ANKARA 

The Ankara Palestine Solidarity Platform (ANFIDAP) condemned Wednesday a “violation of academic freedom and basic rights” following the detention of Turkish national and Tufts University Ph.D. student Rumeysa Ozturk by US immigration officers.

The group described her arrest by masked agents from Boston’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as “a terrifying incident as if she had been kidnapped,” and denounced the recent wave of student arrests in the US because of pro-Palestinian campus protests.

It said more than 1,000 international students had their visas revoked in the last month, including Palestinian student Mahmoud Khalil from Columbia University.

“These are acts of intimidation and repression against freedom of thought, freedom of expression, and peaceful protest,” according to a statement.

ANFIDAP accused the US administration of Donald Trump of taking an “increasingly authoritarian” stance, citing recent cuts in federal funding to universities that allowed Gaza-related protests. It called student visa revocations in the US a "witch hunt," with detentions to suppress pro-Palestinian voices and silence dissent on campuses.

The group claimed the US was “succumbing to Zionist pressure” and attempting to “suppress the intellectual world of academics by fear and punishment.”

It warned that the practices amount to a global assault on thought and academic expression, and that “history is full of examples where despotic attempts to silence the truth have failed.”

“We call for the immediate restoration of the rights of Ozturk, Khalil, and all other students affected by these unjust decisions,” said ANFIDAP.

The group vowed to continue its advocacy until “Palestine is free and Zionist barbarity no longer grips the so-called free world.”