HEARINGS OF ACADEMICS

Trial of 13 Academics Held

First hearings in which peace academics have been tried continued at 32nd Heavy Penal Court.

Beyza Kural

Click to read the article in Turkish

Trial of Academics for Peace signatories continued today (January 30) at İstanbul Courthouse 32nd Heavy Penal Court. First hearings of 13 academics were held, eight of the 13 academics stood ready in the trial, three of them made their statement of defense.

In 13 hearings, academics’ lawyers demanded that the file of the first suit be asked from 13th Heavy Penal Court, an interpreter be made available and an extension of time.

The prosecutor requested rejection of all demands except for extension of time and interpreter. The court committee made the same decisions with the prosecutor’s request.

Academics from the League of Human Rights of France, International Society of Political Psychology, and Platform of Academics for Equality Israel-Palestine members are observing the hearings.

The academics who were heard today are: Prof. Dr. Büşra Ersanlı, Assist. Prof. Dr. Yasemin Gülsüm Acar (Özyeğin University), Dr. Stefo Benlisoy (İstanbul Technical University-İTÜ), Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ahmet Atıl Aşıcı (İTÜ), Prof. Dr. Ayşe Erzan (retired from the İTÜ), Prof. Dr. Özdemir Aktan (discharged from Marmara University by statutory decree), Prof. Dr. Nesrin Sungur Çakmak (Işık University), research fellow Tuba Kıyan (discharged from the Yıldız Technical University-YTÜ by statutory decree), research fellow Emre Tansu Keten (discharged from Marmara University by statutory decree), research fellow Gülay Kılıçarslan (discharged from YTÜ by statutory decree), research associate Didem Çınar Ünal (İTÜ), research associate İrfan Emre Kovankaya (discharged from YTÜ by statutory decree), research associate Canan Özbey (discharged from Marmara University).

The court committee consisted of the following figures: Chief Judge: Ömer Günaydın, Members: Habibe Ertuğrul, Onur Sert, Prosecutor: Caner Babaloğlu.

According to the indictment prepared by Prosecutor İsmet Bozkurt, the academics are being charged with "Making Propaganda for a Terrorist Organisation", based on the Article 7/2 of the Turkish Anti-Terror Act and Article 53 of the Turkish Penal Code.

The hearings started on December 5. 89 people have had their first hearings so far.

What happened?

On January 10, 2016, the Peace Declaration of the Academics "We will not be a party to this crime" was shared with the public in a press conference. 1,128 academics from 89 universities as well as over 355 academics and researchers from abroad had signed the peace declaration.

On January 12, 2016, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan referring to the academics signing peace declaration, said: "A group of people calling themselves academics appears and talks against their state which defends their land against acts of terror organizations. [...] You so-called intellectuals, you are all dark and ignorant".

Following Erdoğan's statement, more academics signed the declaration to support their colleagues and including the second wave of signatures, the number of academics signing the peace declaration reached 2,212.

In many where these academics had a position, they had been targetted, their office doors were marked and they began to receive messages of threat.
As of January 15, 2016, police began raiding the houses of the academics and taking them into custody. Some have been suspended from their positions and others were subjected to administrative or legal investigations.

On March 10, 2016, a press conference was held on behalf of the Academics for Peace/İstanbul group regarding the developments which had occurred since the declaration was shared with the public. Asst. Prof. Dr. Esra Mungan, Asst. Prof. Dr. Muzaffer Kaya, Assoc. Prof. Dr Kıvanç Ersoy and Asst. Prof. Dr. Meral Camcı read out the press statement saying that the prosecutor's office took action without determining which crimes were allegedly committed and noted that the academics insisted on their demand of peace.

On May 15, 2016, Asst. Prof. Dr. Esra Mungan, Asst. Prof. Dr. Muzaffer Kaya, Assoc. Prof. Dr Kıvanç Ersoy were arrested, and on March 31, 2016 Asst. Prof. Dr. Meral Camcı was arrested after returning to Turkey from abroad where she was at the time when the arrest warrant was issued. The academics were charged with "terror propaganda" and were released on April 22, 2016.

After the State of Emergency was declared, 380 academics who signed the peace declaration, were discharged from their positions through statutory decrees. Also tens of academics, who had a position at foundation universities, were discharged as well.

Charges

Each academic face up to 7.5 years in prison. The investigation is carried out by İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office.

Turkish Anti-Terror Act

Article 7(2)

Any person making propaganda for a terrorist organisation shall be punished with imprisonment from one to five years. If this crime is committed through means of mass media, the penalty shall be aggravated by one half. In addition, editors-in-chief (...)2
who have not participated in the perpetration of the crime shall be punished with a judicial fine from one thousand to fifteen thousand days' rates. However, the upper limit of this sentence for editors-in-chief is five thousand days' rates.

According to the indictment, the evidences regarding the alleged crime are;

• The investigation report that concerns the statement of Bese Hozat--the co-president of the PKK/KCK terrorist organization's executive committee--that is dated December 27, 2015.-;

• The investigation reports on the academics who signed the petition (suspects) concerning the press declarations on January 11, 2016 (first declaration) and March 10, 2016 (second declaration) that are allegedly of a supportive nature in favour of PKK/KCK terrorist organization;

• Records of statement and interrogation reports of the suspects and the arrest warrants issued for them.

148 academics who are among the first ones of the 1,128 academics to stand trial are from the following universities:

Galatasaray University, İstanbul University, Yıldız Teknik University, İstanbul Teknik University, Marmara University, Boğaziçi University, Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, Yeni Yüzyıl University, Apriltaşı University, Kadir Has University, Özyeğin University, Bahçeşehir University, Kemerburgaz University, Arel University and Işık University.

(BK/TK)