Terrorist State of Turkey: 330 more academics expelled with state of emergency decree,

February 8, 2017 By administrator

330-academics-expelled A total of 330 academics were expelled with a new state of emergency decree published in the Official Gazette late on Feb. 7, drawing criticism from the opposition and the scholars themselves about the effect the moves will have on education.

The academics were among 4,464 public workers who were expelled as part of the decree.

The expulsion of the academics also drew reactions from political parties, with main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) lawmakers Sezgin Tanrıkulu and Aykut Erdoğdu criticizing the decision.

“Dear academics, all those who faced injustices: These days will pass and the justice will be served,” CHP Istanbul lawmaker Sezgin Tanrıkulu said, while Erdoğdu, another Istanbul lawmaker, said those who “carry out the expulsions will carry the shame for the rest of their lives.”

Opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) also reacted against the decree, with HDP Istanbul lawmaker Filiz Kerestecioğlu saying that “students and professors don’t accept being dictated to.”

It has emerged that a total of 115 of the academics who were expelled with the latest decree have previously signed the Academics for Peace petition criticizing government operations in the southeast. The highest number of expulsions was carried out from Ankara and Marmara Universities.

With the latest expulsions there are only four academics left in Ankara University’s Theater Department. Süreyye Karacabey, who was previously expelled with another decree, said the department can no longer function.

Professor İbrahim Kaboğlu from Marmara University was among the names expelled. Kaboğlu previously criticized the charter amendment package, saying that the constitution cannot be changed under a state of emergency.

Turkey declared a state of emergency after the failed coup attempt.

Another professor who was expelled was Professor Öget Öktem Tanör, who is Turkey’s first neuropsychologist.

Pianist and conductor İbrahim Yazıcı, who had been acting as the art consultant for İzmir Mayor Aziz Kocaoğlu since 2014, was also expelled.

Meanwhile, some of the names in the list of academics have released statements, saying that they won’t take a step back and that the expulsions are political.

“This is a political expulsion. I’m honest and my conscience is clear. I will never bow down,” Professor Yüksel Taşkın from Marmara University said.

“This is a great shame for Turkey’s universities and Ankara University. Today, the last teaching staff were expelled with a state of emergency decree just for demanding peace,” Professor Funda Başaran, a professor expelled from Ankara University, said in reference to the Academics for Peace signatories. “Places like the Political Science Faculty, Communications Faculty and the Language and Geography Faculty, which had a high number of signatories, are just four walls now … But we don’t need [empty buildings] to produce knowledge. We will again gather with our students. We will continue to produce knowledge and change the world with the knowledge that we produce. That’s why we don’t give a damn about the decrees.”

Erdogan Turkey, Prosecutors target academics, bank regulators in latest post-coup crackdown

August 19, 2016 By administrator

post-coup-crackdown Among the scores of academics currently being sought by the authorities, at least 29 have been detained. More than 40,000 state employees have been detained and 80,000 others have been suspended.

Turkish prosecutors have issued arrest warrants for 84 university academics and 29 banking regulators have been detained in the latest purge to rake Turkey since last month’s coup attempt.

Most of the academic suspects were at Selcuk University, including the university’s former rector professor Hakki Gokbel. The university is in the city of Konya, about 160 miles (260km) south of the capital, Ankara.

So far, 29 academics have been detained. Meanwhile, authorities on Friday also detained 29 inspectors from the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK) for “irregular inspections.”

The banking investigators are suspected of making examining the accounts of a government-related foundation and of business people, some with close ties to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

A BDDK spokesman was not immediately available for comment.

Purge alarms West

Turkey’s Western allies have said they are alarmed by Ankara’s far-reaching crackdown in the aftermath of the July 15 military action that sought to oust Erdogan from power.

Terrorist State of Turkey: Three academics arrested on charges of terror propaganda

March 16, 2016 By administrator

An Istanbul court arrested three Turkish academics late March 15 for “making terrorist propaganda” when they read out a joint petition signed by more than 1,000 colleagues calling for an end to clashes between security forces and militants of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in January, the Hurriyet Daily News reports.

The arrest of academics Esra Mungan, Muzaffer Kaya and Kıvanç Ersoy came after the three were detained for holding a press conference on March 10 at the Education and Science Workers’ Union’s (EĞİTİM-Sen) 6th Office in Istanbul, where they read out a declaration entitled “We won’t be part of this crime.”

The court’s verdict said the declaration was in support of the PKK and showed similarities to earlier remarks made by Bese Hozat, a PKK figure.

The academics denied the charges, with Kaya and Ersoy saying they had not heard of Hozat before.

Mungan is an academic at Boğaziçi University’s psychology department and Kaya lectures at Nişantaşı Univeristy. Ersoy lectures at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University.

The probe into the petition was opened after 1,128 academics from 89 different universities – including foreign scholars like Noam Chomsky, David Harvey and Immanuel Wallerstein – signed a declaration titled “We won’t be part of this crime.” Universities and prosecutor’s offices across the country subsequently opened probes into many of the 1,128 Turkish and foreign academics and intellectuals who fall within the Turkish state’s jurisdiction, arguing that the petition exceeded the limits of academic freedom. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and government officials have repeatedly criticized the academics who signed the petition, accusing them of supporting the PKK.

Turkey: 18 academics detained, over 130 face criminal charges amid accusations by president of ‘terrorist propaganda’

January 16, 2016 By administrator

n_93887_1 Turkish police have detained at least 18 academics who signed a petition calling for an end to military operations in southeastern Anatolia, while more than 130 academics are facing criminal charges. The moves come just days after President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan slammed the signatories for making “terrorist propaganda.”

Universities and prosecutor’s offices across the country started to launch probes into some of the 1,128 local and international academics and intellectuals who fall within the state’s jurisdiction, arguing that the petition went beyond the limits of academic freedoms.

In a dawn operation in the northwestern province of Kocaeli on Jan. 15, police raided the houses of 19 academics and detained 15. Provincial police head Levent Yarımel told the press a detention warrant had been issued for a total of 21 academics in the city.

In the northwestern province of Bursa, meanwhile, three academics were also detained, Anadolu Agency reported.

Speaking in Sultanahmet after Friday prayers on Jan. 15, President Erdoğan again denounced the signatories of the document, who included U.S. philosopher Noam Chomsky, saying that “those who do not want to take part in politics in parliament should dig trenches or go to the mountains.”

“Our nation should see who is who. Being a professor does not make someone an intellectual. These are the darkest of people. They are cruel people, because those who ally with cruelty are themselves cruel,” Erdoğan said on Jan. 15, referring to the detention of academics.

Meanwhile, the Anatolian, Istanbul and Bakırköy chief public prosecutors also launched investigations against at least 123 academics employed by universities in Istanbul. Anadolu initiated probes on 82 academics and Bakırköy on 41 academics while public prosecutor of Istanbul did not disclose a number.

Some of the academics employed by universities outside of Istanbul are also facing charges as public prosecutor’s offices in Bartın, Diyarbakır, Kayseri, Mardin and Samsun also announced that probes would be launched against academics that have signed the petition, although a clear number was not provided to the press.

According to reports, the academics are being charged with violating the controversial Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code, according to which it is illegal to insult the Turkish nation, the state of the Turkish Republic or the Grand Assembly of Turkey and the state’s judicial institutions. The academics are also accused of “terrorist propaganda” and of “inciting hatred and enmity.”

This view was reiterated early on Jan. 15 by Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu who claimed no country would consider “supporting or collaborating with a terror organization” as freedom of expression, implying the petition aimed at supporting the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

“There is no difference between supporting terror financially or politically,” Çavuşoğlu argued, underlining Turkey has been going through a “sensitive” period in its history.

The president’s call for action of legal institutions and university senates, coupled by criticisms of Justice and Development Party (AKP) government officials, led to a series of administrative inquiries by universities which employ some of the academics in question.

At least 41 academics are facing, among other punishments, suspension and dismissal. This figure does not include the academics whose number has so far been disclosed only as “a group of” academics by Çukurova and Gediz universities.

In stark contrast with the AKP, Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) strongly criticized the detentions, arguing the move came from Erdoğan’s instructions to the judiciary.

“The steps taken by the judiciary and some universities that regarded President Erdoğan’s statements as an order on 1,128 academics who signed a petition titled ‘We won’t be part of this crime’ by the ‘Academics for Peace Initiative’ constitute a new dark stain on Turkish democracy,” read a statement issued by the party assembly of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) on Jan. 15.

The Istanbul Chamber of Medicine also raised its voice against the detention of academics and announced that it would hold a press conference in protest at the raids.

The investigation and the detentions come soon after Turkey’s president slammed the petition’s signatories, arguing the human rights violations in the southeast are being committed by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants and not the Turkish state.

“Despite all of these facts, this crowd, which calls itself academics, accuses the state through a statement. Not only this, they also invite foreigners to monitor developments. This is the mentality of colonialism,” he said. Likening today’s situation with the Turkish War of Independence, Erdoğan said the country was again facing “treason” from “so-called intellectuals.”

Erdoğan also touched upon the issue following a visit to Sultanahmet Square, where an Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) suicide bomber killed 10 German tourists on Jan. 12, underlining that there was no different between “oppressors and the supporters of oppressors.”

January/15/2016

Turkey: Police detain 12 academics amid accusations by president of ‘terrorist propaganda’

January 15, 2016 By administrator

acd.thumb Police in the northwestern province of Kocaeli have detained 12 academics that signed a petition to call for an end to military operations in Southeast Anatolia, just days after President Recep Erdoğan slammed the academics for making “terrorist propaganda,” the Hurriyet Daily News reports.

The Kocaeli Public Prosecutor’s Office launched an investigation against 21 academics from Kocaeli University that signed a petition by the “Academics for Peace” initiative. The signatories of the petition, some 1,128 local and international academics and intellectuals, were labelled “poor excuses for intellectuals,” by Erdoğan.

Police raided the academics’ houses early on Jan. 15 and detained 12 who were at their declared addresses at the time. The remaining nine will also be detained, state-run Anadolu Agency said, quoting sources from the police.

The investigation and the detentions come soon after Turkey’s president slammed the petition’s signatories, arguing the human rights violations in the southeast are being committed by outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants and not the Turkish state.

“Hey, you so-called intellectuals! You are not enlightened persons, you are in the dark. You are nothing like intellectuals. You are ignorant and dark, not even knowing about the east or the southeast. We know these places just like we know our home addresses,” he said, reiterating his position that Turkey’s problem is “not a Kurdish one, but one of terror.”