Twelve academics working at Dokuz Eylül University in İzmir province have been suspended for signing a peace declaration in 2016, according to the Evrensel Daily.
According to reports on Wednesday, medical faculty Cem Terzi, İzge Günal, Halil Resmi, and Halis Ulaş; economics faculty Ayşen Uysal, Nuri Erkin Başer, Yeşim Edis Şahin, Seçkin Aydın, Aydın Arı, Serap Sarıtaş, and Dilek Karabulut; and fine arts faculty staff Emel Yuvayapan were suspended from their jobs.
The rector of the university stated that the academics were suspended due to an ongoing investigation into the signatories of the peace declaration by a prosecutor’s office.
Published in early 2016, the peace declaration accuses the Turkish government of carrying out heavy-handed operations in Turkey’s southeastern region, where outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants and the military have been engaged in clashes since the breakdown of a cease-fire between the two in July 2015.
It was signed by more than 1,000 intellectuals from both inside and outside Turkey, including US philosopher Noam Chomsky.
The peace declaration frustrated President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government, leading to retribution against the academics. Some of the insults Erdoğan used against them include “so-called intellectuals,” “a flock called intellectuals,” “traitors,” and “rough copies of intellectuals.”
Hundreds of academics who signed the declaration were detained when police raided their homes and offices across Turkey after the declaration was announced on January 11, 2016, and many of them were removed from their jobs.
Endangered Scholars Worldwide is concerned about the harsh measures the Turkish government has taken against universities and other institutions of higher education and its systematic targeting of the country’s scholars and professors since the coup attempt on July 15, 2016. The Turkish government’s actions irreversibly harm the entire educational community by undermining universities’ abilities to meet scientific and ethical standards as well as fulfill intellectual, educational, social, and institutional responsibilities.