Turkish academics face repression after criticising government

Freedom of speech is being destroyed in Turkey: Michele Catanzaro, "Turkish academics face repression after criticising government" 19 February 2016

Academics in Turkey are facing prosecution, dismissal and harassment after signing an open letter protesting military action by the Turkish government in the Kurdish region of the country. Thousands of academics have signed the letter and signatories face criminal charges of promoting terrorism and humiliating Turkey.  About thirty academics are thought to have been arrested and later released after signing the letter organised by Scholars for Peace. 

Scholars for Peace called for respecting a historic ceasefire and the subsequent peace talks between the Turkish state and the Kurdistan Workers Party, an armed faction of the wider movement calling for autonomy or independence for the Kurdish region in south-eastern Turkey.

On 10 January, the organisation released a new open letter, signed by more than 1100 academics (now more than 4000) to protest the government’s military intervention in the region after the ceasefire ended in July 2015. The letter labels the intervention a ‘massacre’ that has led to widespread ‘human rights violations’. Human Rights Watch and the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights previously raised similar concerns.

Yet artefacts seized from collectors are still being repatriated to his hideous regime.