SAR’s Academic Freedom Monitoring Project investigates and reports attacks on higher education with the aim of raising awareness, generating advocacy, and increasing protection for scholars, students, and academic communities. Learn more.
Results
On January 30, 2019, Turkish authorities issued an arrest warrant for Baki Tezcan, a professor at the University of California Davis, for his endorsement of a petition criticizing state and military actions in predominantly Kurdish areas of southeast Turkey.
On July 11, 2019, the İstanbul 27th Heavy Penal Court convicted and sentenced Sibel Bekiroğlu, a research assistant at the Middle East Technical University, to fifteen months imprisonment on a charge of “propagandizing for a terrorist organization.” The charge is in apparent retaliation for the Bekiroğlu’s endorsement of a petition criticizing state and military actions in predominantly Kurdish areas of southeast Turkey.
On July 1, 2019, the İstanbul 32nd Heavy Penal Court sentenced a research assistant from İstanbul Kültür University, and two lecturers from İstanbul Okan University and Işık University to fifteen months imprisonment on a charge of “propagandizing for a terrorist organization.”
On June 30, 2019, authorities arrested four students from the Middle East Technical University (METU) in Ankara, apparently to prevent them from engaging in non-violent expressive activity at the university’s graduation ceremony. Authorities released the students later that night.
On June 13, 2019, the İstanbul 27th Heavy Penal Court convicted and sentenced a Boğaziçi University PhD candidate and an İstanbul Bilgi University research assistant to 15 months imprisonment and a Boğaziçi University scholar to two years and six months ...
On June 12, 2019, the Istanbul 26th Heavy Penal Court convicted and sentenced Sezai Ozan Zeybek, a lecturer at Istanbul Bilgi University, to one year and three months imprisonment for “propagandizing for a terrorist organization.”
On May 30, 2019, the Istanbul 37th Heavy Penal Court sentenced Filiz Arıöz, a lecturer at Marmara University, to one year and three months imprisonment for “propagandizing for a terrorist organization.” This charge is in apparent retaliation for the scholar’s endorsement of petition criticizing state and military actions in predominantly Kurdish areas of southeast Turkey.
On May 30, 2019, the Istanbul 36th Heavy Penal Court sentenced Tezcan Durna, an associate professor at Ankara University, to one year and three months imprisonment on a charge of “propagandizing for a terrorist organization.”
On May 21, 2019, the İstanbul 25th Heavy Penal Court sentenced Sabancı University professor Ayşe Gül Altınay to two years and one month imprisonment on a charge of “knowingly and willingly aiding a terrorist organization as a non-member.” The charge ...
On May 11, 2019, Turkish authorities arrested University of Lyon-1 mathematics professor Ahmet Tuna Altınel for “propagandizing for a terrorist organization.” The charge is apparently based on Altınel’s alleged participation at a documentary screening in France. Altınel, a professor at the ...