Istanbul police suspend students protesting against YOK, November 2015. Demotix/ Sahan Nuhoglu. All rights reserved.Following the arrest of 27 academics, and a criminal investigation into more than a thousand individuals across 90 Turkish universities, the Turkish Government has taken significant steps towards restricting academic freedoms. The academics who were taken into custody have since been released, but if convicted of charges of ‘propagandising for a terrorist organisation’, or insulting the Turkish state, could face up to 5 years in prison.
Initial tensions begun a month ago following an open letter to Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, signed by foreign academics, and including Noam Chomsky. What began as a highly publicized spat between Erdogan and Chomsky has now become a catalyst for the current wave of arrests, and has raised concerns regarding a possible witch-hunt against academics critical of the AKP government.
According to the ‘Academics for Peace’ initiative, when the petition was initially released on Monday January 11, over 1,400 academics and researchers from Turkey and abroad had signed the document with more than 1,200 signatures originating from Turkish institutions of higher education. The Turkish Council of Higher Education (YÖK) has since indicated that it will be taking legal action against the Turkish signatories of the Academics for Peace petition. The events have sparked an international outcry, as well as inspiring numerous calls for solidarity.
