The Kocaeli Chief Public Prosecutor's Office launched an investigation into academics who signed the document, which was published on Monday and carried the names of 1,128 academics from 89 universities across Turkey. The statement contained a call to Turkish authorities to halt military operation in civilian areas.
Police detained 12 academics, according to Turkish media reports. The prosecutor's office said nine more academics are also to be detained. At the time of the police operation, the remaining academics were not at home.
The action came after Erdoğan accused the academics and intellectuals of being a fifth column of foreign powers, after they declared in the declaration that the state's forces are carrying out a massacre in civilian areas in the Southeast. Their interpretation of ongoing clashes between Turkish security forces and militants from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in several urban areas prompted a backlash from government and politicians who see security operations as legitimate, and as having the goal of dislodging PKK fighters from cities.
Hundreds of civilians have been killed during recent clashes. The military says it has killed more than 1,500 PKK militants, while nearly 200 security forces members were killed in the revived fighting since collapse of cease-fire last July.
Critics have been worried about freedom of expression in Turkey, and hundreds of university students and journalists showed their support of the academics after Erdoğan threatened to crack down on them.
todayszaman.com
15/1/16
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