Turkey arrests university academics for spreading ‘terrorist propaganda’

Three Turkish university teachers have been detained on charges of engaging in “terrorist propaganda”, while a British academic was questioned by police, as the country’s security services cracked down on Kurdish rebels, Turkish media reported.

Acting on a request by the public prosecutor, a court in Istanbul ordered the detention of Esra Munger, a professor at Bogazici University; Muzaffer Kaya, a professor at the University of Fine Arts; and Kivanc Ersoy, who teaches at Nisantasi University, the Dogan news agency said.

Separately, a British lecturer at Bilgi University, Chris Stephenson, was questioned by police after allegedly distributing leaflets calling for Kurdish New Year to be celebrated on March 21, the pro-government news agency Anatolia said.

In January, a “petition for peace” signed by 1,200 Turkish and foreign intellectuals condemned “massacres” allegedly committed by the security forces in their operations against Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) rebels in several towns that had been placed under curfew.

The petition sparked the fury of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who said the academics had fallen into a “pit of treachery.”

“In a state of law like Turkey, so-called academics who target the unity of our nation have no privilege to commit crimes,” he warned. “They don’t have immunity.”