Morning Star.png Turkey: Police Arrest 18 Academics International Desk, The Morning Star, London, 16 January 2016 TURKISH police rounded up 18 academics yesterday in a crackdown on opposition to war with Kurdish separatists. The Anadolu news agency said 15 academics from Kocaeli University in north-western Turkey and three from Uludag University in the neighbouring province of Bursa were detained for questioning. Those arrested were among more than 1,000 Turkish and international scholars who signed a declaration denouncing military operations against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in the country's south-east. Prosecutors have also launched investigations into the academics on possible charges of insulting the state and engaging in "terrorist propaganda" on behalf of the outlawed PKK. Several other universities instigated probes into faculty members who also signed the declaration, according to Anadolu, which could lead to their dismissal. The arrests came after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan severely criticised the signatories, including left-wing US linguist Noam Chomsky, and called on the judiciary to act against their "treachery." In the declaration, the academics said they refused to be "a party to the crime" and called on the government to halt the "massacre." Mr Erdogan said the statement was biased against the state, used the same language used by "terrorists" and did not speak out against the PKK's violence. "Dark people" Speaking after praying at Istanbul's Blue Mosque, site of Tuesday's suicide bombing blamed on Isis, Mr Erdogan renewed his attack on the intellectuals. "Just because they have titles such as professor, doctor in front of their names does not make them enlightened. These are dark people," he said. "They are villain and vile because those who side with the villains are villain themselves." Hundreds have died since a two-year ceasefire and talks with the PKK broke down in July over allegations of government collaboration with Islamic State (Isis) terrorists. Curfews imposed on majority Kurdish cities by police and troops ahead of November's snap general election - in which the pro-Kurdish HDP party lost seats it gained in June - has yet to be lifted. Local activists say more than 160 civilians have been killed under the emergency measures. The government claims to have killed over 400 PKK guerillas in Turkey and air strikes in neighbouring Iraq. From: http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-bb8f-Turkey-Police-crackdown-on-dissent -sees-18-academics-arrested#.VpngEPl9600 -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
