We strongly condemn the arrest of three academics on 15 March on the basis of 'terrorist propaganda' for having criticized the military operations in the southeast of Turkey during a press conference held on the 10th of March.
Two of them have already lost their jobs for having signed the peace appeal initiated by 'Academics for Peace' in Turkey. The police has also detained Chris Stephenson, a British national living in Turkey for the past 25 years and working as an academic for the past 14 years, at the courthouse that ordered the arrests after finding him with pamphlets printed by the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) and was sent to Kumkapı Detention Center. Stephenson was at the courthouse to support his colleagues. He has decided to voluntarily leave the country as he didn't want to wait in the cell until a decision was made.
In democratic societies, citizens have the right to express their peaceful opinions. Therefore we call on the Turkish authorities to respect free expression and academic freedom of the signatories.
We have worryingly observed the intimidation against the signatories of the peace appeal initiated by 'Academics for Peace' in Turkey. On 10 January 2016, 2212 academics from 105 universities in Turkey and 329 universities abroad signed a peace appeal as Academics for Peace Initiative in order to condemn the military operations in the southeast of Turkey.
According to 'Academics for Peace', as of 5th of March there have been 47 threats against the signatories from media, government and students; 7 academics were forced to resign; 37 academics were fired and other 37 were suspended from their positions; 508 academics have been under administrative investigation; 161 academics have undergone judicial investigation and 33 academic were taken under custody and their houses were searched.
We are equally worried by President Erdogan's intentions to change the definition of 'terrorist' to also include journalists, civil activists and politicians. The definition of 'terrorism' under the current anti-terrorism law is excessively vague. Therefore we reiterate the need to bring Turkey's criminal and anti-terror legislation in line with ECtHR case law.
We call for the immediate release of all academics under custody and urge the Turkish government to uphold freedom of opinion and expression, in line with the principles of democracy, respect of human rights and fundamental freedoms, which EU candidate countries must satisfy to become a member state.
We are looking forward to your response.
Sincerely yours
Monica Frassoni and Reinhard Bütikofer
Co-Chairs of the European Green Party
Rebecca Harms and Philippe Lamberts
Co-Presidents Greens/EFA Group in the European Parliament