Tag Archives: Kurdistan

HDP arrests: on the road to dictatorship in Turkey

In the absence of concerted international pressure on Turkey to rein in Erdogan’s authoritarianism, the only plausible outcome is further violence.

By Francis O’Connor. Published 11-8-2016 by ROAR Magazine

“Meeting with the CHP delegation, HDP’s imprisoned Co-Chair Demirtaş has said that he didn’t go abroad despite knowing that he would be arrested, and imprisoned Mardin Co-Mayor Türk said “I am prepared for everything as long as peace is achieved in these lands” Photo: Rojava24/7/Facebook

The political situation in Turkey continues to deteriorate in the wake of the attempted coup d’état in July 2016, allegedly organized by the Gülen Movement, a former ally of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). It has in fact led to a slow incremental counter-coup where Erdogan and his cronies have progressively jailed, marginalized and silenced opponents of all hues — but especially the Kurdish movement.

The botched coup has conceded the Erdogan regime the pretext to arrest 80,000 suspects, 40,000 of whom remain in custody, while forcing the shutdown of more than 150 publications, the firing of more than 100,000 civil servants and the re-staffing of the army’s upper echelons with Erdogan loyalists. It has also furnished Erdogan with the opportunity to eradicate his principal political opponent, the pro-Kurdish, leftist People’s Democratic Party (HDP), which had been hindering his assumption of complete parliamentary control. Erdogan’s campaign culminated in the arrest of twelve HDP MPs, including its co-chairs Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yüksekdag last Friday. Continue reading →

The curious case of a Turkish judiciary in a state of emergency

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There is strong evidence to conclude that Turkey has gone beyond what is necessary or proportionate.

By Emre Turkut. Published 11-16-2016 by openDemocracy

Cizre. Photo: Has Avrat/Twitter

Yet again, another state of emergency is eating away at the already fragile foundations of a country’s rule of law. Not surprisingly, that country is Turkey.

Since the bloody and violent attempted military coup on 15 July 2016, Turkish state authorities have taken unprecedented measures, purportedly to restore normalcy in the country. In many ways, however, those measures could almost be characterized as a counter-coup, a purge bordering on crimes against humanity. Continue reading →

Turkey Looks to Join Russia-China Alliance, Snubbing the US and Europe

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By Darius Shahtahmasebi. Published 11-22-2016 by The Anti-Media

Photo: Emre Uslu/Twitter

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan recently said Turkey does not need to join the European Union “at all costs.” Instead, he is looking to become part of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization is a Eurasian political, economic, and military bloc originally founded in Shanghai by China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.

Although Turkey is a member of NATO, 11 years of negotiations aimed at the country’s entrance into the E.U. have almost fallen flat. A proposal for Turkey to take a certain number of refugees from Europe with hopes this would lead to E.U. membership failed earlier this year. Continue reading →

World remains silent as Turkey continues genocide against Kurds

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Turkey continues unlawful and ongoing crackdown and purge of the dissent in Southeast Kurdish region

Written by Carol Benedict

Protests as a UN Judge was arrested in Turkey. Photo: The Genocide Report/Twitter

Following months of sieges, bombings, burnings, arrests, detentions and human rights violations in an effort to rid the country of the “Kurdish issue,” the Turkish government appears to be resorting to starvation in their genocide attempts against their Kurdish civilians. Yesterday, the Turkish government shuttered the doors of the only remaining food bank in Diyarbakir, Turkey’s largest city in the southeast region. The Sarmaşik Association serviced 5,400 families, feeding 32,000 people. Below this article is a statement from the center and their urgent plea for action.

Since July of this year, Turkey has been suppressing dissent within the country, fearing an uprising that could topple President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. On July 15, a failed coup attempt opened the floodgate for loosening of laws and policies within the country that represented democracy, and instead anyone that opposes Erdogan and his regime has been labeled a terrorist and is subject to arrest, detention, torture and in many cases, death.

As early as July 27, reports on CNN surfaced that “Authorities have fired or suspended at least 50,000 people from various institutions, including judges, teachers, soldiers, police and journalists.” The report also details torture, rape, water and food deprivation, beatings, denial of medical care, denial of access of lawyers and many other atrocities not allowed under the Geneva Convention, and especially within a NATO member country.

Human Rights Watch issued a report on October 25, further documenting human rights violations perpetrated by the Turkish government against Kurdish civilians in the southeast region, including children, women and elderly people. The Washington Post published the story, but buried it. It went relatively unnoticed. Turkey continued to deny all charges.

As of now, Turkey is cracking down even harder, believing no one will stop them and that their actions are no one else’s affair.

Over 6,000 people, all members of Erdogan’s opposing political party, have been arrested with accusations “of promoting separatism and terror.”
Journalism is no longer an approved career; over 120 journalists have been arrested, each one having filed reports objecting to the actions of the government that were contrary to the nation’s Constitution. All Kurdish publications and broadcasts have been shutdown and identified as “terrorist propaganda,” including a Kurdish children’s education program featuring SpongeBob Squarepants.
Academics in Turkey are not safe either. Most that were Kurdish or signed a statement asking the government to lift sieges and curfews on Kurdish cities have all been fired from their positions, their offices raided, and the majority arrested, again, for the charges of separatism and terrorist activity.
On September 21, Turkey arrested Judge Aydin Sedaf Akay, a UN judge with immunity. All requests to visit him have gone ignored by the Turkish government. The UN Office of Legal Affairs has requested his release from detention and the cessation of all legal proceedings against him,” reports the Jerusalem Post. The arrest is believed to be the first occasion on which a UN judge’s immunity has been violated.
Around 18,000 people have been arrested since the failed coup. A further 70,000 people have been suspended or dismissed from their jobs in the civil service, judiciary, education, police, healthcare, the military and the media.

S A R M A Ş I K

YOKSULLUKLA MÜCADELE VE SÜRDÜRÜLEBİLİR KALKINMA DERNEĞİ

Association for Struggle against Poverty and Sustainable Development

An Urgent Appeal for Support

Diyarbakir, Turkey

November 19, 2016

On November 12, 2016, Sarmaşik Association that runs the only food bank in Diyarbakir was shut down by the Turkish government. Sarmaşik Association has been serving 5,400 families, or 32 thousand people, in desperate need of monthly food baskets in order to survive.

After eleven years of active presence in the areas of struggling against urban poverty, building social solidarity networks, and promoting sustainable development in Diyarbakir, Sarmaşik Association for the Struggle against Poverty and Sustainable Development was shut down on November 12, 2016, by the Turkish government. Along with Sarmaşik Association, 370 civil society organizations were shutdown according to the the article eleven of the state of emergency (OHAL) law as part of another wave of post-failed coup crackdown against opposition groups in Turkey. All of activities of Sarmaşik Association are suspended for three months with the possibility of extending suspension for another period of time or becoming permanent.

Sarmaşik Association was founded in 2006 after a long process of discussions, meetings, and negotiations with people and organizations involved in the fight against poverty and advancing social solidarity in Diyarbakir in a rather unconventional environment. Sarmaşik was not only a civil society organization but also a platform for everyone in Diyarbakir to come together to help alleviating poverty in this severely impoverished city. The founding board of Sarmaşik Association consists representatives from Diyarbakir municipality and 32 active civil society organizations in Diyarbakir. These organizations are coming from a wide range of political tendencies in the city to produce an environment of cooperation between all parties to fight against poverty. Indeed, the intolerance against such an exemplary initiative was also an attack against the environment of cooperation despite all political differences.

Sarmaşik is an organization that has been providing assistance for the most disadvantaged, marginalized, and impoverished people in Diyarbakir that live much below the poverty line and under the risk of hunger. They have zero income and in most desperate need of assistance who are also mostly excluded from any social assistance mechanisms and programs in place. These are families that may not even have enough food for a daily meal. Sarmaşik Association has provided 5,400 families, or almost 32 thousand people, in the situation described above. Our association operates the only food bank in Diyarbakir that provides monthly basic food baskets to these families. Our educational support program also provides educational bursaries and free tutoring sessions for children of these families. We have done this work without any discrimination and in the most respectful way for these families’ dignity. In the last eleven years, we have assisted our families 180 thousand times in total. All the details of our operation are available and given to the government authorities, and our financial and operational records have been audited and reviewed multiple times by inspectors from the Turkish Ministry of Interior and verified by them.

Closing down Sarmaşik Association, before anything else, is violation of the right of 32 thousand people under the risk of hunger to access food. It means punishing the most excluded and vulnerable people with hunger and their existing living conditions. Leaving 32 thousand people without food and much needed assistance is not only a crime against them and our association but also a crime against humanity. With the coming cold season in Diyarbakir, these people are facing more difficult situation. We are deeply concerned about the daily survival of our 5,400 families. We call everyone and every organization concerned with poverty, inequality, injustice, and human rights around the world, especially anti-poverty groups, food banks, and development agencies to support Sarmaşik Association in such difficult times. You can do so by sending emails, faxes, and letters of support and solidarity for Sarmaşik to Turkish embassies in your countries, the Parliament of Turkey, Turkish Prime Minister, and the Turkish Ministry of Interior and protest shutting down Sarmaşik Association (please find their contact information below). We ask you to urge your governments to put pressure on the Turkish state to open our association and to end the unlawful and ongoing crackdown and purge of the dissent in Turkey. Please circulate this appeal among your friends and networks. You can find more information on Sarmaşik Association and our activities in the attached document to this email. Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions.

Yours,

Mehmet Şerif Camci – Chair

On behalf of Sarmaşik Association

Contact Info

Email:

mserifcamci@gmail.com

mserifcamci@hotmail.com.

Tel: +905326274745

Address:

Selahattin Eyübi Mah., T.Özal Bulvarı,

Aydınkent Şelale Evleri 7.Blok Kat:4 No: 11

Bağlar, Diyarbakır

Turkey

Web: www.sarmasik.org

…

You can find the contact info of Turkish embassies and consulates in your countries on this webpage:

http://www.mfa.gov.tr/turkish-representations.en.mfa

…

Contact info for the Turkish Parliament, Turkish Prime Ministry and Turkish Ministry of Interior are below:

TBMM İnsan Hakları İnceleme Komisyonu (Human Rights’ Investigation Commission of the Turkish Parliament)

Mustafa Yeneroğlu – Komisyon Başkanı (Commission’s Chair)

Address:

TBMM İnsan Hakları İnceleme Komisyonu

Bakanlıklar, 06543

Ankara

Turkey

Fax: +90 312 420 24 92

Email: insanhaklarikom@tbmm.gov.tr

Başbakan (Turkish Prime Minister)

Binali Yıldırım

Address:

Vekaletler Caddesi

Başbakanlık Merkez Bina

P.K. 06573

Kızılay / Ankara

Turkey

Fax: +90 312 403 62 82

Email: ozelkalem@basbakanlik.gov.tr

İçişleri Bakanı (Minister of Interior)

Süleyman Soylu

Address:

İçişleri Bakanlığı

Bakanlıklar

Ankara

Turkey

Fax: +90 312 418 17 95

Fax: +90 312 425 85 09

Writing from Diyarbakır under blockade

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While writing this article, currently without access to the world, I can’t help but wonder how you will read it.

By Nurcan Baysal. Published 11-1-2016 by openDemocracy

Protests throughout Diyarbakir erupted on October 26, 2016 following the arrests of the city’s co-mayors. Image via Twitter.

Diyarbakır, the unofficial capital of the Kurdish people, has been one of the main locations of armed conflict between the PKK and the Turkish state. Since August 2015, numerous curfews have been declared in the city and its villages, hundreds of civilians have been killed, the centre of the 5000 year old city Suriçi was bombed, and half of the old city was totally destroyed. The curfew still continues in the old city Suriçi. Today is the 333rd day of the curfew.

Right now, the city is undergoing another trauma. Two days ago, the co-mayors of Diyarbakır, Gültan Kışanak and Fırat Anlı, were detained by the Turkish police with the allegation that they are “supporting the PKK terror organization”. Kışanak was detained in Diyarbakir Airport, on her way back from Ankara, while Anlı was detained at his home in the center of Diyarbakir. According to the press release of the Diyarbakır Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, Kışanak and Anlı were detained due to statements they had made, under laws governing their rights to freedom of speech.

Following their detention, all internet connection was cut across the Kurdish region. 6 million people have been cut off from the world for the past 3 days.

Why did the Turkish government cut off internet in the Kurdish region?

The government is trying to prevent the mobilization of Kurdish people through social media. Kurdish people are very angry because of the detention of their co-mayors. They want to protest. The government has prohibited all kinds of protests, gatherings and marches under the Emergency Law.

This blackout also aims to silence the voices of the Kurdish people, to prevent them from informing the national and international public about developments in the region.

What has happened in these two “dark” days?

The municipality building has been completely closed by police barriers, panzers and thousands of police officers. Even municipal staff have been forbidden to enter the building.

On the first day, hundreds of people tried to gather in front of the municipality building. The police tried to prevent the people from gathering and protesting. It was a hard day, full of tear gas and water cannon. The police did not only use tear gas and water, but guns were turned against protestors as well. Many people were injured by police violence. At the end of the day, 37 protestors, some of them Kurdish politicians, were also detained.

Thousands of Kurdish people gathered in front of the municipality building on the second day. The co-president of HDP, Selahattin Demirtaş gave a speech to the crowd of people. He said that the Kurdish people will not accept the detention of their co-mayors and encouraged people to continue their peaceful protests until the release of the co-mayors.

Message to Kurds

Kurdish cities have witnessed outrage, killings and bombings all year. Just a month ago, on 11 September, 27 elected mayors were replaced by appointed state officers, 11,285 Kurdish teachers were fired from their jobs. Hundreds of Kurdish politicians and activists have been detained. Almost all Kurdish media, even the Kurdish childrens’ channel have been closed down. As of today, 27 elected Kurdish co-mayors are in prison in Turkey, while 43 of them were dismissed.

The detention of Diyarbakır’s co-mayors is an important phase in a year-long process.

The government has blocked all political access to Kurdish people in Turkey. With these policies, the government is sending a message to all Kurdish people: “There is no legal way to gain rights for Kurdish people. There is no place for Kurds in this country.”

While looking at my municipality, which has been under police blockade for 3 days, I wonder if the Kurdish people will accept these humiliating policies.

As a member of the Kurdish society, I can easily say NO. Kurds are part of a very organized society, a resilient society, struggling for their rights for more than a century. They will continue their struggle, though I believe these policies risk the future of Turkey as a country.

While writing this article, currently without access to the world, I can’t help but wonder how you will read it.

About the author

Nurcan Baysal is a Kurdish author who has published numerous books and articles about Turkey’s Kurdish issue.

This article is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International licence.

U.S.-Backed Turkish Offensive in Syria Targets U.S.-Backed Kurds

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Under guise of fighting ISIS, U.S. policy in Syria is growing increasingly incoherent, say critics

By Nika Knight, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 8-24-2016

Photo: SigmaLive

Turkey has “launched a major military intervention in Syria,” the Guardian reports, dispatching tanks and warplanes to purportedly reclaim the city of Jarabulus, currently held by the Islamic State (ISIS), and to attack Kurdish forces in northeastern Syria.

“At 4am this morning, operations started in the north of Syria against terror groups which constantly threaten our country,” said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Ankara on Wednesday, according to the Guardian. Turkey’s government classifies Kurdish nationalists as terrorists, although Erdoğan also pointed to a bomb attack that killed 54 in Southern Turkey, which the Turkish regime blamed on ISIS, as justification for Wednesday’s siege in Syria. Continue reading →

Kurdish Emissaries to share details on ISIS outside both National Conventions

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Written by Carol Benedict.

Kurds & Americans fighting together together in Rojava, Syria. Image via Reece Harding News Agency screen shot.

Kurds & Americans fighting together in Rojava, Syria. Image via Reece Harding News Agency screen shot.

The war against ISIS in the Middle East rages on with no end date set. The majority of the fighting on the ground that is winning back territory and pushing ISIS back is being done by Kurdish fighters in Syria and Iraq.

Following the Dallas shootings and the murders of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge and Philando Castile in Falcon Heights, a suburb of Minneapolis, the Kurdish women fighters made a public statement of solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement.

“To our black sisters and brothers! The people of Kurdistan stand with you! Here are the women who fight ISIS in Rojava (northern Syria) – saluting your honorable struggle for freedom, dignity, and resistance!”

This follows a recent action in Washington DC, staged across the street from the Turkish Embassy on Massachusetts Avenue. Named “A Vigil for King’s Dream in Kurdistan,” the organizers drew the comparisons between the history of the black people in America and that of the Kurds within the borders of Turkey. In the words of the event organizer. Kani Xulam of the American Kurdish Information Network (AKIN). The Vigil enraged the Turkish Embassy for 92 days before the group left the site.

Now, a trip to both National Conventions has been organized by the AKIN to provide information to Americans on the war against ISIS and how the American-Kurdish alliance strengthens both America and the stateless nation of Kurdistan. The media advisory issued by the group includes the following:

Information on how Kurds can help America win the war against ISIS will be available for the press at both:
–The Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, beginning Saturday, July 16, 2016.
–The Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, beginning the following Saturday, July 23, 2016.
Kurdish Americans and their friends will be on hand to provide details on how Kurdish freedom fighters can beat ISIS overseas—before it can bring large scale attacks to America.
“Kurds are fighting ISIS tooth and nail and we want Americans to help us prevail,” said Kani Xulam, the director of American Kurdish Information Network (AKIN), an organizer of the trip.

Banner to look for at both National Conventions to offer solidarity with Kurdish Americans. Image via Facebook.

Xulam continues, “It may be viewed as a Cassandra like observation, but Kurds hold the key to the peace of American cities like Cleveland and Philadelphia.

Helping Kurds is an investment in peace in America.”

We challenge you to find these people at the National Convention of your choice. Their message of Peace is nonpartisan and welcoming.

Sometimes you have to take the extra effort to understand how peace can be attained. The choice is yours, the message is truth.

About the Author:
Carol Benedict is an indépendant researcher and human rights activist who has been studying Kurdish history, culture and politics for over three years. She currently writes for Occupy World Writes exclusively.

3 Facts That Will Change Everything You Believe About U.S. Foreign Policy

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By Nick Bernabe. Published 5-27-2016 by The Anti-Media

The United States has the world’s most powerful military — and a huge budget to match it. In fact, the U.S. spends more on defense than the next seven countries’ budgets military combined. America’s navy has been branded a “Global Force for Good,” and U.S. military operations around the world are sold to the public as freedom-by-force operations (see: Operation Iraqi Freedom).

But what is the truth about America’s foreign policy? Is America truly a benevolent empire hell-bent on raining democracy-by-drone strike around the world? To answer this question, we looked at America’s arms global deals and came to a rather disappointing conclusion. Continue reading →

Turkey’s Parliament: Democracy Dies in “Palace Coup”

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Turkey’s HDP, civil society launch campaign against lifting immunities: “More than 250 civil society organizations (CSOs), professional chambers and associations have released a joint declaration against a government-led bill which would strip some parliamentarians of their immunity from prosecution, with the Kurdish-problem-focused Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), the main target of the bill, marking the declaration as a starter for a campaign against “the palace’s coup.”

Fight breaks out in Turkish Parliament as discussion over stripping MPs of immunity, May 3, 2016. Image via Twitter.

The following letter was published by the HDP co-chairs, Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ, following the volatile debate in parliament that dissolved into fist fights and brawling. It appears to have been released on or after May 5, 2016.

Turkey is rapidly moving away from democracy and the rule of law due to President Erdoğan and the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government’s increasing authoritarian policies – particularly with respect to the Kurdish issue. At multiple platforms we have expressed grave concerns that such antidemocratic policies are dragging the country into political violence, social polarization, and socio-economic instability. We have also emphasized that the only way out of these circumstances is to resume the peace process with the Kurdish movement and broaden the field of democratic politics. Unfortunately, Turkey is moving full force in the opposite direction despite ongoing negotiations for accession to the EU.

Turkey’s already weak parliamentary democracy is under a new totalitarian attack. President Erdoğan and the AKP government have virtually subordinated the Turkish judiciary to the executive by several governmental and legal interventions over the past two years. Now, a recent motion by the government to lift legislative immunity seeks to oust political opposition from the parliament. If passed, this motion would suspend Article 83 of the Constitution, which guarantees parliamentary immunity, through addition of a provisional clause. Lifting parliamentary immunity with such an anti-Constitutional move would extend Erdoğan-AKP bloc’s monopolistic grip to the legislative body.

We view this motion as a political coup attempt to completely destroy the separation of powers by subordinating the legislative to the executive and leaving the former to the mercy of a thoroughly politicized and biased judiciary. If successful, this coup would be a most crucial step for Erdoğan to replace Turkey’s parliamentary democracy, which he has twice declared “de facto over,” with an absolutist presidential system in which the legislative, executive and judiciary powers are virtually monopolized by the President himself.

As of April 21, 2016, the summaries of court proceedings of 131 deputies had been sent to the parliament. If the AKP’s motion passes, these deputies will lose their immunity. Of these, 26 are AKP deputies, 51 are Republican People’s Party (CHP) deputies, 46 are Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) deputies, 7 are Nationalist Action Party (MHP) deputies, and 1 is an independent deputy. The AKP government represents the mixed profile of these deputies as proof of the non-partisan intention of the motion. This is simply a pretense.

What this motion seeks to destroy is the HDP opposition in the parliament. Despite the antidemocratic %10 election threshold, mass arrest and imprisonment of thousands of our party executives, members and electorate, hundreds of physical attacks on our offices, and constant criminalization and scapegoating, the Erdoğan-AKP bloc failed to prevent us from entering the parliament in the elections on June 7^th and November 1^st, 2015. Lifting our immunity is their latest move to exclude the HDP from the parliament. In fact, in his many public statements regarding the motion, President Erdoğan did single out HDP deputies and criminalized us as “supporters of terrorism” with groundless accusations.

The HDP is a progressive party established by Kurdish political opposition and other under-represented ethno-religious populations, women, labor and ecologist/environmentalist groups who came together around values of pluralist democracy, peace, justice and equality. Conceiving the repression of Kurdish people’s cultural and political rights as a systemic problem of the monolithic nation-state formation in Turkey, we uphold an integrated approach to the struggle for equality and freedom of all repressed sectors of Turkey’s populace. The profile of our parliamentary group, including Kurdish, Turkish, Armenian, Syriac, Alevite and Ezidi representatives as well as democrat Muslims, women, labor and ecological activists, reflects clearly our democratic political commitments.

As per parliamentary immunity, we demand its Constitutional restriction to chair immunity. We have already submitted a motion regarding this to the parliament. We believe that everybody should be treated equally before the law. Limiting parliamentary immunity with chair immunity would guarantee free and democratic debate in the parliament while preventing the abuse of parliamentary immunity for unlawful advancement of personal, familial or small group interests.

Let us remind you that the revocation of parliamentary immunity and imprisonment of Democracy Party’s (DEP) Kurdish deputies in 1994 under the pretext of “fighting terror” was both a symptom and facilitator of one of the most violent periods of the Kurdish conflict in Turkey. In the totalitarian turn that Turkish political system has recently taken, wherein anybody critical of the Erdoğan-AKP bloc is labeled as a “terrorist” or “supporter of terrorism,” the closure of parliamentary representation to political opposition will render Kurds and other marginalized peoples of Turkey even more vulnerable to grave forms of state violence and repression. As it is, the tutelage of the executive over the judiciary emboldened President Erdoğan to even demand revoking the citizenship of his political critics ranging from HDP deputies and elected Kurdish mayors to journalists, pro-peace academics and social media users. Lest the parliament is brought under the control of the executive, we suspect Erdoğan’s next move would be to demand “a state without citizens.”

The HDP will continue its decisive struggle against authoritarian policies that the Erdoğan- AKP bloc carries out to annihilate democratic life in Turkey. Given the injustices in court cases against journalists, academics, elected Kurdish mayors or the citizens alleged to have “insulted the President,” we do not expect the courts, which are under heavy control of President Erdoğan, to deliver justice to our deputies. We will not surrender to authoritarianism and will continue our democratic struggle against all kinds of tyrannies.

In this critical conjuncture for Turkey’s democracy and a peaceful resolution of the Kurdish conflict, we invite all persons and institutions embracing universal democratic values to take immediate and concrete action, strongly raise their voice, and stand in solidarity with our struggle against the intended political coup against the parliament and the HDP.

Academic freedom under threat in Turkey

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The international scholarly community must take meaningful steps to support Academics for Peace.

By Mehmet Uger

Photo: Amnesty International/Twitter

On 10 January this year, a group of scholars calling themselves Academics for Peace signed an open letter calling on the Turkish government to end its violence in Kurdish provinces. In line with their aim of studying peace and conflict-resolution processes worldwide, the academics also called for “a road map that would lead to a lasting peace in Turkey” and for independent observers to monitor the Kurdish provinces, where civilians, including children and the elderly, are still being killed under a security crackdown.

The “Petition for Peace” was signed by 1,128 academics in Turkey and beyond. The next day, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan accused the signatories and the organisers of treason and called for them to be punished. Immediately afterwards, the judiciary initiated public prosecutions under Turkish anti-terror law alleging defamation of the Turkish state and accusing the signatories of spreading “terrorist organisation propaganda”. After an emergency meeting, Turkey’s Higher Education Council (YÖK) ordered university rectors to commence disciplinary investigations. Numerous suspensions, dismissals and imprisonments have followed. Continue reading →