git

Turkish TV Station reports from the future:

Read how Samanyolu TV, a media flagship of the Gülen movement, reported the court decision (to continue detaining journalists Ahmet Şık, Nedim Şener, and others on the Oda TV trial) 21 minutes before their meeting was even over and thus, before the judges' decision was announced at 9:48. Read more on: http://gitamerica.blogspot.com/

The poet's lecture: Murathan Mungan lectures in BDP Political Academy:

Murathan Mungan starts teaching at BDP's Political Academy, following on the footsteps of Büşra Ersanlı and Ragıp Zarakolu -- read via GIT - North America.

And other news events on GIT – North America http://gitamerica.blogspot.com/

January 1, 2012 : Second list of signatures for the GIT’s Inaugural Declaration (November 21, 2011) Academic Liberty and Freedom of Research in Turkey

A third list will be published January 15, 2012

Please, send your signature to   

hamit.bozarslan@ehess.fr     yvesdeloye@hotmail.com, duclert@ehess.fr, diana.gonzalez2@wanadoo.fr, ferhattaylan@gmail.com ccagla2002@yahoo.com or git.initiative@gmail.com

Dr. Ayca Alemdaroglu (Post-doctoral Scholar,  Stanford University USA, Anthropology), Ahmet Alis (PhD Candidate at Boðaziçi University Turkey, Guest PhD fellow at the University of Copenhagen Denmark, Modern Turkish History), Dr. Janine Altounian (researcher, translator, founding member of AIRCRIGE France, Psychoanalytic Studies), Helin Anahit (Artist and PhD Candidate in Fine Art at Middlesex University UK), Dr. Aram Arkun (Independent Scholar, Henrico USA, Armenia and The Ottoman Empire History), Dr. Cigdem Atakuman (Assistant Professor, Middle East Technical University Turkey, Social Sciences), Dr. Tunc Aybak (Programme Leader, International Politics, Middlesex University UK), Dr. Osman Aytar (Senior Lecturer, Mälardalen University Sweden, Sociology), Dr. Pelin Basci (Associate Professor, Portland State University USA, Turkish Language and Literature), Dr. Jean-François Bayart (Director of research, CNRS Sciences-po France, International Relations), Dr. Derya Bayir (Independent Scholar and Lawyer UK), Dr. Avner Ben-Amos (Professor, Tel Aviv University Israel, History), Dr. Katharina Brizic (Linguist, Austrian Academy of Sciences), Dr. Martin van Bruinessen (Emeritus Professor of the Comparative Study of Contemporary Muslim Societies, Utrecht University Netherlands, Religious Studies and Theology), Dr. Jean-Paul Burdy (Associate Professor, IEP Grenoble France, History), Dr. Jacques Crémer (Professor, Toulouse School of Economics), Dr. Dominique Colas (Professor, Sciences-po France, Political Science), Dr. Ayça Çubukçu (Lecturer on Social Studies, Harvard University USA, Social Studies), Dr. Yorgos Dedes (Senior Lecturer in Turkish, SOAS UK), Dr. Mehmet Ali Dikerdem (Lecturer, Middlesex University UK), Dr. Kerem Ege (Researcher, INSA Lyon France, Physics), Dr. Deniz Ekici (Assistant Professor, Middle Tennessee State University USA, Foreign Languages and Literature), Başak Ertür (PhD Candidate, Birkbeck College UK, Law), Dr. Howard Eissenstat (Assistant Professor, St. Lawrence University USA, History), Dr. Jean-Louis Fabiani (Professor, EHESS France, Sociology), Dr. Hervé Ferrière (Professor, IUFM-Guadeloupe France, History of Sciences), Dr. Caroline Finkel (Honorary Fellow, University of Edinburgh and University of Exeter UK, History), Dr. Maureen Freely (journalist, novelist, translator and professor, University of Warwick UK), Dr. Jean-Yves Frétigné (Associate Professor, University of Rouen France, History), Dr. Sylvie Gangloff (Associate Researcher, CETOBAC EHESS France, Political Science), Dr. François Georgeon (Director of research, CNRS France, History), Dr. Catherine Goldstein (Director of research, Institut Jussieu France, Mathematics), Dr. James Grehan (Associate Professor & Director Middle East Studies Center, Portland State University USA, History), Dr. André Grelon (Professor, EHESS France, Sociology), Dr. Cengiz Gunes (Associate Lecturer, The Open University UK), Asli Gur (Ph.d Candidate, University of Michigan, Sociology), Dr. Laurie Kain Hart (Stinnes Professor of Global Studies and Anthropology, Haverford College USA), Dr. Ayfer Karakaya-Stump (Asssistant Professor, College of William and Mary USA, History), Dr. Hans-Lukas Kieser (Professor, University of Zürich, History), Dr. Asli Igsiz (Assistant Professor, University of Arizona USA, Turkish Language and Literature), Dr. Henri Lombardi (Lab Besançon CNRS France, Mathématics), Dr. Yannick Lung (Professor, University Bordeaux-IV France, Economics), Dr. Laurent Mignon (University Lecturer in Turkish, University of Oxford UK), Dr. Leyla Neyzi (Professor, Sabanci University Turkey, Arts and Social Sciences), Dr. Matt Noyes (Assistant Professor, Meiji University Tokyo Japan, Business Administration), Dilan Okcu (PhD Candidate, Queens University Canada, Political Studies), Zeynep Oguz (Ph.D Candidate, Harvard University USA, History of Art and Architecture), Dr. Kerem Öktem (Research Fellow, European Studies Centre, St Antony's College UK), Dilek Ozkan (Ph.D Candidate, University of Athens Greece, History), Dr. Mete Pamir (Independant Researcher Canada, Political Science),  Dr. Melissane Parm Schrems (Assistant Professor, St. Lawrence University USA, History), Veli Pehlivan (PhD candidate, EHESS France, Sociology), Dr. Jean Quataert (Professor, Binghamton University State University of New York USA, History), Dr. Jim Ritter (Institut Jussieu France, Mathematics), Dr. Dalita Roger-Hacyan (Associate Professor, University Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne France, English Literature), Dr. Monique de Saint Martin (Professor, EHESS France, Sociology), Dr. Evren Savci (Postdoctoral Fellow, The Sexualities Project at Northwestern University USA, Sociology & Gender Studies), Inan Sevinç (Ph.D Candidate, Assistant professor, university of Strasbourg France, Law), Dr. Prakash Shah (Senior Lecturer, Department of Law, Queen Mary University of London UK), Dr. Sara Shields (Professor, University of North Carolina USA, History), Kamal Soelimani (Ph.D Candidate at Columbia University USA, Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies), Emmanuel Szurek (Ph.D Candidate, EHESS France, History), Dr. Baki Tezcan (Associate Professor, University of California Davis USA, History and Religious Studies), Dr. Stephane Tirard (Professor, Université de Nantes France, History of Sciences), Stephanie Tuerk (Ph.D Candidate, MIT USA, History and Architecture), Dr. Florin Turcanu (Professor, University of Bucarest Romania, History), Dr. Mehmet Ugur (Reader in Political Economy, University of Greenwich Business School UK, International Business and Economics), Secil Uluisik (Ph.D Candidate, University of Arizona USA, History), Dr. Dilek Yankaya (Director of research, Sciences-po Paris France, Sociology), Birgul Yilmaz (Ph.D Candidate, Department of Linguistics, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London UK).

*

The International Work Group (GIT): “Academic Liberty and Freedom of Research in Turkey” was created on the initiative of: Dr. Samim Akgönül (Associate Professor of History and Political Science, Université de Strasbourg), Dr. Salih Akın (Associate Professor of Linguistics, Université de Rouen), Dr. Marianne Baudin (Professor of Psychoanalysis, Université de Paris 13), Dr. Faruk Bilici (Professor of History, INALCO), Dr. Hamit Bozarslan (Professor of History and Sociology, Ecole des hautes études en sciences sociales/EHESS), Dr. Cengiz Cağla (Invited Professor of Political Science, EHESS), Dr. Renée Champion (Researcher, Arab Literature and Women Studies, CHSIM/EHESS), Dr. Etienne Copeaux (Historian, Turkish Studies), Dr. Philippe Corcuff (Associate Professor of Political Science, Sciences Po Lyon), Dr. Yves Déloye (Professor of Political Science, Sciences Po Bordeaux and Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Secretary General of the Association française de science politique), Dr. Gilles Dorronsoro (Professor of Political Science, Université de Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne), Dr. Vincent Duclert (Associate Professor of History, EHESS), Dr. Paul Dumont (Professor of History, Université de Strasbourg), Dr. Ragıp Ege (Professor of Economics, Université de Strasbourg), Dr. Gulçin Erdinç Lelandais (PhD, Sociology, EHESS, Marie Curie Fellow, University of Warwick), Dr. Didier Francfort (Professor of History, Université de Nancy-II), Dr. Zeynep Gambetti (Ph.D, Political Philosophy, Université de Paris-VII), Dr. Eric Geoffroy (Associate Professor of Arab and Islamic Studies, Université de Strasbourg), Dr. Nilüfer Göle (Professor of Sociology, EHESS), Dr. Diana Gonzalez (Ph.D, Sociology and Aesthetics, EHESS), Dr. Gérard Groc (Researcher, History, IREMAN/CNRS), Deniz Günce Demirhisar (Ph.D student, Sociology, EHESS and ATER, Université de Paris 13), Dr. Ali Kazancigil (Co-director of the revue Anatoli, Political Science), Iclal Incioglu (Ph.D student, Social Psychology, Université de Paris-VII), Dr. Lilian Mathieu (Director of Research, CNRS, ENS de Lyon, Sociology), Dr. Claire Mouradian (Director of Research CNRS, History), Dr. Christophe Prochasson (Professor of History, EHESS), Dr. Daniel Rottenberg (M.D., Ph .D candidate, History, Université de Strasbourg), Emine Sarikartal (Ph.D Candidate, translator and editor, Philosophy, Université de Paris-Nanterre), Ferhat Taylan (Ph.D Candidate and translator, Philosophy, Université de Bordeaux), Dr. Lucette Valensi (Professor of History, EHESS), Dr. Murat Yıldızoğlu (Professor of  Economics, Université de Bordeaux).

Inaugural Declaration november 21, 2011

International Work Group: “Academic Liberty and Freedom of Research in Turkey” (Groupe International de Travail “GIT”)

A Critical Situation for Academic Liberty and Freedom of Research

Governmental measures of repression and attacks against academic research, teaching, translation and publication in Turkey have intensified since 2009. They have reached an alarming climax with the recent arrests of the professor and political scientist Büşra Ersanli of Marmara University, the owner and chief editor of the prestigious Belge publishing Ragip Zarakolu, the editor and translator Deniz Zarakolu, and the 21-year old political science student Büşra Beste Önder. They are being detained within the context of “[anti]-KCK operations,” accused of belonging to the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK), an organization allegedly linked to the armed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). The sole objective of these accusations is to silence independent intellectuals and threaten researchers, academics and students. The judicial system in Turkey has collaborated in this process of persecution by systematically upholding detentions under surveillance until trial, and ordering incarcerations (such as those of Ragip and Deniz Zarakolu) to be held in high security prisons, thereby reducing the rights of the defense and harassing the defendant while the state trials are organized – as has been the case with the sociologist Pinar Selek (pursued and acquitted several times) or the investigative journalists Ahmet Şik and Nedim Şener  (accused of “terrorism” within the framework of the “Ergenekon” trials and imprisoned).

Since April 2009, with the systematization of arbitrary arrests and subsequent charges of “membership in a terrorist organization,” the possibility in Turkey of independent research and its diffusion, within academic circles or for the public, is at stake. The work of researchers, professors, students, translators and editors has become perilous because of a permanent threat physically, professionally, and morally. The very act of denying them their freedom of independent research suppresses their basic freedom of thought and expression. In addition to academics, close to seventy journalists are in prison in Turkey for having simply practiced their profession. One can add to this, thousands of prisoners of opinion raided within the context of the practices of the [anti]-KCK operations “which have led to approximately 8,000 people held in police custody and 4,000 charged. Each week, dozens of names are added to the list.” (Guillaume Perrier, Le Monde, November 3, 2011). This does not take into account the incarcerated members of the legal Turkish political party “BDP” (the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democrary Party), represented in parliament, nor does it only threaten the pro-Kurdish milieu. Other liberal intellectuals have been arrested because they have questioned the actions of the government, the role of religious organizations, and practices of the State system. The American branch of PEN believes that more than a thousand academics, writers, editors and lawyers have been arrested, while the Turkish association of contemporary lawyers (“CHD”) estimates that 500 students have been incarcerated.

The social sciences – political science, in particular – suffers a great loss with this suppression of scientific and intellectual liberty in Turkey. The simple act of studying or debating concepts such as “democracy” or “human rights,” the simple act of publishing works on the cultural diversity of Turkish society, on the structure of the State or, on the history of minorities (including the Armenian Genocide), can henceforth endanger intellectuals and lead them to be detained in prison for an interminable time while awaiting their trials. After a certain period of leniency during the first part of the 2000 decade, fear tactics have paralyzed once again the Turkish society and its intellectual forces. They could destabilize them permanently. Intimidation is everywhere and at the highest levels of the State and government, as is underlined by the threatening declarations made by Prime Minister Erdoğan on November 18 in Bitlis, against those who question the legality of the recent numerous criminal proceedings. Researchers, professors, editors, translators, students – all those who give life to the scientific and academic field – must from now on constrain and censure themselves if they are to survive. At the very least, they will confront police, the justice system, the courts and trials, not to mention insulting and degrading press campaigns. This is unacceptable. And we protest with them, for them and for what unites us with them, the higher principle of academic liberty and freedom of research.

*

Initiative for an International Work Group and Research

In solidarity with our colleagues in Turkey, we call on researchers and academics worldwide to participate in an “International Work Group” (Group International de Travail, “GIT”): “Academic Liberty and Freedom of Research in Turkey,” and to create branches in their respective countries. The activities will exist within the habitual parameters and practices of universities, publishing houses, centers of research and organizations that popularize research. The goal of the international groups’ activities will be the production and articulation of a deeper and more precise knowledge regarding the situation of civil liberties in Turkey. These activities will take place through meetings, conferences and seminars in order to analyze the general conditions of research and teaching (in Turkey). They will result in numerous contributions by specialists and will be widely circulated through scientific publications, internet sites, symposiums, conferences, round tables and the general public media. This international work group will also act as a “watch group,” surveying all documentary facts relative to the situation of persecuted researchers, academics, students, editors, and translators. It will be informed of the practice of  liberty of expression and free circulation of information (both critical and non-conventional), as well as the liberty of engagement and association in Turkey, all of which assure the more specific but nevertheless essential academic liberty and freedom of research. The group will examine the ways in which democracy is being constructed in Turkey and the obstacles it faces, both historically in the specific conditions of Turkey and within the recent international context of the “Arab Spring.” In addition, it proposes to create a platform of information, exposing the extent of current intellectual repression in Turkey and the personal outcome of colleagues that are threatened or imprisoned, as well as legal, political, economic, and social questions relative to the process of democratization. In analyzing the situation in Turkey, the group will also confront these issues as they apply, in the end, to other countries.

Branches of the International Work Group (Group International de Travail, “GIT”): “Academic Liberty and Freedom of Research in Turkey” will be created worldwide. Each of them will function in an independent manner according to the research principles, ethics and objectives mentioned above. The networking of these worldwide branches will be its force and efficiency. GIT, an empirical model of an international academic organization, created for the situation in Turkey, can direct its research towards other countries where academic liberty and freedom of research are threatened. The mobilization of other GIT centers will give voice to the preoccupation and engagement of academics, around the world, who demand universal democratic civil liberties.

Please, send your signature to   

hamit.bozarslan@ehess.fr     yvesdeloye@hotmail.com, duclert@ehess.fr, diana.gonzalez2@wanadoo.fr, ferhattaylan@gmail.comccagla2002@yahoo.com or git.initiative@gmail.com

Freedom of Science
Read on the implications of some recent governmental decision on the freedom of science in Turkey on GIT - North America 

An Intervention letter in support of the autonomy of the Turkish Academy of Sciences
Read the letter of the International Human Rights Network of Academies and Scholarly Societies on GIT-North  America

Crucial Informations on Academic Freedom in Turkey provided by GIT-North America

See http://gitamerica.blogspot.com/ (Newsfeed, December 30, 2011)

The statements of the Turkish Minister of Internal Affairs, Idris Naim Sahin, diffused in the press on December 26, 2011, illustrates that the Turkish government considers activities that fall under freedom of research and expression as “indirect activities of terrorism that take place in the backyard – and this backyard is Istanbul, Izmir, Bursa, Vienna, Germany, London, wherever [they may be], [at] a university chair, an association, a non-governmental organization.”

In this context, the definition of terror promoted by the government currently includes a number of people who have no connection with armed or violent resistance. It threatens the freedom of expression by inventing new classifications of terror such as "scientific terror” or “artistic terror." Scientists, artists, journalists, students, and gradually the whole of civil society, run the risk of falling victim to this “classification” by the government itself.

The International Work Group (GIT): "Academic Liberty and Freedom of Research in Turkey" denounces these statements that aim at the suppression of freedom of expression in Turkey. We find that the Turkish Minister of Internal Affairs, has obviously lost the sense of impartiality necessary for the proper functioning of this governmental position. We demand the end of repression in Turkey regarding researchers, teachers, translators, publishers, students, artists, journalists and also those of various ethnic and sexual identities. We demand the immediate release of our colleagues unjustly accused of "terrorism."*

*GIT Initiative wishes to thank Zeynep Oguz and Ferhat Taylan for translations of the Minister’s declaration on http://gitamerica.blogspot.com/ (in English) and www.gitfrance.fr (in French).

New Definitions of Terrorism form the Minister of Internal Affairs

Taken from Radikal, 26/12/2011/, 15:24 online version, accessed 22.00 Central Turkish time.  

http://www.radikal.com.tr/Radikal.aspx?aType=RadikalDetayV3&ArticleID=1073629&Date=26.12.2011&CategoryID=78  

Minister [of Internal Affairs, Idris Nedim] Sahin claimed that those who work to exculpate PKK are brushing aside the reality of terrorism and instead fighting the ones that fight against it. He stated that there are two structures at work: one to fight against terrorism, and another to fight against those who fight against the fight. Expressing the urgency to identify the weeds in the backyard that feed terrorism, he continued his remarks as follows:

“There is an alternative system against these [terrorists]. Our system. They have no rules. A legal system has law, order, right, the separation of good and evil and that of guilty and innocent. It even argues for a humanistic struggle when it comes to fighting those that are deceived, dismayed, kidnapped, and put into terrorist organizations. So on the one hand there is lawlessness, and on the other is a struggle carried out within a legal framework. However the activities of the terrorist organization[s] are not limited to armed attacks, they do not only take place up on mountains, and slopes, not only in cities and on the streets, and on the backstreets at nights by laying insidious ambushes. There is another leg of this [operation]. There is psychological terrorism, there is scientific terrorism. There is the backyard that fosters terrorism. In other words, there is propaganda, terrorism propaganda.”

Sahin claimed that some people support terrorism by twisting it, by making up justifications for it, and by rendering it reasonable. He added:

“And how do they achieve that? Maybe they paint their reflections on a canvas. Or they may write poems, articles, short features, or wherever they write. Unable to slow down, they get carried away and try to demoralize the soldiers or the police, who fight against terrorism, by turning them [fighters] into the subject matter of their works of art. There is some kind of battle against these people who fight terrorism. The indirect activities of terrorism that take place in the back yard –and this back yard is Istanbul, Izmir, Bursa, Vienna, Germany, London, wherever, the university chair, the association, the non-governmental organization.

As a matter of course in this day and age, the more the non-governmental organizations we have the more democratic we are but from the point of view of terrorism, too, it is a need to infiltrate into these organizations; and they can; it is possible to do so, so they have. It starts out as an innocent association; some are cultural organizations, others educational. Now, the fight against those ones up the mountain and in the rural areas is relatively easy, but when it comes to [dealing with] the back yard the weeds get mixed up with garden cress. They all appear green. They all get mixed up; some are poisonous, some are beneficial. One understands which is which only when one eats them.”

“We are aware of the psychological warfare”

Emphasizing the difficulty of combat in the back yard of the terrorist organization, Sahin explained that they needed to distinguish them by means of a surgeon’s sensitivity. Minister Sahin stated that they are not against art and continued:

“First of all we have problems demarcating that back yard. And exploiting our trouble in distinguishing, they claim, ‘I am a beneficial herb, too, I am parsley. I am only stating my cause, I happen to be in this back yard.’ That is to say, by making the most use of democracy terrorism has spread all over like rhizomes. And on the one hand is the structure of terrorism, with its illegal, unlawful framework. On the other is you fighting against it within a legal framework –and which, by the way is the way it will continue being, it is not that we are complaining. But on yet another side is the unarmed [sub]structure of terrorism. That is, the configuration that provides support for those who bear arms. That is to say the subsidiary powers. Depending on the occasion it [the configuration] only sings songs, but every three song is an address to the audience, whereby there is a nice little message. Whatever you take from it, however you interpret it. It is art that is performed on stage. What can you do, we are not against art as such, but we do have to pluck these with the sensitivity of a surgeon, we are all have a responsibility to be aware of these. There is terror, there is war against terror, and there is also a configuration that fights the war against terror. We are aware of this psychological war.

There is so much grudge against the state that, in the scrap that they call their agreement, they refer to themselves as an organization, and not a state. I mean, they are enemies of the Turkish state, we understand that much, but they are so against the state that they cannot use [the word] state for their own organization. What is it, then, what is state? What does state do? State is order, state is law, state is hierarchy, state is property, state is chastity, state is freedom, education, health; state is the very life itself. In that case, an organization that is not a state is the state of the mightiest at a given moment. Whoever has the strength, whoever is the sovereign, rules. A group of individuals that feed off of each other. Man is a wolf to man. Whoever can get their teeth onto others becomes the state. And the sympathizers who tag along behind them. If only they [?] could live that reality for one day, not even one day, 10 minutes, I know what they would do but there is no way out. It is no joke. Because it [the reality] is exposed by those who did find the way out. I used to say this, but now the confessors are confirming it. It is an environment where all kinds of  lewd behavior, moral corruption, every form of inhuman state takes place, from eating pork, to Zoroastrianism, from whatever nation and brotherhoods, to, excuse my language, being gay. There is only way in and no way out. The way in is fear, the way out is death. It is this kind of a configuration.”

“We have to interpret what they say as meaning the opposite”

 
Declaring that there is a document entitled “the sub [?]-agreement,” whereby there is a specific enumeration for it [?], Sahin stated:

“Associations are listed as one item, and the political parties as another item as part of this structure. If it is not, then go ahead and say so; explain, first and foremost, to the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, and say ‘Somebody has written fallaciously, irrelevantly about us.’ If you are indeed free and courageous then go ahead and tear that document up [as sign of rejecting its content], and yet you are not free. It is a structure where, in their own minds, they see all of my Kurdish brothers as slaves, seeing them as ‘automatic members,’ and ‘the political faction, including the parliamentary group, as one indivisible whole.’ Thereafter you dare talk about freedom; which freedom, you are not free yourself. If you are free, if you are sincere, then reject [the claims]. The language of peace, peace, brotherhood, freedom, is it? Which freedom? Is there a freer platform than the one at the GNAT for expression of freedom? That is an untouchable podium. And you have it.

There is no further podium for any citizen of this country. There is no further assembly. We are in a structure where this is abided by, this is tolerated, and this is called ‘freedom.’ And, thank God, we are [free] and we represent a model to the world. If you have an opinion, come along and express it. Nobody says anything, they won’t. If the majority of this country follows you when you express your opinion then your rules and policies shall govern. But you keep yelling ‘freedom, peace’ on the one hand, and on the other you have trouble with the lack of your followers. And yet, ‘I am here, I must exist, too,’ you say. You partake in democracy and engage in antidemocratic activity on the side.

We can easily understand the language of their back gardens, of the representatives of this political configuration, in fact all of them, if we read it backwards. One has to invert whatever they say. I have found out their motivations, their worlds this way. Whatever they declare as good, is evil; and if they think it is evil, it is good. If they say ‘peace,’ therein is a sign of war. If they say ‘democracy’ there is atrocity. If they say ‘human’ there lies a trap for humans. If they say ‘love’ that means hatred and grudge. Whatever they say means the opposite. One understands it when one reads backwards.” (AA)