die Verhaftungen und Massenentlassungen von Lehrkräften sowie Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftlern in der Türkei. GEW-Vorsitzende Marlis Tepe forderte das Land auf, den Ausnahmezustand zu beenden und zu rechtsstaatlichen Prinzipien zurückzukehren: „Dazu gehört, alle inhaftierten Gewerkschafterinnen und Gewerkschafter freizulassen, die zu Unrecht entlassenen Lehrkräfte sowie Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftler wieder einzustellen und deren sozialen Status wieder herzustellen.“

„Seit dem Putschversuch im Sommer 2016 wurden mehr als 100.000 Staatsbedienstete entlassen oder von der Arbeit suspendiert. Etwa ein Drittel sind Lehrerinnen und Lehrer, darunter viele Mitglieder der Bildungsgewerkschaft Eğitim Sen. Die Entlassungen werden nicht angekündigt, Gründe nicht genannt. Die türkische Regierung veröffentlicht einfach Namenslisten auf ihrer Website. Die Lehrkräfte stehen plötzlich vor dem Nichts. Ihre Entlassungen kommen faktisch einem Berufsverbot gleich“, betonte Tepe am Mittwoch in Frankfurt a.M. „Die Kolleginnen und Kollegen können nicht mehr als Lehrkräfte arbeiten, da sie keine Chance haben, eine neue Stelle im Staatsdienst zu bekommen. Die Entlassungen bedeuten das soziale Aus, weil die Kolleginnen und Kollegen auch ihre Krankenversicherung sowie ihre Pensionsansprüche verlieren und die Türkei nicht verlassen dürfen.“ Tepe machte zudem darauf aufmerksam, dass auch hunderte Lehrkräfte an Universitäten und Hochschulen entlassen worden seien und Berufsverbot hätten. Viele hätten sich Anfang 2016 mit dem Appell „AkademikerInnen für den Frieden“ für ein Ende des Krieges in den Kurdenregionen eingesetzt.

In den Schulen in der Türkei falle immer mehr Unterricht aus, weil Lehrkräfte fehlen. Neu eingestellte Lehrerinnen und Lehrer erhielten nur noch Frist- statt fester Arbeitsverträge. Gleichzeitig würden neue Lehrpläne eingeführt, die einer Islamisierung des Unterrichts an öffentlichen Schulen Vorschub leisten. So sei es beispielsweise im Biologieunterricht künftig nicht mehr erlaubt, über die Evolutionstheorie zu informieren.

„Immer mehr gewerkschaftlich aktive Lehrkräfte sowie Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftler fliehen aus der Türkei. Der Grund: Viele Kolleginnen und Kollegen werden kriminalisiert und zu langjährigen Haftstrafen verurteilt“, sagte Tepe. „Selbstverständlich unterstützt die GEW Kolleginnen und Kollegen aus der Türkei und deren Familienmitglieder, die in Deutschland Asyl beantragt haben.“

Info: Der „Weltlehrer*innentag 2017“ steht unter dem Motto „Lehren in Freiheit, Lehrkräfte stärken“. Mit der Initiative soll der Lehrerberuf weltweit gewürdigt werden. Der Tag geht auf einen Beschluss von UNESCO, Internationaler Arbeitsorganisation (ILO) und Bildungsinternationale (BI) zurück. Seit 1994 wird der „Weltlehrer*innentag“ jährlich am 5. Oktober gefeiert – im Gedenken an die „Charta zum Status der Lehrerinnen und Lehrer“, die UNESCO und ILO 1964 angenommen haben.

Diese Pressemitteilung finden Sie auch im Internet unter: http://www.gew.de/presse/pressemitteilungen/.

 

WHO IS ERKAN İBİŞ, INVITED SPEAKER AT THE JUSTUS LIEBIG UNIVERSITY GIESSEN?

Prof. Erkan İbiş, Rector at Ankara University and responsible for the massive purge of academics at that institution, has announced he will speak at the Turkish-German Academic Days at the Justus Liebig University Giessen (18.08-19.08.2017).

As rector of Ankara University, Prof. Erkan İbiş has implemented repressive policies against scholars who signed the Peace Petition that calls on the Turkish government to end violence against its own citizens. In so doing, he has seriously violated academic rights and freedoms. Right after the Turkish State’s announcement that the Academics for Peace would be persecuted, the Ankara University administration started an investigation and finally expelled more than 100 scholars through emergency decrees. The persecution of the Academics for Peace is still ongoing and has led to multiple waves of criminal and administrative investigations, detentions, dismissals, passport revocations and travel bans, denials of pension rights, and exclusions from the labour market through blacklisting of national insurance numbers. Meanwhile, academics at Ankara University have been subjected to other disciplinary investigations as well.

These repressive policies have inflicted serious damage on the Faculty of Letters (DTCF), the Faculty of Education, the Faculty of Medicine (İbn-i Sina) the Faculty of Law, the Faculties of Political Science (Mülkiye) and Communication at Ankara University – all of them are among the most important centers for critical thinking in modern Turkish history. Currently, as a result of the dismissals, 38 undergraduate courses, 5 graduate courses, and 50 dissertations are on indefinite hold in the Faculty of Politics, while in the faculty of Communication, the numbers are 40 undergraduate courses, 29 graduate courses, and 99 dissertations.

Furthermore, Prof. Erkan Ibiş recently issued a special regulation to prevent the registration of expelled academics who passed the Turkish general university entrance exam and gained a right to register for undergraduate degrees at Ankara University as a way to re-enter the institution. In so doing, Prof. İbiş once again seriously curbed the right to free speech at Ankara University.

Therefore, as a subsection of the Academics for Peace group, we call for a boycott of Erkan İbiş’s participation in the Turkish-German Academic Days at the Justus Liebig University Giessen. We believe that the academic community of JLU Giessen will support academic freedoms and free speech, joining us in our protest against the extreme violation of academic freedoms at Ankara University carried out by Prof. Erkan İbiş.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6NWhF0xt9kWZTFXaFVJTl9WOTQ/view

Academics for Peace Germany

 

Die deutsche Hochschulrektorenkonferenz  : Ein Jahr nach dem gescheiterten Militärputsch: / Akademische Freiheiten an türkischen Hochschulen massiv eingeschränkt. Read More

 

Fear and loathing in Turkish academia: a tale of appeasement and complicity

Can fear explain the loathing that the victims of this ‘academic cleansing’ are exposed to, often by their own colleagues? Could insecurity justify the complicity? Read More

The Aesthetic of Solidarity

While Erdoğan’s attacks on academic freedom are carrying on, they are getting solidarity with more and more academics worldwide as well as with academics and teachers in Turkey. Many academics throughout the world are organizing events on the situation in Turkey, supporting colleges from Turkey and are organizing solidarity campaigns. Rarely, an international solidarity was this strong. Solidarity statements from Literature Professor Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (Columbia University),Literature Professor Fredric Jameson (Duke University), Political Science Professor Bertell Ollman (New York University) Read More

TU Berlin kritisiert Situation in der Türkei scharf

Der Umgang der derzeitigen Regierung mit kritischen und nicht regierungstreuen Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftlern in diesem Land ist nicht akzeptabel – ihnen werden Disziplinarverfahren, Entlassungen, Festnahmen oder Ausreiseverbote angedroht oder verhängt. Die Achtung der Menschenwürde und der Freiheit von Wissenschaft und Forschung sind für einen demokratischen Staat und dessen wissenschaftliche Einrichtungen unverzichtbar und unverhandelbar. Wir fordern alle Politikerinnen und Politiker in der Türkei auf, diese Missstände in ihrem Land zu beseitigen. Alle Menschen haben ein Recht auf Wissenschaftsfreiheit und Freiheit der Gedanken. Read More

TU Berlin regrets giving honorary doctorate to Turkish PM

Technical University of Berlin has expressed regret for bestowing an honorary doctorate on Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım in 2011 Read More

An open letter from Prof Luc Michel (UCL) to Dokuz Eylul University’s Rector

Professor Cem TERZI is a very distinguished colleague and a shining example of both a clinical and academic leader enjoying respect, friendship and admiration all over Europe, but also in the Middle East and China…

As many of my European and American colleagues, I am profoundly shocked and saddened by his most recent plight : he was actually dismissed in late June 2017 from his clinical and academic positions from Dokuz Eylül University (Izmir), because he signed a peace petition. This is in total contradiction with freedom of speech and academic freedom essential to the mission of any academic tenure, that must be protected by ensuring that teachers can be fired only for causes such as gross professional incompetence or behaviour that evokes condemnation from the academic community itself. Read More

Press Conference at EHESS in Paris on academic boycott of Turkey

Speakers:  Etienne Balibar, Eric Fassin, Hamit Bozarslan and Selim Eskiizmirliler Watch the Press Conference

Prof. Eric Fassin talks to Mediascope about the academic boycott of Turkey

 International Keynote Speakers Withdraw from Turkish Conference

As much as we were looking forward to giving keynote lectures and interacting with colleagues at “Narratives of Trauma”, the 16th International Cultural Studies Symposium to be held at Ege University in Izmir from 10 to 12 May 2017, we have decided to reconsider our participation in the light of recent political developments in Turkey, particularly the worsening attacks on academic freedom.
We accepted the invitation to speak at this conference many months ago, in a very different climate. Since then, and especially in the immediate run-up to the conference, we have heard testimonies from sacked or silenced academics inside Turkey and those in exile around the world. They have made it clear to us just how dire the situation has become. We are deeply troubled by the treatment meted out to the signatories of the Academics for Peace petition, many of whom have lost their jobs, pensions, and right to travel abroad, all because they asked the Turkish government to stop killing Kurdish civilians and return to peace negotiations with the Kurdish rebels. Ege University has recently targeted signatory scholars among its faculty, which strikes us as contrary to the principles of an academic institution or a healthy civil society.
We take the decision to withdraw from this conference with a heavy heart, but we do not want to be seen to be normalizing an unacceptable situation by carrying on with academic business as usual. Standing in solidarity with the victims of the academic purges sweeping Turkey today, we wish to redirect attention to their narratives of trauma and call on the Turkish authorities to reinstate them and respect academic freedom.

Prof. Stef Craps, Ghent University, Belgium
Prof. Roger Luckhurst, Birkbeck, University of London, UK”

UCU calls on UK universities to freeze collaboration with Turkish universities taking action against academics

Defend academic freedom and campaign against repression in Turkey – Birkbeck, University of London, University of Greenwich, Maritime Branch

Congress notes and condemns:

1. attacks on Turkish academics who signed the Academics for Peace petition, together with associated journalists and politicians
2. suppression of free press in Turkey
3. violence against Kurdish people.

Congress instructs the NEC and the general secretary to:

1. campaign for the immediate release of arrested university teachers, journalists, and politicians
2. call on the Turkish government to stop the persecution of ‘Academics for Peace’, to re-instate all academics (with compensation), and ensure signatories are protected against public threats
3. call on UK universities, colleges and other institutions to support persecuted academics and to freeze collaboration with Turkish universities taking action against academics
4. initiate a campaign of protest letters and emails to Turkish universities which have taken action against signatories of the ‘Academics for Peace’ petition
5. call on the British government to demand reinstatement of democratic freedoms in Turkey and an end to violence against Kurds
6. call for a ban on arms sales to the Erdogan regime until these are achieved.

CARRIED AS AMENDED

4A.1 National Executive Committee

After point 3., insert new point 4.:

‘4. Congress also notes the result of the 16 April referendum to give additional new executive powers to the president of Turkey and expresses its deepest concerns, given the alleged irregularities, one-sided media coverage and limitations on fundamental freedoms during the referendum campaign.’

CARRIED

Substantive motion

Congress notes and condemns:

1. attacks on Turkish academics who signed the Academics for Peace petition, together with associated journalists and politicians
2. suppression of free press in Turkey
3. violence against Kurdish people
4. Congress also notes the result of the 16 April referendum to give additional new executive powers to the president of Turkey and expresses its deepest concerns, given the alleged irregularities, one-sided media coverage and limitations on fundamental freedoms during the referendum campaign.

Congress instructs the NEC and the general secretary to:

1. campaign for the immediate release of arrested university teachers, journalists, and politicians
2. call on the Turkish government to stop the persecution of ‘Academics for Peace’, to re-instate all academics (with compensation), and ensure signatories are protected against public threats
3. call on UK universities, colleges and other institutions to support persecuted academics and to freeze collaboration with Turkish universities taking action against academics
4. initiate a campaign of protest letters and emails to Turkish universities which have taken action against signatories of the ‘Academics for Peace’ petition
5. call on the British government to demand reinstatement of democratic freedoms in Turkey and an end to violence against Kurds
6. call for a ban on arms sales to the Erdogan regime until these are achieved. Read more

 

Conseil scientifique du CNRS – Recommandation

Les relations avec le Conseil de la recherche scientifique et technique de Turquie (TÜBİTAK). Le Conseil de la recherche scientifique et technique de Turquie (TÜBİTAK) s’est engagé dans des pratiques d’épuration politique des scientifiques turcs, notamment à travers sa circulaire envoyée le 24 mars 2017 à toutes les revues scientifiques. Au vu de ces pratiques, le Conseil scientifique demande au CNRS de reconsidérer ses accords de collaboration avec le TÜBİTAK.

https://blogs.mediapart.fr/les-invites-de-mediapart/blog/170417/tuebitak-organisme-scientifique-ou-outil-politique

Bruno Chaudret
Président du Conseil scientifique

Recommandation adoptée le 25 avril 2017
Votants : 19 Pour, 0 Contre, 0 Abstention Read more.

MESA Letter on Turkey

June 20, 2017

Dear Prime Minister Yıldırım and President Erdoğan:

We write on behalf of the Middle East Studies Association (MESA) of North America and its Committee on Academic Freedom to express our deep concern over the criminalization of non-Turkish (especially Syrian) students, faculty and staff members who were employed by or enrolled in universities allegedly affiliated with followers of cleric Fethullah Gülen. Numerous reports, as well as additional information we have collected, indicate that dozens of these individuals have been detained, threatened with deportation, or even actually deported. Most worrisome is that many of those who have been deported are refugees who escaped war. Read More

MESA Letter on Turkey

May 19, 2017

Dear Prime Minister Yıldırım and President Erdoğan:

We write on behalf of the Middle East Studies Association (MESA) of North America and its Committee on Academic Freedom to express our deep concern over a memo that was issued by the Turkish Council for Scientific and Technical Research (TÜBITAK) on 17 March 2017. The memo constitutes the most recent example of the unprecedented violations of academic freedom that have occurred under the State of Emergency declared by your government after the failed coup attempt in July 2016. These violations not only have a devastating impact on Turkish academia and affected academics’ lives but also increasingly distance Turkey from the global academic community’s ethical and professional standards. Read more.

Türkei: Hungerstreik gegen Erdogan

Die zwei Lehrer Nuriye Gülmen und Semih Özakça sind zum Zeichen des Widerstands gegen die Entlassungen von Beamten in der Türkei geworden. Um ihr Ziel zu erreichen, riskieren sie ihr Leben. http://bit.ly/2pVL0Eq

 

ACADEMIC FREEDOM, AUTHORITARIANISM AND TURKEY

When: 17 March 2017, 12:30 — 17:00
Venue: Room B34, Birkbeck Main Building
A half-day conference in memory of Mehmet Fatih Traş [1]

17 March 2017, Birkbeck, University of London

In the face of rising authoritarianism and right-wing populism, academic freedom is under severe threat in contemporary Turkey. Governmental repression on academics became all too apparent when the Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, instigated a campaign of persecution against academics – Academics for Peace (BAK) – who signed a peace petition in January 2016. The petition, which called on the Turkish government to bring a halt to the destruction and civilian killings being carried out in Kurdish cities and towns, was signed by more than 2000 academics.

As of 2017, more than 700 BAK academics have been subject to dismissal, disciplinary actions, criminal prosecution, or even detention. The repression has escalated beyond BAK academics in the aftermath of the failed military coup in July 2016, with thousands of academics being fired, or forced to resign, and hundreds being legally detained. More than 20 universities have been closed, and their students forced to find alternative places. In addition, since January 2016, hundreds of academics and scholars have been displaced, either forced to leave Turkey or choosing it as the only viable option.

This half-day conference will address the current threats to academic freedom in Turkey, in the context of the current global political climate. We aim to start an urgent conversation about academic freedom and freedom of speech, increasingly stifled due to neoliberalism, authoritarianism, and the so-called “war on terror” in many parts of the world, from the US to India, Latin America to Egypt. We invite the university community, journalists, activists, politicians, and all concerned individuals to join us in this effort to defend academic freedom and freedom of speech and think about ways to organise solidarity to support scholars and journalists at risk.

PROGRAMME

Panel I –  12:30 – 14:30

Academic Freedom, Authoritarianism and Turkey

Chair: Dr. Noémi Levy-Aksu, Birkbeck College

Étienne Balibar, Emeritus Professor at Paris X Nanterre and Anniversary Chair of Modern European Philosophy at Kingston University

Seyla Benhabib, Eugene Meyer Professor of Political Science and Philosophy at Yale University and Diana Middlebrook and Carl Djerassi Visiting Professor in Center for Gender Studies at Cambridge University

Naif Bezwan, dismissed Lecturer from Mardin Artuklu University

Nilgün Toker Kılınç, dismissed Professor from Aegean University (Via Skype)

Break – 14:30-14:45

Panel II – 14:45-17:00

Round Table Discussion: Building Solidarity with Academics in Turkey

Chair: Dr. Janroj Yilmaz Keles, Middlesex University

Jean Lambert, MEP, Green Party

Rob Copeland, UCU Policy Officer

Caroline Stockford, Chair of the Translation, Linguistic Rights and Writers in Prison Committee of Wales PEN Cymru

Maria Chichtchenkova, Protection Coordinator for Europe and Central Asia – Front Line Defenders

Location: Room B34, Birkbeck Main Building, Birkbeck, University of London, Malet Street, Bloomsbury, London, WC1E 7HX

This event is organised by BAK-UK (Academics for Peace, United Kingdom) with the support of Birkbeck School of Law.

[1]Mehmet Fatih Traş was a peace petition signatory academic from Turkey, who committed suicide on 25 February 2017 after being dismissed from Cukurova University and systematically denied of other academic positions elsewhere and systematically denied other academic positions elsewhere in Turkey for over a year.
Further details: More information about this event …  or at
http://www.bbk.ac.uk/events-calendar/academic-freedom-authoritarianism-and-turkey-bak-uk-and-school-of-law-birkbeck

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