• Interventions
  • Turkey
  • Peace Petition

Ongoing erosion of the autonomy of Turkish public universities due to Erdogan’s unilateral appointments of university presidents

Letter to President Erdoğan regarding the adverse effects of his unilateral administrative appointments to Turkey's universities resulting in the complete erosion of the autonomy of Turkey's public universities in particular, a process set in motion following the 1980 military coup but dramatically accelerated since 2016 due to emergency and presidential decrees adopted by Erdoğan.

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Continued prosecution and imprisonment of scholars of signatories of “Academics for Peace Petition”

Letter regarding recent developments in the prosecution and specifically imprisonment of scholars who signed the declaration “We will not be a party to this crime”—commonly referred to as the “Academics for Peace Petition.”

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Recent developments concerning the prosecution of Peace Petition signatories and targeting of scholars

Letter regarding recent developments in the prosecution of scholars who signed the declaration “We will not be a party to this crime”—commonly referred to as the “Academics for Peace Petition”—as well as the ongoing targeting of scholars whose research exposes threats emanating from the Turkish government’s policies in areas such as public health and environmental regulation.

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Government Actions Against Peace Petition Signatories

Letter to PM Davutoglu (see previous letters of January 14, 2016 and February 22, 2016) concerning an escalation in government actions against Peace Petition signatories and their supporters including arrests, a deportation of a foreign academic and a declaration by the President that the Turkish Criminal Code will be amended to broaden the definition of terrorism to include academic activities.

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Magnitude of Harassment, Intimidation, Prosecution, and Repression to Peace Petition Signatories

Letter to PM Davutoğlu (see previous letter of January 14, 2016) concerning the gravity and magnitude of the pattern of harassment, intimidation, prosecution and repression to which academics have been subjected as a consequence of signing the Peace Petition, followed by a comprehensive appendix detailing these violations of academic freedom.

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