Cyprus-Forum.com

[Tim Drayton]

Here are the responses of some of the academics who signed the peace declaration to the attacks made against them (my translation).

Prof. Dr. Şebnem Korur Fincancı: Both the Prime-Minister’s announcement and the Council of Higher Education’s statement that it will launch an investigation are attacks against freedom of speech. They say, ‘Whatever the law calls for will be done’ but what should be called for by the law is respect for freedom of speech. Of course, this approach is an approach that aims to destroy environments for debate and eliminate opposing voices. We as academics expected no other reaction. We have lived up to our responsibilities.

Prof. Dr. İzzettin Önder: In the first place, if we are to speak of freedom and democracy, there must be free expression of all ideas without them coming under attack. Secondly, although Turkey has grappled with the issue for the past thirty years with great loss of life, it has been unable to find a solution. This shows that it is impossible to come to a humane solution through non-peaceful means. So, peace above all else! Then a solution within the framework of a new constitution thrashed out in parliamentary debate.

Associate Professor Dr. Ayşe Gül Altınay: We are made into a target at every stage. In the text, there is a call for Turkey’s national law, international law and human rights law to be implemented. How can this be the component of a crime? The way that the signatories of the text are referred to in condescending terms and branded traitors in Erdoğan’s announcement shows the extent to which freedom of speech and the bounds of scientific expression have become restricted.

Prof. Dr. Gençay Gürsoy: There was talk of falling victim to law 1402 in our days - in the days of the 12 September coup - and a staff of 150 people were thrown out of the university without by or leave, barred from employment in the public sector. We are returning to the days of 12 September. Then these goings on were orchestrated by a general who is no longer alive. I believe that these threats will continue. We are used to it, but I say on behalf of the signatories that we will continue until we bring democracy, peace and freedoms to this country.

Assistant Professor Erhan Keleşoğlu: We have exercised our freedom of expression. To speak of academia is to speak of freedom to express thoughts.

Dr: Ohannes Kılıçdağı: The reactions displayed revolve around accusations of treason, suppression and intimidation, no strangers to Turkish politics. As to the Council of Higher Education’s threatened mass investigation, this is a situation that harks back to full-blown coup or single-party periods. The Council of Higher Education has already decided that the statement ‘supports terrorism’ because the logic is the same as that voiced by the President. If you do not approve everything that the state does you are automatically on the side of terror. This logic that strives to eliminate intermediary positions will deepen the conflict and so it must not be accepted.

http://www.cumhuriyet.com.tr/haber/turk ... yoruz.html

[repulsewarrior]

...big example of the differences between Turks, and "Turks".

thanks, Tim.

...something to think about, i think.

[GreekIslandGirl]

Academics cannot teach this ignorant Erdogan anything now - he is an old dog!

Chomsky hits back at Erdoğan, accusing him of double standards on terrorism

US academic says Turkish president – who has condemned leftwing critics for ignorance – has been aiding Isis, which he blamed for bomb attack on Istanbul

Noam Chomsky, who has rejected Erdoğan’s invitation to visit Kurdish areas in the south-east of Turkey.

The leftwing US academic Noam Chomsky has hit back at Recep Tayyip Erdoğan after the Turkish president accused him of ignorance and sympathising with terrorists.

Hours after Tuesday’s bomb attack on a tourist area of Istanbul, Erdoğan delivered a sneering criticism of Chomsky and “so-called intellectuals” who had signed a letter calling on Turkey to lift its siege against Kurdish towns and cities in the south-east of the country.

He invited Chomsky to visit the area in a defiant televised speech to a conference of Turkish ambassadors in Ankara.

Chomsky has now rejected the invitation. In an email to the Guardian he said: “If I decide to go to Turkey, it will not be on his invitation, but as frequently before at the invitation of the many courageous dissidents, including Kurds who have been under severe attack for many years.”

Chomsky also claimed Erdoğan was operating double standards on terrorism.

In the open letter to Erdoğan released last month, Chomsky and hundreds of others accused him of waging war against his own people. It said: “The responsibility for the present self-inflicted crisis in the country must lie squarely with Erdoğan, who perceives the Kurds – whether it is the HDP [the pro-Kurdish, left-leaning party which gained 81 seats at the last election], the PYD in Syria or the PKK [the separatist Kurdish Workers’ Party] – as obstacles to his plan to establish supreme rule for the Turkish presidency.

“With the sieges imposed on their communities in the south-east, Turkey has effectively declared war on its own people. This current crisis is manufactured and totally unnecessary. It demonstrates once again that Erdoğan is a deeply divisive force.”

He went on to accuse Chomsky and the other signatories of displaying the “mentality of colonialism,” saying: “You so-called intellectuals are not enlightened persons, you are in the dark. You are nothing like intellectuals.”

A live translation by al-Jazeera quoted Erdoğan saying: “I have a message for those academics. Just putting your signature on a dry piece of paper means nothing. Come to Turkey.

“Chomsky can see what is taking place in Turkey with his own eyes, not through the eyes of a fifth column. Let those academics come to Turkey – I’m certain we will be able to show them the true picture.”

In his email to the Guardian, Chomsky accused Erdoğan of hypocrisy. He said: “Turkey blamed Isis [for the attack on Istanbul], which Erdoğan has been aiding in many ways, while also supporting the al-Nusra Front, which is hardly different. He then launched a tirade against those who condemn his crimes against Kurds – who happen to be the main ground force opposing Isis in both Syria and Iraq. Is there any need for further comment?”

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016 ... b-istanbul

[kurupetos]

Turns out that Turkish academics, like PM Davutoglu, are bad advice...

[Tim Drayton]

Within an investigation being conducted by the public prosecution in the province of Kocaeli into the alleged offences of ‘publicly denigrating the Turkish people, the Republic of Turkey State, the Grand National Assembly of Turkey [parliament], the Republic of Turkey government and the state’s judicial organs’ and of ‘making propaganda for a terrorist organization’ the decision has been taken to arrest 21 academics who signed the peace declaration.

http://www.cumhuriyet.com.tr/haber/turk ... zalti.html

[Tim Drayton]

With some of the academics who signed the peace declaration being arrested, nearly 2000 lawyers have now signed the following public statement:

“As advocates of life, rights and freedoms and jurists from this soil:

We promise that we will be at the side of those who have been killed, have lost loved ones and have been deprived of their rights and freedoms, and babies and children who have been unable to evade slaughter in Şırnak and Ankara, Diyarbakır and İstanbul, Reyhanlı, Gazi, Suruç and Sultanahmet and unfortunately perhaps in other places tomorrow, and of the teacher Ayşes*, the honourable and upstanding academics who wish for peace and all of those who defend life; we will stand shoulder to shoulder with them in court buildings on the streets, and will continue our legal struggle until those responsible are held to account for “these crimes” committed against our people.

Yes, we say, “Children are being killed, do not remain silent*.” We say, “Condemning people to hunger and thirst through curfews lasting weeks, and bombing residential areas, cemeteries and places of worship with tanks, helicopters and planes is a policy of systematic slaughter and forced migration. We wish for the crimes being committed against Kurds in provinces such as Mardin, Diyarbakır and Şırnak, and against Turks, Kurds, Arabs, Germans and all peoples of all ethnicities in Reyhanlı, Gazi, Sultanahmet and Ankara to be seen and known of.

We remind you that the threats and defamations made by the President, Minster of Justice, Minister of National Education, Minister of Health and the Council of Higher Education aimed at the academics calling on “the war to be ended and for children not to be killed,” the educationalists who have stopped work, the health workers who carry out their duties in keeping with the Hippocratic oath and everyone who wants peace constitute crimes. Fascist-racist propaganda and hate speech are crimes and must be punished, We caution prosecutors and the Minister of Justice not to criminalize free speech, trade union activity and the duty to preserve life and demands for peace and make the judicial mechanism function as the regime’s guillotine. We state that we adopt verbatim the text signed by the academics who wish for peace proclaiming “We will not be party to this crime” and will take legal measures against threats directed towards the academics and will act as their lawyers at every stage.

We the undersigned lawyers and jurists repeat that we add our voices to those proclaiming that they will not be partners in crime to slaughter and we will deem it an honour to serve as voluntary lawyers to all people targeted by armed attacks and the policies of suppression and subjugation conducted through the media and judiciary."

(My translation)

* A teacher named Ayşe Çelik is being prosecuted for uttering the words “Children are being killed, do not remain silent” on a live phone-in TV programme.

http://www.cumhuriyet.com.tr/haber/turk ... iriz_.html

[B25]

Hello, where's Coppermine when you need him. This is Turkish justice, netted out in Turkey AND Cyprus.

You guys don't have a leg to stand on. Institutionalised Genocide of the KURDS is what is going on, yet you bleat when a few TCs got killed on the communal fighting you started. May you all rot in hell.

[repulsewarrior]

...i wonder if in Cizre, the bodies are still rotting on the street; i lost count after five days, but the relatives were still forbidden to move them from where they lay.

[Maximus]

One minute, one minute! Come on! [For Erdoowan]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrbQsHkVQ_4

[repulsewarrior]

One minute, one minute! Come on! [For Erdoowan]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrbQsHkVQ_4

...no more Erdogan at Davos, (lol).