JINHA

İSTANBUL -A veritable witch-hunt has begun against the academics who ask for peace. Academics' organized struggle has continued against "witch-hunt". Academics have been in solidarity with their arrested colleagues, "We want the government to give up this vengeful and governance policies. So we have begun to hold "freedom vigil" for our arrested colleagues." said academics.

Since 1,128 academics in Turkey signed a statement calling on the Turkish state to end the implementation of violent curfews and siege warfare on Kurdish cities by signing the statement "We will not be party to this crime," a veritable witch-hunt has begun. Dozens of academics have been arrested in police raids on their homes and offices, and many have been dismissed. Kıvanç Ersoy from Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, Lecturer Muzaffer Kaya from Nişantaşı University and Asst. Assoc. Dr. Esra Mungan from Boğaziçi University had been taken into custody and they were jailed. The government is trying to threaten the academics by arresting them. The academics who say "We will not be party to this crime" give the strongest response to the government. The academics have begun to hold a vigil called "freedom vigil" for freedom of their colleagues. Two of them are Fidan Eroğlu and Deniz Yoncu. We talked to them.

Fidan Eroğlu is one of these academics. Fidan stated that a serious pressure on people has begun after the President orders on courts for the academics those who signed a petition named "We will not be party to this crime," Fidan noted that there has been in general pressure air on the country for a long time. "Three of the academics have been jailed. Esra Mundan has been put in a single cell and she hasn't been allowed to talk anybody. All these show us there aren't law and democracy in our country. If we describe democracy as a system in which people talk, discuss and express their views on the values that already exist in the way people interact with each other in communities in their everyday. The people who live in the country must have some demands towards policies."

Fidan reminded a slogan which shouted while she was child, "Open a school and close a prison," and she said, "When I think within the framework of democracy and human rights, the state must be regulators in the social field not dominating. We want the government to give up this vengeful and governance policies. So we have begun to hold "freedom vigil" for our arrested colleagues.

"Failure to develop social opposition, the opponents cannot express their views against the power and they would be jailed."

Deniz Yonucu, another academic, said, "This is not a pressure against the freedom of expression, this is about what the academics mean. Advocating the peace and wanting to end the war right away can be a reason to arrest them.

"As I can predict, this dark period will continue for some time. However, the war causes a resistance." Deniz also said that As academics they will stand with people against the pressure.

(dek/ck/dk/gd)