After Erdoğan, Crime Boss Threatens Academics Who Call For Peace

A large number of academics who made a call to the government to end the ongoing curfews in the Southeast and to resume peace talks with the Kurdish groups have come under heavy attack from key state figures and even a crime boss, as the Higher Education Board (YÖK) starts work to fire the academics.
Last Sunday, 1,128 academics from 89 universities, both home and abroad, issued a declaration in which they called for the restoration of national peace by halting the ongoing military operations in the southeast of Turkey and returning to the negotiating table to restart the shelved talks with the Kurds in search of peaceful solutions to the Kurdish issue.
On Monday, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan took aim at those academics who signed the petition and labeled them "traitors," as well as accusing them of being a fifth column of foreign power destined to undermine Turkey's national security.
"I call upon all our institutions: Everyone who benefits from this state but is now an enemy of the state must be punished without further delay," Erdoğan said in Ankara.
Following Erdoğan's remarks criticizing the academics, YÖK said in a statement on Monday that it would launch a disciplinary investigation into the signatories of the declaration, threatening to fire them. However, YÖK does not have any authority to directly punish the academics, but can put pressure on university administrations to do so.
The statement came after the board of YÖK held an urgent meeting. It blamed the academics for supporting terrorism and said their profession and status cannot absolve them of their wrongdoing.
Taking further steps in order to action its threats against the academics, YÖK, without concluding its disciplinary investigation, asked Prof. Bülent Tanju from Abdullah Gül University in Kayseri to resign from his post at the university, for his was one of the signatures on the declaration.
In a written statement released on Tuesday, Abdullah Gül University stated that YÖK had asked Tanju to resign and said that it would take the necessary steps to carry out YÖK's request.
Opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) group Deputy Chairman Erkan Akçay also joined the chorus in criticizing the academics on Tuesday and accused each of them of "explicitly" supporting terrorism, adding, "Their attitude has nothing to do with the responsibility of intellectuals and I condemn them."
In the meantime, Dr. Nezir Akyeşilmen, an academic from Selçuk University, has withdrawn his signature from the declaration, claiming that it will not help bring about peace.

Crime boss aims threats at academics

Threats against the academics have not been only made by high-ranking political figures and YÖK, as a crime boss has also threatened the signatories of the declaration.
Sedat Peker, a notorious figure convicted on organized charges, said on Tuesday that the blood of those academics will be spilled as a result of their efforts to rebuild the hopes for peace that are dashed by the military campaign in the predominantly Kurdish Southeast.
In a declaration published on his website (sedatpeker.com) Peker labeled the academics "so-called intellectuals," and went on to say: "You should be thanking the police and military that you have tried to discredit. If those terrorists achieve the mission of causing the Muslim Turks' state to fail, then it will the beginning of frightening times for you. At that moment, the bell will toll for you all. We will spill your blood!!"
Speaking to Today's Zaman on the topic of the defamation campaign launched against the academics, Baskın Oran, a professor at Ankara University's faculty of political sciences, who is among the signatories, recalled the military coup leader Kenan Evren's reaction to a similar declaration by a group of academics in 1984.
"Erdoğan nearly repeats the response given by Evren in a similar case. It seems that we have returned to the level of democracy implemented in 1984. It is pathetic. Such a similarity gives an idea of the dire conditions of the universities in terms of practicing freedoms," Oran noted.
After Evren toppled the elected government by staging a military coup in 1980 and engaged in anti-democratic practices against the people, 1,383 academics headed by journalist Uğur Mumcu and author Aziz Nesin issued a declaration criticizing the unlawful military junta policies in 1984. In response to the declaration, Evren instructed the Martial Law Commander in Ankara to launch an investigation into the academics.
Dağhan Irak, another signatory and who is the new media research methods instructor at Strasburg University, told Today's Zaman on Tuesday that he signed the petition because he finds the silence of Turkey's West to the massacres in the country's southeastern parts shameful.
"Even if the declaration was thought to have no impact to change anything in the conflict-torn area, it marks a honorable and courageous voice raising against the terrible silence. Hence, even though I haven't believed it may create a solution, I signed the petition. But I have failed to envisage that the declaration will revive the hatred that [the Justice and Development Party] AKP regime already has against critical thinking. The AKP has long had no tolerance against any critical opinion against itself and tries to subordinate everyone to itself. When it fails to subordinate others, then it kicks off a process of eliminating critical voices," Irak commented.
Irak concluded that Erdoğan has had this stance since the 2013 Gezi Park protests, which questioned his rule.
Main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) Deputy Chairman Sezgin Tanrıkulu also criticized Erdoğan for his smear campaign against the academics, and said: "These are the same names that Erdoğan assigned as 'wise men' to find a solution to the Kurdish issue. Again, they are the names who prepared a draft for a new constitution. Now, they are labeled as 'traitors.' We are seeing a big contradiction."
"Those [Erdoğan] who have a desire for a dictatorial regime cannot humiliate or underestimate the country's esteemed academics," Tanrıkulu added.
The group of scholars, called Academicians for Peace, said in the declaration that it will not be party to the massacre continuing in the Southeast. They also claimed Turkey is violating international treaties it has committed to.
Academics who have signed the declaration include Professor Samim Akgönül from Strasbourg University, Associate Professor Maya Arakon from Süleyman Şah Üniversitesi, Associate Professor Koray Çalışkan from Boğaziçi University and Cornell University graduate student Lara Fresko.
The declaration, whose signatories include famous academics such as David Harvey, Immanuel Wallerstein and Noam Chomksy, was read in Turkish and Kurdish at press conferences in İstanbul and Ankara on Monday.
A large number of civilians have been killed in confrontations between security forces and the PKK in southeastern towns and cities since a fragile cease-fire collapsed in late July. Curfews lasting more than a week have been imposed on several, particularly tense districts in the provinces of Diyarbakır, Hakkari, Mardin, Şırnak and Van. According to a report released by the Human Rights Association (İHD) in October, more than 100 civilians have been killed in the region since late July.
Counter-declaration against critical academics contained fake signatures

(TODAY'S ZAMAN, ANKARA)
A statement signed by over a thousand academics on Monday that held the Turkish government responsible for a number of recent deaths in the Southeast garnered a response from the government in the form of a counter statement, purportedly signed by a number of academics on Tuesday. The counter statement, however, was later revealed to contain fake signatures.
According to a report by the Zete news portal on Wednesday, a declaration named “Türkiye için Akademisyenler” [Academics for Turkey], which was purportedly signed by 150 academics and published on a website on Tuesday, bashed the statement signed by 1,128 academics from 89 Turkish universities on Monday.
The counter statement, however, was dismissed by two academics, Fatih Yaşlı and Can Irmak Özinanır, who said on Twitter on Tuesday that their names were included in the statement without their consent. Immediately after the revelation, the website on which the counter statement was published was shut down.
In a post on Twitter on Monday evening, Özinanır wrote: "Some people added my name to the declaration. I haven't signed such a petition."
Similarly, Yaşlı also sent a Twitter message on Monday evening and said: "I never signed this statement! Did you collect fake signatures? I didn't sign any declaration."
Another Twitter user, Şehriban Kaya, wrote on Monday that the son of President Erdoğan, Bilal, was added to the list with the title of "professor," despite him not holding such a title.
The counter statement claimed that the Turkish government will be supported for its operations carried out against the terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). It was also stated that Turkey has been defamed and libeled by a group “who called themselves academics.”
“Those who always talk about democracy and peace do not speak critically of the terrorist [PKK] group, which is actually the party responsible for the deaths [in the Southeast]. … Their attitude is more dangerous and despicable than the terrorists in the mountains. … We believe this statement, devoid of sensitivity and reality, has one goal: To disrupt the fight against terrorism and to dispirit our security forces,” the counter statement read.

GÜLTEN ÜSTÜNTAĞ | ISTANBUL [Cihan/Today's Zaman]