ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — A Kurdish academic has slammed a “premeditated” decision from Turkey’s top academic authority to expel him for supposedly interviewing and translating for two Kurdish officials from northeast Syria in 2014.
Adem Yildirim had been working as a researcher at Adiyaman University’s Faculty of Education until he was expelled in September for translating for Abdulsalam Ahmed, head of public relations for the Movement for a Democratic Society (TEV-DEM).
TEV-DEM is a Kurdish umbrella group which includes the Democratic Union Party (PYD)- the ruling party in the autonomous administration of northeast Syria, known to Kurds as Rojava.
He has been accused of also interviewing Salih Muslim, then co-chair of the PYD, for the Kampfplatz journal in October 2014.
Yildirim's name is included under the interview in the contents page, but his role is not specified.
Speaking to the independent Duvar news agency on Monday, Yildirim denied he had interviewed Muslim but said that he translated questions for a reporter interviewing Ahmed.
“It is unacceptable to be subjected to a disciplinary and criminal investigation because an academic has translated questions prepared by a legally published journal,” he said, claiming the Council of Higher Education’s (YOK) decision to expel him was “premeditated.”
The interview was conducted at an educational center in Ankara and the whole process was legal, according to Yildirim, who also criticized Kamfplatz for taking down the article from their website.
He also complained of a lack of support from the journal.
“In this process, the current management of the Kampfplatz journal and the owners of the journal left me,” he said.
The YOK made the ruling within the scope of the investigations carried out against the PYD and its armed wing the People’s Protection Units (YPG). Exact details of the ruling are unclear.
Rudaw English reached out to both Yildirim and the university, who were unavailable for comment.
Turkey considers both the PYD and YPG as Syrian offshoots of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) – an armed group which struggles for increased cultural and political rights for Kurds in Turkey. Ankara regards the PKK as a terrorist organisation.
Turkey and its Syrian proxies have carried out three military operations against the YPG in northern Syria since 2016, and continue to regularly attack the group.
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