'How does a petition change a person's life?' Documentary tells story of dismissed academics

Ulaş Bayraktar

Click to read the article in Turkish

"I used to make fun of petitions. I thought of them as masturbation with no use. I was even contemplating launching a petition to call for an end to petitions."

Ulaş Bayraktar is one of hundreds of academics who were dismissed from their posts because of signing a declaration criticizing the government's practices during the conflict in the mostly Kurdish-populated regions in 2015 and early 2016.

Bayraktar says he lost his father, a captain in the army, in the conflict when he was five years old and signed the petition because he believes the 40-year conflict can only be solved through peaceful means.

CLICK - Academics: We will not be a party to this crime

CLICK - The trials of academics

The academics stood trial for "terrorist propaganda" and some were handed prison sentences. Although the Constitutional Court later ruled that their rights were violated, none of the academics have been reinstated so far.

Not being able to return to their jobs at Mersin University in southern Turkey, Bayraktar, Ayşe Gül Yılgör, Galip Deniz Altınay and Nalan Turgutlu Bilgin established the "Kültürhane" collective, which they describe as "a garden of science and academia."

The documentary "Stop to Contemplate the Horizon" tells the story of the academics and Kültürhane is now online on YouTube with English subtitles:

(SO/VK)