Twelve academics in Turkey have been arrested for denouncing military operations against Kurdish rebels in the south-east, while more than 130 academics face criminal charges just days after President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan slammed the signatories for making “terrorist propaganda,” the Hurrieyt Daily News reports.
Universities and prosecutor’s offices across the country started to launch probes against some of the 1,128 local and international academics and intellectuals that fall within the state’s jurisdiction, arguing the contents of the petition were beyond the limits of academic freedoms.
In a dawn operation in the northwestern province of Kocaeli on Jan. 15, police raided the houses of 19 academics and detained 14 who were at their declared addresses.
Two more will be detained once they arrive in the city while five others are being sought by police, Provincial Police Head Levent Yarımel told the press.
