Original Article

International Journal of Health

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The Price of Demanding 0(0) 1–7
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Peace: The Case of Reprints and permissions:
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Academics for Peace DOI: 10.1177/0020731418756568
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in Turkey

Feride Aksu Tanık1

Abstract
Escalation of violence resulted with more violence in 2015 in Turkey. Two hundred
and sixty-eight officially confirmed round-the-clock (all day long) and/or open-ended
curfews in 11 cities and at least 47 districts of Turkey have occurred. 1,809,000
residents, and the fundamental rights of these people have been explicitly violated.
On January 11, 2016, 1,128 academics signed a petition and made a declaration.
Immediately after the declaration witch hunt started. This report aims to display the
case of Academics for Peace Petition.

Keywords
peace, peace petition, academics, academics for peace, academics for peace petition

Background
In November 2002, AKP (the Justice and Development Party) was elected and
became the government in Turkey. The party accelerated neoliberal policies in
social services, such as health, education, and agriculture, and the 2010 refer-
endum put the judicial system under the control of the government. In the last
7–8 years, Political Islam has risen, and obscurantism has been felt in every

1
Izmir Solidarity Academy, Izmir, Turkey
Corresponding Author:
Feride Aksu Tanık, Izmir Solidarity Academy, Izmir 35680, Turkey.
Email: ferideaksu59@gmail.com
2 International Journal of Health Services 0(0)

Figure 1. 2002–2015 civilian deaths – escalation of violence. Source: Human Rights

Foundation of Turkey.

aspect of life. As a reaction, in 2013 the Gezi Park Protests happened. In June
2015, the AKP government lost the majority in the general election.
Suddenly, ISIL attacks occurred in many provinces. Suruç was the trigger; in
July 2015, a suicide bomber’s attack killed 34 young people. One of the most
striking was a suicide bomber’s attack on a peace demonstration in Ankara on
October 10, killing 102 people. Figure 1 shows the civilian deaths between 2002
and 2015.
In the second half of 2015, a total of 222 civilian deaths were counted.
Accompanying the escalation of violence was the breakdown of the govern-
ment’s peace negotiations with the Kurds. The Kurdish people reacted with
resistance, and unfortunately groups of young people put up barricades in
their towns, which was not right, in my opinion. This was combined with
much state repression.
Conflicts started in the Kurdish region, and many towns were blockaded.
According to the information gathered by the Human Rights Foundation of
Turkey Documentation Center, between August 16, 2015, and November 1,
2017, at least 268 officially confirmed round-the-clock (all day long) and/or
open-ended curfews in 11 cities and at least 47 districts of Turkey have occurred
(Figure 2).
It is estimated that, according to the 2014 population census, these curfews
have affected at least 1,809,000 residents, and the fundamental rights of these
Aksu Tanık 3

Figure 2. Map of the curfews in Turkey (see http://en.tihv.org.tr/curfews-in-turkey-between-

the-dates-16-august-2015-1-november-2017/).
Source: Human Rights Foundation of Turkey.

people have been explicitly violated – such as the right to liberty and security of
person; right to privacy, family, home, or correspondence; freedom of assembly
and association; freedom of religion; freedom to receive and impart information;
right to reserve of property; right to education and especially right to life; and
right to health and prohibition of torture.
In the meantime, the June elections were cancelled, and in the repeated
general elections on November 1, the result was a consolidation of the votes
for AKP.

The Declaration
On January 11, 2016, 1,128 academics signed a petition and made a declaration.
The wording was as follows:
The Turkish state has effectively condemned its citizens to hunger in Sur,
Silvan, Nusaybin, Cizre, Silopi, and many other towns and neighborhoods in the
Kurdish provinces through its use of curfews that have been ongoing for weeks.
It has attacked these settlements with heavy weapons and equipment that would
only be mobilized in wartime.
4 International Journal of Health Services 0(0)

As a result, the right to life, liberty, and security and particularly the prohibition
of torture and ill treatment protected by the constitution and international con-
ventions have been violated.
This deliberate and planned massacre is in serious violation of Turkey’s own
laws and international treaties to which Turkey is a party. These actions are in
serious violation of international law.
We demand that the state abandon its deliberate massacre and deportation of
Kurdish and other peoples in the region. We also demand that the state lift the
curfew, punish those who are responsible for human rights violations, and compen-
sate those citizens who have experienced material and psychological damage. For
this purpose we demand that independent national and international observers be
given access to the region and that they be allowed to monitor and report on the
incidents.
We demand the government prepare the conditions for negotiations and create a
road map that would lead to a lasting peace that includes the demands of the
Kurdish political movement.
We demand inclusion of independent observers from broad sections of society in
these negotiations. We also declare our willingness to volunteer as observers. We
oppose suppression of any kind of the opposition.
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 we demand an imme-
diate end to the violence perpetrated by the state. We will continue advocacy with
political parties, the parliament, and international public opinion until our demands
are met.
This act was in accordance with UN Declarations on the Preparation of
Societies for Life in Peace (85th Plenary Meeting, December 15, 1978) and on
the Rights of the Peoples to Peace (57th Plenary Meeting November 12, 1984),
also with the Santiago Declaration on the Human Right to Peace, December 10,
2010.

Witch Hunt
Immediately after the declaration, the president targeted academics, publicly
known as the Academics for Peace Petition. This aggravated the paramilitary
groups and triggered defamations on TV channels, web-based portals, and
newspapers. There was a blackening campaign. Signatories of the declaration
were stigmatized as terrorists. At the same time, the number of the signatories
increased to 2,212. Home and office raids, searches, and detentions were per-
formed. This was followed with administrative and legal investigations.
On March 14, 2016, 4 academics made a press declaration asking for a cease-
fire. They were arrested for 40 days and accused with propaganda of terrorism.
Aksu Tanık 5

Their court case was opened under the Anti-Terror Act Article 7/2 and is still
continuing.

State of Emergency
Following the coup attempt on July 15, 2016, authority and power were trans-
ferred to the president. For 17 months all rights and freedoms have been sus-
pended. Parliamentary immunity was removed, and more than 10 members of
Parliament have been imprisoned for months (among them 2 co-chairperson).
The country has been governed by statutory decrees. So far, 28 statutory
decrees have been released, most of them contrary to the Constitution of
Republic of Turkey.
About 2,800 physicians, more than 10,000 health workers, and 96,000 public
workers have been dismissed from their work. More than 30,000 public workers
were suspended. Fifteen private universities (14 established during the AKP
government) were closed down, and their employees became unemployed.
Most of the elected mayors in the Kurdish region were deposed and replaced
by trustees. Table 1 show rights violations against Academics for Peace. Table 2
shows the positions of Academics for Peace signatories removed and banned
from public service with decree laws, dismissed, resigned, retired.
Dismissed academics face several problems. They cannot work as academics,
or even as workers. The government obstructs the participation in scientific
meeting, publishing in the journals, being editors, or taking part in editorial
boards. MsC and PhD students’ studies are obstructed and/or interrupted.

Table 1 Rights violations against Academics for Peace.

Public Private tTotal

Removed and banned from public sefvice with the 424 74 498
decree laws+ dismissals + resignation + retirement
Removed and banned from public sefvice with the 378 8 386
decree laws
Dismissal 38 48 86
Resignation 18 24 42
Forced Retirement 25 1 26
Disciplinary Investigation 442 63 505
Disciplinary Investigation. Decision of the investigation 107 5 112
Committee: Dismissal from public service. Pending
CoHE(YÖK) approval
Preventive suspension 90 11 101
Suspension from administrative duty 3 4 7
Police custody 67 3 70
Pre-trial detention 2 2 4
Source: http://barisicinakademisyenler.net/node/314.
6 International Journal of Health Services 0(0)

Table 2 The Positions of Academics for Peace Signatories who Experienced Rights Violations.

Position Total

Research Assistants (the majority of which PhD students) 157

Assist. Prof. Dr. 119
Prof. Dr. 91
Assoc. Prof. Dr. 64
Lecturer 39
Dr. 12
Expert 7
Instructor 5
PhD Student 2
Teacher 1
Unknown 1
Total 498
Source: http://barisicinakademisyenler.net/node/314.

Academic upgrading is obstructed through the cancellation of applications

for becoming an associate professor. The passports of dismissed and suspended
academics are confiscated. This is called civil death.

Solidarity Academies
In 10 provinces, such as Kocaeli, Izmir, Ankara, Antalya solidarity academies
have been established. The objectives of the solidarity academies are to demon-
strate that scientific studies can be done outside of the universities; to collabo-
rate with the students, workers, etc. in the struggle for democracy, academic
freedom, and freedom of expression; to build up a solidarity between different
parts of the struggle; and to produce and share scientific knowledge on princi-
ples of equality, freedom, and solidarity. Unfortunately, in most of the solidarity
academies, many opponent academics, who are not peace petitioners, do not
participate in the activities. The solidarity academies struggle for a formal legal
structure (association, cooperative, etc.), at the same time they organize public
awareness activities, public lectures, and summer and winter schools. The rep-
resentatives of academies form a coordination committee with the aim of coor-
dinating the collective scientific and political struggle. Challenges include the
legal entity, access to databases, relations with international academic institu-
tions, organization of international scientific meetings, financial issues, etc.

Judgment of Signatories
The signatories to the January 11 peace petition are being sued individually on
the accusation of “propagandizing for terror.” Court cases were opened under
Aksu Tanık 7

the same Anti-Terror Act Article 7/2, and the public prosecutor proposes
imprisonment extending to 7.5 years.
The cases are opened with the same “copy and paste” bill of indictment, but
on an individual basis. As of November 15, 2017, starting from the universities
in Istanbul, only one-tenth of the signatory academics have been sued. The cases
are organized so as to extend from December 2017 to April 2018. The cases are
distributed to different criminal courts, on different dates, and in 10-minute
intervals so as to preempt the sued academics from standing together. It is
not the individual academics who are being sued but the claim to peace and
the voice of the free science that put forth this claim that are on trial (Call for
Solidarity Actions for Academics for Peace from Turkey leaflet, 2017). It is
expected that the individual cases will cover all the signatories gradually.
The case of Academics for Peace in Turkey shows us academics trapped
between authoritarianism and precariousness. This demonstrates why interna-
tional solidarity has become crucial.1

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, author-
ship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding
The author received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication
of this article.

ORCID iD
Feride Aksu Tanık http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2617-8790

Reference
1. Erkmen TD. https://barisicinakademisyenler.net/node/268. Accessed February 12,
2018.

Author Biography
Feride Aksu Tanık, MD, is a professor of Public Health and is an Academics for
Peace Petitioner. She is dismissed from her position in Ege University in January
2017. She is the President of IAHPE and Advisor of Social and Medical Affairs
Committee of World Medical Association.