Nazimuddin Samad, a law student and secular activist, was killed by three men armed with machetes in the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka. This is the latest in a series of grisly attacks on intellectuals and bloggers who have written critically about militant Islam on social media. Here’s The New York Times on the recent targeted violence: In the last 18 months, there has been a rise in extremist violence in Bangladesh, including a series of assassinations of bloggers or intellectuals who have criticized militant Islam. Many writers and journalists have become hesitant to publish work that could attract the attention of Islamists, and a growing list of activists, fearing for their lives, have applied for asylum in Western countries. No arrests have been made, but Samad had criticized religious extremism on his Facebook page. The Dhaka Tribune quoted police officials as saying the assailants shouted “Allahu Akbar” as they attacked the activist. Islam is Bangladesh’s state religion though the Constitution proclaims secularism as one of its main tenets. #News

Israeli forces stormed the campus of al-Quds University in the East Jerusalem village of Abu Dis early on Tuesday morning, damaging property, local sources told Ma’an. Israeli troops raided the university campus at 3 AM and left at 5 AM. During the two hours, they locked campus security guards in one room after breaking their walkie-talkies. The soldiers then ransacked a building hosting the Dean of Students and destroyed property, including printers. Israeli forces also stormed the Faculty of Islamic Studies and broke into the students activity center, destroying material in an exhibition students were working on. An Israeli army spokesperson told Ma’an that as part of “operational activity,” Israeli forces seized material belonging to Hamas’ educational arm al-Kutla al-Islamiyah, including propaganda for Hamas. The spokesperson added that such propaganda was used for “incitement” and encouraged “terrorism against Israeli citizens and security forces.” Both Palestinian and Israeli leadership have accused each other of inciting and encouraging the current wave of upheaval in the occupied Palestinian territory and Israel that began in October. Israeli forces have stormed university campuses across the Palestinian territory several times since the beginning of 2016, with al-Quds University in particular finding itself a focal point of violent clashes between Palestinian students and Israeli soldiers. Hundreds of Israeli soldiers stormed al-Quds University in January, confiscating equipment and documents belonging to its student union. Earlier that month, Israeli forces also confiscated and damaged equipment at Birzeit University in a predawn raid. In March Israeli forces raided the Tulkarem-area al-Khadoori University twice within 18 hours. The Arab American University in West Bank city of Jenin was also raided that month. #News #Israel

Turkish authorities arrested three scholars who held a press conference on March 10 in connection with signing the petition “We will not be a party to this crime.” At the conference, the scholars expressed their support for scholars under investigation for having signed the petition, which called on the government to end violence toward Kurdish minorities in southeastern Turkey. The scholars include Esra Mungan of Boğaziçi University; Kıvanç Ersoy of the Mimar Sinan University of Fine Arts; and Muzaffer Kaya, formerly of Nişantaşı University. A fourth arrest warrant has been issued for Meral Camcı, formerly of İstanbul Yeniyüzyıl University, who is reportedly out of the country. Professors Kaya and Camcı were both fired from their positions as a result of signing the petition. Background The tensions began in December 2015 when an open letter, signed by academics across the world including Noam Chomsky and David Graeber, was sent to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Chomsky has been very critical toward the Turkish government’s treatment of Kurdish minority within the country and other facets of the Erdogan's government. He has raised concerns regarding witc hunt against academics critical of the AKP government. The petition was initially released on January 11 with over 1,400 academics and researchers signatures. The Turkish Council of Higher Education (YÖK) immediately responded that it would take legal action against the Turkish signatories. Read the petition text here. Following the publication of the petition, public authorities placed all of its 1,128 Turkish signatories under investigation. Since that time, many of the scholars have reportedly faced criminal and professional retaliation. _______________________________________________________________ Academics for Peace, March 16, 2016. Since the announcement of the declaration “We will not be a party to this crime” by the Academics for Peace, more than 60 people have been killed in two bombings at the heart of the capital of Turkey, Ankara. Meanwhile, under the name of military operations against the PKK, the state forces have killed hundreds of civilians in the southern part of the country and many more have been injured and forced to leave their homes. Still, the academics persist in their call for peace while being repressed in various ways. On March 14, a warrant was issued for the arrest of four academics who made a press declaration (dated, March 10) about the various consequences of oppressive acts carried out by the government since January 11 against the Academics for Peace. The academics Esra Mungan, Kıvanç Ersoy, Muzaffer Kaya, and Meral Camcı, having read the text in the name of Academics for Peace-İstanbul, stated that many of the signatories were and are being dismissed from their universities, threatened to death, targeted through media, and that a judicial process would be launched against all of them. They also announced that they stood behind their declaration entitled “We will not be a party to this crime.” Three of the four academics, Esra Mungan, Kıvanç Ersoy and Muzaffer Kaya, were taken under custody on March 14. Meral Camcı is abroad, and thus she was not. These three academics have been indicted for “promoting terrorist organization, acting upon the instructions of the organization,” and taken to the court on March 15. Upon the demand of the persecutor, they were sent to the court with a claim for arrest, and eventually, the court decided for arrest. Moreover, Chris Stephenson, an academic at İstanbul Bilgi University, present at the court house for solidarity with those three, was taken under custody for carrying a notice of People’s Democratic Party (HDP) calling for Newroz celebrations. He is kept under custody on March 15 and taken to the Kumkapi deportation center today (March 16); we are all concerned that he would be illegally deported. As warfare has escalated in the southern part of Turkey and spread to the other regions, calls for peace have been increasingly suppressed by the state. The pressure on the Academics for Peace is a clear indicator of the expanding pressure on opposition, which often results in serious human rights violations against oppositional voices. We would like to inform you about the current developments in Turkey and raise an urgent call for solidarity with the Academics for Peace against the oppression of the state, and we want the grounds for peace to be reestablished before more killings take place in the country. _______________________________________________________________ President Erdogan wants to change definition of "terrorist" to include journalists and politicians. Right before the arrest of the three academics on charges of terrorist propaganda, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan stated that the academics would pay a price for their “treachery.” “It is not only the person who pulls the trigger, but those who made that possible who should also be defined as terrorists, regardless of their title,” Erdoğan said on Monday, adding that they could be journalists, academics, MPs, or human rights activists. His comments came the day after an attack in the country’s capital of Ankara killed at least 34 people and wounded 125 others when a car bomb was detonated near a main square in the Kizilay neighborhood. President Erdogan has on numerous occasions threatened Turkish academics, as well as the future of Turkey’s highest court after it ruled that holding two journalists in pretrial detention was a violation of their rights to freedom of expression. The journalists Cumhuriyet, editor of newspaper Can Dundar, and Erdem Gul, Ankara bureau chief, were arrested on charges of revealing state secrets and attempting to overthrow the government. They reportedly face calls for multiple life sentences from prosecutors and will stand trial in March. _______________________________________________________________ Endangered Scholars Worldwide is deeply concerned about the detention of and professional retaliation against scholars in response to their exercise of the rights to academic freedom, free expression, and free association, conduct that is expressly protected under international human rights instruments including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, both to which Turkey is party. The ongoing tensions in Turkey have a profoundly unsettling effect on academic freedom and represent a grave threat to higher education on a global scale. #ESW #Turkey #Statement

Hossein Rafiee, a retired university professor, has had his six-year prison sentence, which was imposed for his peaceful political activism, upheld by an appeal court. The authorities have rejected his request for compassionate leave to be with his sick wife, who is due to undergo surgery. The court issued its decision after a brief hearing on January 24 at which Hossein Rafiee refused to appear in person because the authorities had revoked last minute a permit declaring Rafiee could attend the hearing in his own clothes instead of a prison uniform. He had been waiting for his hearing since June 2015 when he lodged an appeal against the decision of Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran, which convicted him of “membership of and involvement in an illegal and antinational security group (meaning the banned political group Sho’rayeh Melli-Mazhabi)” and “spreading propaganda against the system” by methods including giving interviews to media “who are against the state.” Rafiee, 71, has been held in Section 8 of Tehran’s Evin Prison since his arrest in June 2015. The harsh conditions in that section, which is severely overcrowded, poorly ventilated, infested with insects, and does not have enough beds or toilets, endanger his health. He is not receiving regular medical care for various conditions, which include high blood pressure and a heart condition. Please write immediately in English, Persian, Spanish, French, or your own language: Calling on the Iranian authorities to release Hossein Rafiee immediately and unconditionally, as he is a prisoner of conscience held solely for peacefully exercising his rights to freedom of expression and association; Urging them to ensure he receives any medical attention he may require, expressing concern that the extremely poor conditions in Section 8 of Evin Prison amount to mistreatment and reminding them that prisoners must be held in conditions in line with the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (the Nelson Mandela Rules); Reminding them that Articles 19, 21, and 22 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which Iran is a state party, protect the rights to freedom of expression, association, and assembly. #Iran #News

A student leader from a top university in India charged with sedition may be expelled from campus, reports say. Kanhaiya Kumar was arrested last month after a rally against the execution of a Kashmiri separatist convicted over the 2001 Indian parliament attack. He was released from jail after being granted bail. His views have been divisive in India, with some calling him "antinational." A panel from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) probing the incident reportedly recommended the expulsion of five students, including Kumar. Kanhaiya Kumar—India's most loved and loathed student The Press Trust of India news agency reported that the university panel found the students guilty of "violating university rules and discipline norms." Apart from Kumar, the panel has also reportedly recommended the expulsion of Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya, two other students who remain in custody. Reports say a final decision on the panel's recommendation will be taken by the vice chancellor of the university. Authorities allege that Kumar and others shouted antiIndia slogans at the February 9 rally on the campus. Critics have condemned the charges against the students as an assault on freedom of expression, but government ministers have refused to back down, vowing to punish what they describe as "antinational elements." The rally that prompted the arrests was to mark the third anniversary of the 2013 hanging of Mohammed Afzal Guru. Guru was one of those convicted of plotting the 2001 parliament attack--charges he denied. The attack, which left 14 people dead, was blamed on Pakistan-based militants fighting Indian rule in Kashmir. Indian opposition parties see the affair as an attempt by the BJP to push its Hindu nationalist agenda, correspondents say. There have also been counter protests by those who say JNU is a hotbed of "traitors" and should be "cleaned up." Source: BBC #ESW

Moroccan historian Maati Monjib and six others are now facing trial before the Tribunal of First Instance in the capital Rabat on charges of receiving foreign funds with intent to undermine Moroccan institutions and endanger national security. If sentenced, they face up to five years’ imprisonment. Their crime was to have organized training sessions using a smartphone app called Story Maker within the Ibn Rochd Center and AMJI with support from the Dutch NGO Free Press Unlimited and to have received funds from abroad to finance this project. The trial is due to start March 23, 2016. PETITION REQUESTING THE MOROCCAN GOVERNMENT TO DROP ALL CHARGES AGAINST THE SEVEN HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVISTS We, the undersigned, members of the National Support Committee of the Seven Moroccan Activists: 1) believe that (a) training in responsible journalism is an activity that promotes free expression, (b) training in investigative journalism aims at allowing the exercise of a legitimate right to access information and allows media to play their role as a watchdog for democracy, (c) receiving funds from abroad to finance activities promoting human rights in no way can be used as a pretext to attempt to block the free exercise by citizens of their civil and political rights; 2) condemn the ongoing campaign against the rights of association and free speech in Morocco; 3) demand the Moroccan government to drop all charges against the seven activists as these charges are only pretexts to attempt to silence the promotion of human rights, which is at the heart of their action; 4) invite citizens around the world who share in these values to join us by signing this petition. Sign the Petition Sign the Petition Case Summary Compiled by Network of Concerned Historians Maâti Monjib ([1960]–) is a historian of political ideas and of the Maghreb. Born in Morocco, he got his first PhD in France (North African politics) and another one in Senegal (African political history). He is a member of the Institut des Études Africaines (IEA; Institute for African Studies) at Mohamed V University in Rabat and the chairman (since early 2014) of the Rabat-based pluralist NGO Freedom Now–Comité pour la protection de la liberté de la presse et d’expression and the Association marocaine pour un journalisme d’investigation (AMJI; Moroccan Association of Investigative Journalism). After the death of King Hassan II in 1999, Monjib returned to Morocco to work at the University of Mohammed V-Rabat. Between 2007 and 2010, he initiated a dialogue between left-wing democrats and moderate islamists. He was a founding member of the support council of the February 20 Movement, which organized protests in Morocco at the beginning of the Arab Spring. He founded and directed the Ibn Rochd Center for Studies and Communication in Rabat, which trained hundreds of Moroccan journalists in investigative techniques and civic journalism. In November 2014 he shut down the institute after repeated interference from the state. Freedom Now, established in 2011, was refused registration by the authorities, reportedly because it is perceived as an antiroyalist front. Monjib had criticized the monarchy in columns in the foreign press in the past. Since 2013 a long campaign of harassment and intimidation has been waged against him, including threats and defamatory articles in newspapers and on news sites. On August 31, 2015, he was detained briefly at the airport when returning from France. He was told that he was under investigation for “endangering state security.” On September 14, 2015, he was interrogated by the Brigade Nationale de la Police Judiciaire (BNPJ) and accused of tarnishing Morocco’s image abroad, using foreign funds to promote a foreign agenda, and sabotaging the credibility of state institutions. His associates have also been questioned. On September 16, 2015, he went on hunger strike for the first time (until 19 September) after being barred from leaving Morocco for a conference in Barcelona. Authorities declared that they imposed the ban because of their investigation into suspected financial wrongdoing in the Ibn Rochd Center. The IEA board refused to give him permission to travel to Norway to attend two academic events related to his expertise. On October 6, 2015, he went on hunger strike at the headquarters of the Moroccan Association for Human Rights, Rabat, to protest restrictions against his freedom of movement and academic freedom. On October 20, 2015, the secretariat of the National Committee to Support Maati Monjib issued a statement reporting a rapid deterioration in his health after fourteen days of hunger strike and called for a show of solidarity with Monjib on October 21 in front of parliament. During his hunger strike, he collapsed twice, and he was hospitalized. On October 29, 2015, Monjib suspended his hunger strike after authorities ended the travel ban. Instead, he was charged with receiving foreign funds with the intent to undermine Moroccan institutions and endanger national security. His trial before the Tribunal of First Instance in Rabat was due to start March 23, 2016. Also in late 2015, Monjib sued the Moroccan website “Le360” for defamation in Paris following several articles over the previous months that denigrated him and his family. This trial was due to start in late January 2016. #Morocco

An appeals court in Iran has upheld the 15-year prison sentence of student activist Arash Sadeghi for “collusion against national security,” “propaganda against the state,” “spreading lies in cyberspace,” and “insulting the Founder of the Islamic Republic [Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini].” Sadeghi’s sentence was confirmed without taking into consideration Article 134 of Iran’s New Islamic Penal Code, which limits a prison term to the heaviest sentence of the most serious charge in cases of multiple charges. Sadeghi told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that his lawyer, Amir Raeesian, was not allowed to be present at the opening session of his trial. Raeesian was allowed to attend the second session but wasn’t permitted to read the case file. Before the appeals court hearing, Raeesian was only able to see a portion of the file. Political prisoners and prisoners of conscience in Iran are routinely subjected to due process violations such as denial of full access to counsel or a lawyer’s full access to case files. “I was charged with ‘collusion against national security’ because I supported a group of poor students who had been denied education and for supporting leftist students and visiting families of those who had been killed, and for taking part in peaceful gatherings, such as . . . protests against the execution of Gholamreza Khosravi and gathering in support of [imprisoned women’s rights activist] Narges Mohammadi,” Sadeghi told the Campaign, adding that the verdicts were issued by Branch 54 of the Appeals Court. Sadeghi’s wife, Golrokh Iraee, an accountant with no previous criminal record, has also been sentenced to six years in prison for “propaganda against the state” and “insulting the Sacred.” Sadeghi said that since their arrest, he and his wife have lost their livelihood and are relying on savings. He was forced to sell his share of the stationery store he coowned, and his wife was let go from her job. “There’s nothing to back the charge of ‘insulting the Sacred’ against my wife. All she did was write stories, one of them about a person who did not believe in God. They really didn’t have a case against her. They just wanted to frame her,” Sadeghi said. “Golrokh and I were interrogated simultaneously in two adjacent rooms. I could hear the interrogator’s voice. When Golrokh was released on bail, my interrogator [lied and] said she had been moved to another location because she hadn’t cooperated. I was worried about her wellbeing on top of the pressures from my own interrogator. Then after two months we had our first phone conversation, and I realized she had been released,” he added. “When I was in jail, my wife chose Mr. [Peyman Haj-Mahmoud] Attar as our lawyer. At the time he was also the lawyer for two labor and political activists, and he told my wife it would be better if we found another lawyer. With his help, my wife chose Mr. Raeesian for our case. Before the trial, Mr. Raeesian went four times to the Revolutionary Court office at Branch 15, but he was not allowed to study my file." “I was accused of insulting Ayatollah Khomeini because of a couple of posts I wrote about the 1980s on my Facebook page. But I did not make any reference to him. I only quoted historical statements and gave my own analysis. Unfortunately the court did not pay attention to what I had to say,” Sadeghi said. “I was also charged with spreading lies online because I had posted news about political prisons on my Facebook page. And I was charged with ‘propaganda against the state’ because I had given interviews about how the Gonabadi Dervishes as well as [other] religious minorities had been denied their rights. I also gave an interview about solitary confinement." Sadeghi, 36, was arrested on September 6, 2014 at his stationery store in Tehran by the Sarallah Headquarters of the Revolutionary Guards’ (IRGC) Intelligence Organization. He was detained with his wife and two friends in the Intelligence Organization-controlled Ward 2-A of Evin Prison. Sadeghi was released on seven billion Iranian rials (US $230,000) bail seven months later on March 14, 2015. His wife Golrokh Iraee, 35, was released on one billion rials (US $33,000) bail. Initially, Sadeghi and Iraee were tried at Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court in May and July 2015 by Judge Abolqasem Salavati. Iraee was in the hospital and was not able to attend, but the judge refused to postpone the trial to hear her defense. Judge Salavati’s verdicts were upheld by the Appeals Court on December 22, 2015. Sadeghi was previously arrested in July 2009, March 2010, and January 2012 for allegedly participating in protests against the widely disputed results of the 2009 presidential election, but he was conditionally released each time. His mother, Farahnaz Dargahi, died in November 2009—four days after she suffered a heart attack following a raid of her home by security agents. Source: International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran #Iran #News

Authorities in Northwestern China’s troubled Xinjiang region have given permission for relatives of jailed Uyghur scholar Ilham Tohti to visit him in prison. "[His brother] is getting ready to visit him in Urumqi," Tohti's wife, Guzelnur, told Radio Free Europe. "This will be the third [family] visit." Guzelnur, who has been left with very little income to care for the couple's young sons in Beijing, said she is currently feeling unwell and will be unable to make the trip to Xinjiang for the visit. "He will go this time, and maybe next time it'll be me who goes," she said. "His parents are sick, so they can't go." The former professor at the Central University for Nationalities in Beijing was sentenced to life in prison following his conviction on a charge of “separatism” by the Urumqi Intermediate People's Court in Xinjiang on September 23, 2014. Guzelnur said her husband is being held in his own cell at Urumqi's No. 1 Prison and is receiving medical check-ups every two weeks. He spends most of him time reading books, she said. Despite this care, there are stringent restrictions surrounding such family visits, which are limited to once every three months, 30 minutes per visit. "We'll go once a year," Guzelnur said. "Otherwise, the kids just get so upset when they have just visited their father. When we came back from the last visit last September, they were feeling very low, and they missed their father the whole time." #China #News

According to Hurriyet Daily News, Reşat Barış Ünlü, a professor of political science at Ankara University, faces seven years in prison for “terror propaganda” over an exam question that involved Abdullah Öcalan, the jailed leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). In the final exam of the course “Political life and institutions in Turkey,” Ünlü asked students to compare a 1978 leaflet by Öcalan with a more recent piece from 2012 in terms of its implications for Turkey’s Kurdish question. “Compare Abdullah Öcalan’s 1978 leaflet ‘The Manifesto of the Path of the Kurdistan Revolution’ with his 2012 piece entitled ‘Democratic Modernity as the Construction of Local System in the Middle East’ with regard to their stances on concepts and phenomena such as colonialism, the nation-state, revolutionary violence and democracy,” the question stated. Ünlü also asked his students to consider this comparison in terms of global and local changes since 1978, as well as transformations undergone by the Kurdish movement and in Kurdish society. The indictment against Ünlü claims his question was an attempt to “legitimize” Öcalan’s ideas and amounted to “terror propaganda.” The Dean of Political Science's office has sent its academic judgment to the court, stressing the importance of academic autonomy and freedom of expression. The office reportedly reminded the court that academics focusing on the issue have discussed Öcalan’s writings many times. The prosecutor in the case, however, is demanding seven years imprisonment for Ünlü, whose trial will be held at Ankara’s Second Criminal Court for Serious Crimes on February 3, 2016. Endangered Scholars Worldwide condemns the Turkish government's jailing and threatening of scholars as doing so is in clear violation of human rights and academic freedom. The targeting of scholars and professors in the ongoing unrest is particularly distressing. It harms the entire global educational community by undermining universities' abilities to meet their educational, research, and social responsibilities. #Turkey #News

In the latest example of the Turkish government's pressure on scholars, 1,200 academics from 89 universities who signed a statement that expressed concern over the ongoing clashes between security forces and the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in the country's southeastern provinces, calling on the government to restore peace, are facing criminal investigations. Some were suspended from their posts for signing the declaration, while others were briefly detained by the police. Endangered Scholars Worldwide condemns the Turkish government's jailing and threatening of scholars as doing so is in clear violation of human Rights and academic Freedom. The targeting of scholars and professors in the ongoing unrest is particularly distressing, and it harms the entire global educational community by undermining universities' abilities to meet their educational, research, and social responsibilities. Please sign the petition. Read more. #Turkey #ESW #Statement

Associate Professor Battal Odabaşı from İstanbul Aydın University has been fired for signing a declaration that calls for the restoration of peace and an end to ongoing military operations in Southeast Turkey. University officials ordered Odabaşı to remove his signature from the declaration by Monday. When he refused to comply, they dismissed him. 29 academics have been suspended from their posts for signing the declaration, titled, "We will not be a party to this crime," which was launched on January 10 by the Academics for Peace group. The statement, first signed by 1,128 academics, highlights the number of civilian deaths that have resulted from the violence and calls on the government to restore a peace process abandoned in July 2015. It was read in Turkish and Kurdish at a press conferences in İstanbul and Ankara on Jan. 10. Read more about the crisis of higher education in Turkey. #Turkey #News

The Turkish government has taken drastic steps toward restricting academic freedoms, arresting 27 Turkish academics and launching criminal investigations into more than 1,200 individuals across 90 Turkish universities. Fortunately, all arrested scholars have since been released from detainment; however, if convicted, they could face up 15 years imprisonment on accounts of "propaganda against the government " and "insulting the Turkish government." The tensions began in December 2015, when an open letter, signed by academics across the world including Noam Chomsky and David Graeber, was sent to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Chomsky has long been critical toward the Turkish government's treatment of Kurdish minorities and other facets of the Erdogan's government. He has raised concerns regarding a witch-hunt against academics critical of the AKP government. The petition was initially released on January 11 with over 1,400 academics' and researchers' signatures. The Turkish Council of Higher Education (YÖK) immediately responded that it would take legal action against the Turkish signatories. Read the petition text here. A petition on Change.org featuring a copy of the original has amassed more than 4,000 signatures, and a UK version of the Academics for Peace initiative has collected more than 800 signatures from professors and researchers across British Universities. Sign the petition here. The US embassy has also issued a statement indicating concerns over the arrests of the academics in Turkey, though it simultaneously denounced and rejected the petition itself. Following the release of the initial petition, Erdoğan took to the stage to insult what he referred to as "crappy, so-called academics." He warned professors not to think of themselves as "so-called intellectuals." In his speech, Erdogan called on academics to "pick a side," i.e. to be either with the Turkish State or with the terrorists. Such a statement must remind us (as it did Noam Chomsky) of when former President GW Bush made a similar pronouncement over a decade ago following the September 11 attacks. While academics outside Turkey may not face a specific threat, it would be a grave mistake to foresake the fruitful progress that had just begun to make itself felt on Turkish campuses. To allow Turkish academics to be vilified and isolated would be to concede defeat to the most conservative and antiintellectual impulses of Turkish society. It is vital to show our solidarity with academics in Turkey. We must remember Hannah Arendt's warning that the world's greatest atrocities are not merely the result of leaders misusing their power, but also of average citizens staying silent and going about their business: “we have hardly the time, let alone the inclination, to stop and think." We like to think that the atrocities of the past cannot be repeated, but by turning our backs on our Turkish colleagues, we risk allowing a dangerous climate to intensify— one that we may regret for decades to come. This is why the subsequent solidarity petitions are so important. They indicate to the Turkish government and to the world at large an ongoing commitment to securing Turkish academia as part of a global community of researchers and intellectuality despite the challenges they face in their own country. Please sign the petition. #Turkey #News