March 16, 2016•Update: March 18, 2016
ISTANBUL
Three academics accused of spreading terrorist propaganda have been remanded in custody by an Istanbul court.
Bogazici University’s Esra Mungan, Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University’s Kivanc Ersoy, and Muzaffer Kaya, formerly of Nisantasi University, signed a declaration along with 1,128 other academics in January calling for the end of anti-terror operations in southeastern Turkey.
A fourth signatory wanted by the police, Meral Camci, formerly of Yeni Yuzyil University, is abroad.
The three suspects were arrested early on Tuesday and remanded that night.
According to the court’s decision, the suspects’ manifesto echoed remarks made by a senior figure of terrorist PKK-KCK, Bese Hozat. She was quoted by the court as saying: “Intellectuals and democratic circles should back self-governance.”
The KCK has announced “self-governance” at different times and in different places in southeastern Turkey.
Istanbul’s Chief Public Prosecutor's Office on Monday requested that the academics be taken into custody, after the four released a declaration protesting against the government’s military operations in the southeast.
At a news conference last Thursday, the four representatives of the Academics for Peace Istanbul branch told reporters that the group was facing more investigations.
According to Kivanc Ersoy, an associate professor of mathematics at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, many academics who signed the petition have faced disciplinary proceedings and some have even been fired.
On Jan.11, the Group of Academics for Peace issued a manifesto calling for an end to fighting in the southeast, where security curfews has seen several towns cut off as the police and military battled the PKK terrorist organization.
The declaration sparked an investigation into terrorist propaganda and insulting the state.
In January more than a dozen academics were arrested over the petition, which accused the state of violating human rights and conducting a “deliberate and planned massacre”.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan criticized the group, questioning whether they knew the declaration’s content before signing it. “If you did not know the content of the text you signed, it is a disaster,” he said. “If you signed knowing it, it is a separate disaster."
“Its name is not criticism. Its name is propaganda of a terror organization,” he added.
