State of Emergency Commission’s first decision on a Peace Academic: Rejection

* Photo: Twitter

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The Commission for the Examination of Proceedings Under the State of Emergency has rejected the application of Nail Dertli.

Dertli was one of the hundreds of Academics for Peace who signed the declaration "We will not be a party to this crime" in January 2016. He was discharged from the Ankara University Faculty of Political Sciences by the Statutory Decree no. 672 on September 1, 2016.

On duty since May 22, 2017, the State of Emergency Commission's first decision on an Academic for Peace has been rejection.

In response to this, the Education and Science Laborers' Union (Eğitim-Sen) No. 5 Universities' Branch has shared a message on its Twitter account and said, "We will not give up! We will come back."

Academic Elif Çongur, who was discharged from the Ankara University Department of Theater, has also announced on social media that the decision has been sent to his institution to be delivered to Dertli.

Elif Çongur has tweeted, "We will return to those institutions and you will leave. One of the brightest academic generations of the country is sitting at the computer, looking at the State of Emergency Commission's page to learn about the decisions given about themselves."

About the Academics for Peace

On January 10, 2016, 1,128 academics published a declaration entitled "We will not be party to this crime" on behalf of the Academics for Peace. With the participation of further academics, the number of academics who had signed the declaration reached 2,212.

While lawsuits were filed against the academics on charge of "propagandizing for a terrorist organization" as per the Article No. 7/2 of the Anti-Terror Law (TMK) No. 3713, as of July 26, 2019, 646 academics had stood trial for having signed the declaration since December 5, 2017.

The General Assembly of the Constitutional Court examined the individual applications of 10 Academics for Peace who have been sentenced to prison on charge of "propagandizing for a terrorist organization" for having signed the declaration entitled "We will not be a party to this crime."

The Court has ruled that the penalization of Academics for Peace on charge of "terror propaganda" has violated their freedom of expression.

According to a report by the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (TİHV-HRFT) in late August 2020, during the two-year state of emergency period following the July 2016 coup attempt, 406 academics were dismissed upon statutory decrees, 89 were dismissed "by other means," 72 were forced to resign and 27 were forced to retire. The Foundation raised concerns that though most academics have been acquitted, they have not yet been reinstated to their posts. (RT/SD)