NEWS CENTER - 199 academics from around the world, including Judith Butler and Nancy Fraser, denounced the detention of Boğaziçi University students who protested some students who opened a stand and distributed Turkish delight in the campus to commemorate people who lost their lives during Afrin operation. The number of the academics has reached to 1,250.

 

199 academics from around the world, including Judith Butler and Nancy Fraser, reacted to the detention of Boğaziçi University students who protested some students who opened a stand and distributed Turkish delight in the campus to commemorate people who lost their lives during Afrin operation. And they published an open letter of support for the students. The number of the academics, who support the students, has reached to 1,250.

 

1,250 academics from over 100 institutions in 37 different countries put their signature under the open letter respond the President and Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for referring to students as “terrorists.”

 

Some of the academics put their signature under the open letter are Angela Y. Davis, Judith Butler, Noam Chomsky, Alice Crary, Nancy Fraser, Marianne Hirsch, Michael Hardt, Etienne Balibar, Mary Marshall Clark, Seyla Benhabib, Jay M. Bernstein, Partha Chatterjee, Bertell Ollman, Susan Buck-Morss, Pulitzer ödüllü Junot Diaz,Homi K. Bhabha, David Graeber, Todd Gitlin, Immanuel Ness, Eduard Brezin, Nobelli Eric Wieschaus and Jack W. Szostak.

 

The letter called “Open Letter of Support for Students Arrested at Boğaziçi University in Istanbul, Turkey” is as follows:

 

“As members of academic communities around the world, we strongly oppose the recent arrests and harassment of students at Boğaziçi University in Istanbul, Turkey.

 

On March 19, 2018, students demonstrated against a campus event supporting the Turkish soldiers who fought in the invasion of Afrin, Syria, which was organized by the Society for Islamic Research (İslam Araştırmaları Kulübü). The arrests on campus, as well as subsequent police raids of student homes and dormitories, continue a disturbing trend of criminalizing political speech and dissent in Turkey.

 

President Recep Tayyip Erdogˆan has cynically referred to these students as "terrorists", vowed to expel them from Boğaziçi University, and to deny them the right to study at any other university. We have heard this kind of verbal attack from Erdogˆan before and it was followed by the detention of thousands of academics, journalists, artists, and human rights advocates.

 

We call upon the Turkish government to immediately release all student detainees.

 

We call upon the Turkish government to immediately cease all investigations and arrests of students exercising political speech.

 

We express our solidarity with these students, who continue to courageously express their dissent, despite the great risks they face.

 

We pledge our support to these students through the public and private means available to us.”