AFP, Istanbul :
Four Turkish academics go on trial Friday for “terrorist propaganda” in the latest of a series of court cases that have highlighted growing restrictions on free speech under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Riot police stood guard outside the courthouse in central Istanbul as — ahead of the academics’ trial — two journalists accused of divulging state secrets also headed into court for the third hearing of their espionage trial. Protesters held up placards reading “Freedom for the academics” and “Freedom for the pencils” as some 200 people turned out to support both the reporters and the scholars, who were set to take centre stage at 2pm (1100 GMT).
Opposition members of parliament joined the rally as two armoured police trucks equipped with water cannons stood by.
The university scholars are being prosecuted for signing a petition along with over 1,000 colleagues and supporters denouncing the government’s military operations against Kurdish rebels in the country’s southeast.
The petition urged Ankara to halt “its deliberate massacres and deportation of Kurdish and other peoples in the region”, infuriating President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who said the academics had fallen into a “pit of treachery”.
The four are accused of engaging in “terrorist propaganda” and “inciting hatred and enmity” for not only signing the plea but making a statement on the same lines on March 10, a day before the petition was published.
If convicted, Esra Mungan Gursoy, Meral Camci, Kivanc Ersoy and Muzaffer Kaya face up to seven and a half years behind bars, according to Academics for Peace (BAK), the organisation behind the contested statement. The defendants have been held in high-security closed prisons in Istanbul since their arrests last month.
As well as signees from over 90 Turkish universities, the petition was also endorsed by dozens of foreigners, among them American linguist Noam Chomsky and the Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek.
Turkey is waging an all-out offensive against the separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), with military operations backed by curfews aimed at flushing out rebels from several southeastern urban centres.
Four Turkish academics go on trial Friday for “terrorist propaganda” in the latest of a series of court cases that have highlighted growing restrictions on free speech under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Riot police stood guard outside the courthouse in central Istanbul as — ahead of the academics’ trial — two journalists accused of divulging state secrets also headed into court for the third hearing of their espionage trial. Protesters held up placards reading “Freedom for the academics” and “Freedom for the pencils” as some 200 people turned out to support both the reporters and the scholars, who were set to take centre stage at 2pm (1100 GMT).
Opposition members of parliament joined the rally as two armoured police trucks equipped with water cannons stood by.
The university scholars are being prosecuted for signing a petition along with over 1,000 colleagues and supporters denouncing the government’s military operations against Kurdish rebels in the country’s southeast.
The petition urged Ankara to halt “its deliberate massacres and deportation of Kurdish and other peoples in the region”, infuriating President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who said the academics had fallen into a “pit of treachery”.
The four are accused of engaging in “terrorist propaganda” and “inciting hatred and enmity” for not only signing the plea but making a statement on the same lines on March 10, a day before the petition was published.
If convicted, Esra Mungan Gursoy, Meral Camci, Kivanc Ersoy and Muzaffer Kaya face up to seven and a half years behind bars, according to Academics for Peace (BAK), the organisation behind the contested statement. The defendants have been held in high-security closed prisons in Istanbul since their arrests last month.
As well as signees from over 90 Turkish universities, the petition was also endorsed by dozens of foreigners, among them American linguist Noam Chomsky and the Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek.
Turkey is waging an all-out offensive against the separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), with military operations backed by curfews aimed at flushing out rebels from several southeastern urban centres.
