Support for Academics for Peace by Colleagues from US

Click here to read the article in Turkish / Haberin Türkçesi için buraya tıklayın.

15 academics from the US including the former President of National Academy of Sciences (NAS) biochemistry Professor Bruce Alberts have declared their support for the Academics for Peace, pointed out to the importance of freedom of expression and called for putting an end to the armed conflicts.

The declaration included following statements:

“We are concerned”

“We strongly urge the Turkish government to stop prosecuting academics, to abide by international human-rights values and to respect civil liberties — including freedom of speech in a petition to the government this month, more than 2,000 academics from Turkey and thousands of international scholars have called for an end to the curfews and violence against people in Kurdish provinces.

“This prompted Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to order the Higher Education Board to take action against those academics he described as committing “treason”. Istanbul’s Chief Public Prosecutor launched a criminal investigation based on Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code, which prosecutes those who insult the state.

“We are deeply concerned about this escalating crisis. We hope that the international academic community will join us in condemning these attacks against our colleagues in Turkey”.

Signatories

Çağhan Kızıl, Bruce Alberts, Pınar Ayata, Günter Blobel, Mario Capecchi, Mary Marshall Clark, Robert Curl,  Winrich A Freiwald, Roald Hoffmann, Daniel Mucida, Eric J Nestler, Jan M Skotheim, Alain Trautmann, Harald zur Hausen, Emrah Altındiş. (EKN/DG)