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MEDIA ADVISORY

February 1, 2016
CONTACT: Terry Roethlein
PHONE: 212-854-5665

Columbia Group Condemns Turkish Governments Censure of


Scholars
New York, NY 1/29/16 This week the Center for the Study of Social
Difference (CSSD) joined over 25 international higher education organizations
in signing a joint public letter that criticized Turkish government and
university officials for their mistreatment of academics.
Over 1,100 scholars in the Turkish higher education and research sectors
have been subjected to arrests, investigations, interrogations, suspensions
and termination of positions, according to the letter, after signing a public
statement urging Turkish authorities to renew a peace process with members
of the embattled Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) in the southeastern area of the
country.
The Turkish scholars were investigated by prosecutors and accused of
terrorist propaganda after they signed the petition, which demanded an end
to fighting between government forces and the PKK. Eighteen scholars were
placed under arrest and have since been released but others were suspended
or forced to resign from their positions at Turkish higher education
institutions.
The joint letter states that recent events suggest a serious and widespread
effort to retaliate against scholars for the nonviolent, public expression of
their views on matters of professional and public concernconduct expressly
protected by internationally recognized standards of academic freedom,
freedom of expression and freedom of association as articulated in, among
others, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Turkey is a signatory.
The signatories encourage Turkish officials to end any pending legal,
administrative or professional actions undertaken against the scholars
concerned and to renew publicly their commitment to internationally
recognized principles of academic freedom and expression. The letter and its
signatories can be viewed here.
Signing a petition is a basic right to free speech and needs to be protected
by our universities and our governmentsand so must the freedom to
demand peace at times of conflict, said Marianne Hirsch, member of CSSD
and Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University,
in a press conference at New York University on Friday.
These are
fundamental rights that are the cornerstone of liberal education and free
academic inquiry. They are rights that insure the very possibility of research,
thinking and academic exchange, she said.

Hirsch expressed solidarity with colleagues in Turkey who were struggling for
the protection of free speech and noted that The international outcry against
these state and university actions against academics in Turkey, the multiple
petitions that have been signed by thousands of academics around the world,
and have spawned numerous solidarity actions such as this one, attest to the
gravity of these acts.

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