ERBIL, Kurdistan Region—Four academics have been released from jail on the first day of their trial for spreading terrorist propaganda pending a reduction in the charges against them.
Meral Camcı, Kivanç Ersoy, Muzaffer Kaya, and Esra Mungan were on trial accused of engaging in terrorist propaganda and inciting hatred. The charges stemmed from a petition they had signed condemning the Turkish government’s military operations in Kurdish towns.
More than 1,400 international academics signed a petition calling for the Turkish government to stop the “deliberate massacre and deportation of Kurdish people.”
In August 2015, Turkey’s military began conducting operations to cleanse the PKK, designated a terrorist organization by Europe and the US, from Kurdish-dominated towns in southeastern Turkey. Civilian death tolls are unconfirmed but range from dozens up to as many as 1100. An estimated 355,000 residents have been forced out of their homes by the fighting. The operations, primarily conducted under imposed curfews in Kurdish towns, continue.
Calling themselves Academics for Peace, the petition condemned Turkey’s military operations in Kurdish-dominated towns including curfews and the use of heavy weaponry and called for the government to immediately ceasefire and begin negotiations leading to peace.
“We, as academics and researchers working on and/or in Turkey, declare that we will not be a party to this massacre by remaining silent and demand an immediate end to the violence perpetrated by the state,” reads the petition dated January 10, 2016. “We will continue advocacy with political parties, the parliament, and international public opinion until our demands are met.”
The four released today are free pending a request from the prosecutors to the judge to change the charges to the lesser offense of denigrating Turkishness. This offence carries a maximum sentence of two years in jail. Under the more serious charges, the academics faced up to seven and a half years in jail.
Until their release today, they had been held in a high security prison in Istanbul since their arrests last month.
The defendants remain steadfast. “You may find our petition ridiculous, but you can never say we were spreading terrorist propaganda,” Kaya told the court. “Acquit me.”
Meral Camcı, Kivanç Ersoy, Muzaffer Kaya, and Esra Mungan were on trial accused of engaging in terrorist propaganda and inciting hatred. The charges stemmed from a petition they had signed condemning the Turkish government’s military operations in Kurdish towns.
More than 1,400 international academics signed a petition calling for the Turkish government to stop the “deliberate massacre and deportation of Kurdish people.”
In August 2015, Turkey’s military began conducting operations to cleanse the PKK, designated a terrorist organization by Europe and the US, from Kurdish-dominated towns in southeastern Turkey. Civilian death tolls are unconfirmed but range from dozens up to as many as 1100. An estimated 355,000 residents have been forced out of their homes by the fighting. The operations, primarily conducted under imposed curfews in Kurdish towns, continue.
Calling themselves Academics for Peace, the petition condemned Turkey’s military operations in Kurdish-dominated towns including curfews and the use of heavy weaponry and called for the government to immediately ceasefire and begin negotiations leading to peace.
“We, as academics and researchers working on and/or in Turkey, declare that we will not be a party to this massacre by remaining silent and demand an immediate end to the violence perpetrated by the state,” reads the petition dated January 10, 2016. “We will continue advocacy with political parties, the parliament, and international public opinion until our demands are met.”
The four released today are free pending a request from the prosecutors to the judge to change the charges to the lesser offense of denigrating Turkishness. This offence carries a maximum sentence of two years in jail. Under the more serious charges, the academics faced up to seven and a half years in jail.
Until their release today, they had been held in a high security prison in Istanbul since their arrests last month.
The defendants remain steadfast. “You may find our petition ridiculous, but you can never say we were spreading terrorist propaganda,” Kaya told the court. “Acquit me.”
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