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international

'Voices of criticism and solidarity with Kurdish people are violently oppressed'

Fabienne Meijer,
21 januari 2016 - 07:31

1128 academics signed a declaration for peace in Southeast Turkey last week, in which they asked the Turkish government to stop the military operations in the area. Following this declaration, The Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office announced that they would be investigating all the academics because of their alleged ‘propaganda for a terrorist organization.’ Many academics living abroad signed the petition, some of them even Dutch. Folia interviewed one of these Dutch academics, who wishes to remain anonymous.

Why do you insist on an anonymous interview?

‘When the Turkish authorities and media get their hands on this interview, they might want to twist my words and incriminate me in front of their audiences. When my name is not linked to the interview, they may have an idea of who I am, but they can’t officially say it’s me who is being interviewed.’

 

Why did you think it was important to sign this petition?

‘This petition is signed by 1128 academics, from 89 universities in Turkey, with the participation of more than 300 academics living abroad, to demand an end to state violence inflicted against citizens and to declare the refusal of being a party to this crime. The conflicts and curfews going on in Kurdish towns and neighborhoods clearly signify an asymmetric war launched by the state against its own citizens. According to the Human Rights Association in Turkey, in the first eleven months of 2015, 173 people are murdered, 744 people are arrested and 1433 people are tortured.

In the meantime, voices of criticism and solidarity with Kurdish people, any attempt of collaboration between the ‘‘West’’ and the ‘‘East’’ of the country and calls for peace are violently suppressed, like Suruç and Ankara. In this atmosphere, raising critical voices, even in the form of a petition, which is perhaps not always the most effective form of protest, becomes important. This must be one of the most ‘‘radicalised’’ and ‘‘criminalised’’ petitions in the world history.’

‘A pro-government mafia leader declared they would be happy to take showers with the blood of the academics’

Are you afraid that the Turkish government will harm you in some way?

‘In a place where an investigation is launched against more than a thousand academics who are just using their freedom of expression, where academics are fired, attacked, and threatened just because they signed a petition, there are always strong reasons to be afraid of being harmed by the government. If we just remember the last couple of days, on January 12, there was a dubious explosion in one of the most central and touristic squares in Istanbul  - Sultanahmet  - leaving more than ten people dead. In the afternoon, the president was on TV accusing more than a thousand academics, who signed this petition to end the state violence, of being ‘‘traitors’’. In minutes, the Institute of Higher Education declared they will also do ‘‘what is necessary’’.

Next day, pro-government newspapers wrote that there was a connection with the explosion and the petition, while a pro-government mafia leader declared they would be happy to take showers with the blood of the academics who signed the petition. The universities, cooperating with the government and its higher institute of education, declared one by one that they will investigate the signees, while some university rectors started prosecutions against their academics. The website of the Academics for Peace was hacked with notes such as: ‘‘We take over the website, you will not be forgiven anymore’’, ‘‘Your ears will blow up if we speak’’, ‘‘Our operations will go on’’, while a huge Turkish flag covered the page.

Two days ago, a high school teacher was threatened by the school board due to a FoucaultMichel Foucault was a 20th century French philosopher. quote she had in her WhatsApp status (‘‘Is it surprising that prisons resemble factories, schools, barracks, hospitals, which all resemble prison?’’) Another teacher who openly supported the first one is assigned to another school, which provided a perfect performance of Foucault's words. And these are only the incidents in the last couple of days, mostly in the Western part of the country. Harming people is already a daily practice in the Kurdish provinces since decades, intensifying again in the last months.’

Do you think anything will change because of the petition?

‘Despite the severity of the legal and extralegal threats the signees got from the president himself, government members, mafia leaders, some students, universities, higher institutes of education and so on, the support for the academics grew everyday. The number of the signatures were doubled and the supporting petitions and solidarity messages have multiplied: students, international thinkers such as Judith Butler, Noam Chomsky, David Harvey, Tariq Ali, writers, white-collar workers, artists, translators, psychologists, filmmakers, international universities.

The problems of state violence, economic, political, cultural and military oppression of the Kurdish people and oppositional groups in Turkey, as well as deepening economic inequality in the country and the dirty agreements made with Europe concerning the immigration issue are obviously too huge structural problems to be solved with a petition. Yet, this petition proves one more time that there are plenty of people who are willing to keep struggling and they are not alone. On the other hand, because of this petition, plenty of people will be unemployed and we might have empty universities to be filled by people who will not sign such petitions!’

 

Would you consider going to Turkey anytime soon and do you feel safer here in the Netherlands than you would have been anywhere else?

‘I will have to go to Turkey in the summer, if not before. We don’t have a clear idea about how the legal process will evolve yet. Plans can change according to the developments. I see this as a process we are experiencing collectively, thus, the personal feeling of security forms only a part of the story.’

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